1. Smoking......2. Age of Heppers

Two Different things:

1.  I quit drinking, drugs, unhealthy eating style etc. etc. etc. and have been doing all I can for my liver except this one thing - I STILL SMOKE.  It's embarrassing but the truth, I just can't stop right now even KNOWING all the toxins I am pumping in there.

I was wondering if I was the only person in here who at the moment just CAN'T find the gumption to do this one last thing?

2. Looking at the how many are in tx post - it seems that the majority of us are all around the same age.  I am wondering if that was the 70s/80s lifestyle or if just the age that it took for our disease to get cruising and a doctor to notice?

I mean you don't see many 20s or even 30s in here?  Mostly 40s with a few 50s and 60s - putting us in the same generation I was thinking and it started me to wonder why?

HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYBODY - I HOPE YOU ALL ARE GETTING SOME GOOD REST TIME IN LIKE I AM! NO WORK TOMORROW WOOO HOO! :-)

[beamishboy]

i'm still smokin-you had to ask!!!!! --i have cut way down& only smoke Native Spirit--no additives,yada yada,yada.............but they gotta be bettr than Marlboros--why am i capitalizin these awful brand names???sum secret ingredient makin me do it???? i also want to quit,who doesn't-let's work on that too!!!!!

[NYgirl]

ah I feel so much better knowing I'm not alone thank you!

At least you've gone Native...I am fooling myself with "ultra-lights".  Fooling who/what? I know all the facts.  I really, really want to quit and have to just DO IT instead of blah blah blah talking about it.

It's like hey this is my last guilty pleasure now...I don't want to let go!  My brain can convince me of anything it would seem!  :)

[mistybean]

I quit smoking 14 years ago.  I did have a tendency to smoke when I drank.  Now that I don't drink I quite the smoking completly.  It is a hard habit to quit.  Good luck to you..

[fresnoborn]

i have to fess up, i am still smoking. i quit about 1 month ago but just for 5 days while i was in the hospital. i know that it is bad for us, but i just can't quit. it is my anxiety reliever. i read somewhere that it can cause scarring of the liver among other problems, but it is so hard to quit. i was smoking ultra light marlboros but they started making me dizzy and i went back to the regulars. oh, my age,  43. have had hep c for............who knows. how i got it.............well, i just got it. i'm glad you brought up the subject of smoking, it feels good to talk about it. it is the worst habit that i have. been doing it for about 4 years on and off.

[Jody Blonde]

Yes, I also still smoke & doctor isn't pushing me to stop because I have given up everything else for this treatment.  I don't smoke as much as I used to because it doesn't taste so good to me.
As far as how long I have had these diseases, I had test for HCV in 1997 due to sudden brown urine.  Test came back negative, & in Sept 01 came back positive.  I have never put a needle in myself for street drugs, I believe I received this from my husband, he treated last yr & is clear.  I always took care of his bleeds from cuts etc (never again)

[sailinlady]

I still smoke and so does hubby.  The worst addiction I've ever had.  Still, after giving everything else up it is a crutch I feel like I need right now.  I had a lung x-ray last week and all is well.  Plan to quit someday but not now.  My doctor isn't pushing me, too much else going on.  The things we do to our bodies--LOL.

[cougareyes]

I don't smoke and I believe everything in it's own time; If you want to stop smoking, you'll stop when the time is right for you. If you don't want to stop in this day and age you know the health risk, so don't go whining if something happens(lol).
We didn't know the risk back in the days of drugs, sex and rock and roll. So that is part of the reason you find alot of us in the same generation. We also wasn't as careful about blood; just like Jody Blonde shared; I bet we all have stories of sharing blood. Yes I have a blood brother out there.
I believe more of us really don't know exactly how we got, we just try and narrow it down; alot of people still say most of us got it from IV drug us. I don't buy that, that might make us feel safer that our kids won't get it - if they don't use drugs. Rather than getting busted in the mouth while playing sports, helping someone hurt, a work accident, going to a health care worker, etc. Here in Neveda our legal prositutes have to have a health card and the standards of their test way surpase the standards of health care professionals, emergency workers, or any one like that that comes into contact with open wounds and blood everyday.
The shame is now that we know alot of the risk out there, kids today can be more reckless than we were when we were kids. I know alot of youngsters still doing the free sex and drugs thing, they just live in denial and haven't been tested yet. The sad thing is I believe we've just hit the tip of the iceberg.
Peace

[NYgirl]

First off thanks to everybody who has helped by saying yes...me too.  Somehow it makes me feel better, have less guilt...

and lately I feel so much guilt about having this disease and all the collateral damage it's done to family and stuff...well that is what my Paxill's are for I suppose. And the Ambien too!  ;-)

"The sad thing is I believe we've just hit the tip of the iceberg."

I couldn't agree more and that scares the $@#$ out of me it really does.  I can't help but think if they screened for hep as they do for "real decent people diseases" at routine testing...the numbers would be astounding, staggaring and the word worldwide epidemic would start to make sense.

[NYgirl]

Well you are right in my boat space so welcome back! I'm 44 and smoke so...

I didn't know you last time you were on the forum.  Can you give a refresher of all our usual info? I am geno1a and 1b.  baseline vl 568,000 4wk 411.  On Epogen 40,000 x 2, Ambien and Paxill (thank God).  Oh yeah I am a "girl" LOL NYOLDLADY just didn't have the same ring to it to me!  :)

It's nice to meet you - sorry so much that you are here but as you know, jumping back in with this crew is NOT a bad idea!

[strator]

Thought it would be easier to quit on tx if I felt like ****. Smoke less but that don't cut it. Tried the patch my 1st wk of tx and felt great til about the 3rd or 4th day. Had my 1st cig when I was 4 with the older kids. Pack a wk of Luck Strikes by 3rd grade. 6th grade my older bro kicked the H outta me and I stopped until my football and boxing days were over. (Maybe I'll call him). Quit once for a year. Feel guilty too because it was such a battle w/the drugs and booz-I woulda thought this'd be easy. Have recently seen stories that smoking, particularly w/tylenol use is as damaging to liver as alcohol.

I doubt I'll ever know WHICH risky thing was the contact for HCV. I've noticed the I believe I posted this before but before I was 5 the dr sewed my head closed 3 times from stupid acts of daring. In those days my doc used to wipe the needle with a cloth(& maybe alchohol too) and thread the stitches through my forehead. Probably cleaned the same needle for lottsa people. The stupid acts didn't stop for over 40 yrs. Then blood contact sports.(Oh wait-those fall in the stupid acts too)- 2 bloody guys leaning on each other hitting each other w/bloody gloves. Used a needle once for "recreational use"in 1975. Shoulda called it"Wreck-irrational" use. Passed lottsa nose straws around. Lots and lots of times in construction when you'd bandage each other up or pull a sliver out of a guy. Workin bars & nightclubs had it's own set of risky behaviours including sexually. Anyways the only risk today is how I receive the gifts and chances God's put in my life. With that I'm going to take shot 12/48. That's my job today.
Have sweet dreams of SVR all,
Don

[strator]

Thought it would be easier to quit on tx if I felt like ****. Smoke less but that don't cut it. Tried the patch my 1st wk of tx and felt great til about the 3rd or 4th day. Had my 1st cig when I was 4 with the older kids. Pack a wk of Luck Strikes by 3rd grade. 6th grade my older bro kicked the H outta me and I stopped until my football and boxing days were over. (Maybe I'll call him). Quit once for a year. Feel guilty too because it was such a battle w/the drugs and booz-I woulda thought this'd be easy. Have recently seen stories that smoking, particularly w/tylenol use is as damaging to liver as alcohol.

I doubt I'll ever know WHICH risky thing was the contact for HCV. I've noticed the I believe I posted this before but before I was 5 the dr sewed my head closed 3 times from stupid acts of daring. In those days my doc used to wipe the needle with a cloth(& maybe alchohol too) and thread the stitches through my forehead. Probably cleaned the same needle for lottsa people. The stupid acts didn't stop for over 40 yrs. Then blood contact sports.(Oh wait-those fall in the stupid acts too)- 2 bloody guys leaning on each other hitting each other w/bloody gloves. Used a needle once for "recreational use"in 1975. Shoulda called it"Wreck-irrational" use. Passed lottsa nose straws around. Lots and lots of times in construction when you'd bandage each other up or pull a sliver out of a guy. Workin bars & nightclubs had it's own set of risky behaviours including sexually. Anyways the only risk today is how I receive the gifts and chances God's put in my life. With that I'm going to take shot 12/48. That's my job today.
Have sweet dreams of SVR all,
Don

[NYgirl]

You be blessed with your after shot sleep tonight knowing what a wonderful person you are. I thank God for your humble postings that mean so much.

Anybody got a way to deal with the night time dry mouth?I mean the GLUEmouth?  I am not sure how much I can take of this gakkking. Drinking doesn't seem to help either really.

I've not even had hangovers that make my mouth THIS DRIED UP and I drink water all of the time. Now I"ve got little bumps on the end of my tongue from rubbing them on my teeth or something...and I can't barely eat cause they hurt all the time.

Thought I might as well ask if anybody has any good answer.  Going to hop into my Oatmeal/Baby Lotion bath and then hope not to put on too much cortizone to go to sleep!  Ambien time!  :)

[FlGuy]

Guilty as charged also. Over the years have tried gum, patch, hypnosis. Next is the low-level laser.  Still commmitted to more healthy lifstyle after tx.  Losing smokes is #1.  No one, and no gimmick can do it for you - need the intestinal fortitude to do it.  Ambien after shot Fri nite and again Stat nite.  What a difference in the days.  Actually got some stuff done around house on Sat. But still squeezed in afternoon nap.
Nyhepc - Me too there.  I read something a while back as a sx of TX.  Know what you mean about wake up routine.

[Drugs Sucks]

LOL!!!! I am still smoking toooooo and i am NOT going to order anymore cigs. through the internet and i am a BIGGGG smoker, i mean i buy 9 cartoons a month for me and my wife. As of today it startting to get to me anymore do to i have done 29 shot of tx and having a hard time breathing I'm 42 yrs and it TIME !!
My mom died of liver cirroris and lung cancer at the age of 55 and my dad quite 15 yrs ago and he hounding me to quite tooooo and it seams like that i WOULD get it if my mom died of this grap years ago!!  cough cough cough cough LOL
Have A Great Holiday To All

Kenny

[NYgirl]

At least nobody can really say and mean that we don't know exactly what we are doing...smoking IS repulsive it DOES stink . A teacher in school accousted my son one day the biggest ANTIsmoker on the planet and accused HIM of smoking...why? all my smoking in the house made HIS clothes smell!!!)

Once I heard THAT I realized I was poisoning thier lungs too and at least now I try to always smoke outside no matter how cold it is.

the doctor told my son with me, my mom and my daughter all smoking in here HE MOST LIKELY HAD A PACK A DAY HABIT EVEN THOUGH HE DOES NOT AND NEVER DID SMOKE AT ALL!

How much more disgusting can it be than that?

I guess once we are all done with this we need to start a smoking forum and hang out there too and help each other through that one!  :)  I've found with you guys I can do anything!

[Pirategold]

A comment about smoking . . . . recently a relative was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (everyone knows that once diagnosed the prognosis is approximately one year until death).  Well our doctor asked two questions:  Is the person a smoker?  Is the person a chronic drinker?  Besides lung cancer, pancreatic cancer is another great reason to dump the habit.  In this case, he stopped smoking at about 53 but drank for approximately 60 years.  Some people are not so lucky, the are diagnosed in their 60's -- he was 89.

Pirate

[nyhepc]

guilty here too.  had no smokers cough before tx, but now takes me 3 hrs of coughing in the morning before i can breathe comfortably. i've heard interferon affects the mucous in the lungs...anyone else have the cough??

[strator]

Thanks NY. I get real dry mouth also(smokin don't help that either). Other than keeping h20 next to my bed I dunno. Sleep of course is not the best time to use hard candies. I tend to eat decent all day but grab some sugar(pudding over ice cream, gummy bears) at night. The sugar probasbly makes it worse. The sugar in alcohol and mixers had a lot to do with hangovers.

Before I spaced and double posted I was about to add to my reply that I had also noticed the similar age group here.

You know my first question would be..how long has hep c been around. Not when it was named or diagnosed. When was it's infancy. Maybe we are the age that its first starting to show in because the snowball has gotten big enough. But was it's infancy in the world the 1960's,50's,40's or prior. Where did it start? Hey who knows, ya throw a few wars in... Talk about blood contact - I've heard from Dad's WW2 experience as a medics aid on the line how bandaging guys in battle had about as much sterility as working on your car in the back yard. Awful lot of us are the children of that generation(God Bless em). Add in the lifestyle of the 70s and 80s. I wonder if a lot of the cases (going back pre-us guys) of people who didn't even drink or had been sober for years but died of cirrhois were early cases of hep c. Unfortunately we may be the lucky ones. We know. What's that Though research on a cure is all important,until the danger of this disease really becomes common knowledge-we may just be the tip of the berg.
Don

[pepman]

I'll jump in here, too. I quit smoking after 41years of it.It took me two tries with the anti-depressant Bupropion (also called Zyban, Wellbutrin) Three months each time but the second time worked, I've been smoke free for five years, including the rough year of my Hep C treatment. Speaking of that I'm six months clear. Hang in there all, Hang on to what you've got, thank God, there's hope for us all.As for you smokers, I think that when the time is right for you to quit, you'll know it and it won't be as hard as all that.

[PasoPerson]

SMOKING - Smoked from about 17 until I was 34.  Smoked a lot (2 packs of More cigarettes a day).  At 34 I quit drugs, booze, most of my cussin' and all of my promiscuous behavior.  Said, "4 out of 5 ain't bad" and kept on smokin'.  About 3 months later decided, finally, to quit.  Was harder than all the other stuff put together.  REASON:  You can see the damage the booze & drugs are doing to you; you cannot see lung cancer and other **** until it's too late.  SECRET TO QUITTING:  I wanted to quit for years, but maybe only wanted to quit 40%.  60% of me wanted to keep on smokin'.  When I wanted to quit 51% (just an example, you get the idea) ... I did quit.  Note:  I was a miserable person, made everyone around me miserable, for about six months.  But then it passed.  Hey, better than lung cancer, which I watched my dad die from.

AGE - I'm 60, 61 in a couple of weeks.  Yes, I'm in "that age group", but I believe part of that reason is that it takes so many years to show up.  I haven't touched anything to "get" Hep C since 1979.  Diagnosed in 2005.

SPREADING THE WORD - As someone said in a post further down, one good thing about our age is that we start to care less and less about what others think.  Included in that is my desperate desire to help others get diagnosed earlier in the disease.  Somehow.  Not being rich enough to pay for a billboard (a thought which briefly crossed my mind), I just sign almost all my emails as follows:  "Battling The Dragon, Hepatitis C, a silent killer affecting 5 million Americans. Only 1 million know they have it. Get tested. Please."

God bless -
Carolyn

[vegas777]

Hi Debby doo doo, how are you you lol

SMOKE - the dip, never!!!

Actually I quit smoking a few years ago, for the second time...I quit once for 8 years and went back to it...It's the only bad habit I ever had (hubby may disagree...lol)...

It's a very hard addiction to kick...You are such a strong lil gal for going on tx, kicking drugs and acohol and still working don't even think another thought about quitting smoking too...You don't need that added stress in your life right now...Once you are SVR you will do it, for now, keep doing what you gotta do to rid yourself of the cooties...

hugs the *dip*

[worrywortmom]

I smoke also and have for thirty years, the sad thing about it is that i have asthma have had it since i was five when they didnt even know what asthma was. i even have to use my puffer first thing in the morning so that i can have my first cig of the day, pretty sad huh, i know that i really need to stop but it seems that im smoking more now that i found out that i have this dreaded diesease.

[SnoWav]

Its interesting how people will defend a bad habit that they know in there heart is a bad choice,It's called denial.

[Tonyz]

<b>What does the 777 stand for in your screen name?</B>


  I started smoking when I was 12. I smoked about 1 1/2 packs per day for 33 years. I was finally able to quit when I got the results from my 3rd BX, showing Stage 3 Grade 2 liver damage. I also quit a 2 pot per day coffee habit, I also started a healthy diet.
Thats how powerful the results of the BX had on me. That was almost 6 years ago..

Age is 51.

I got Hep-C in 1983 after a blood transfusion, and was diagnosed in 1989.



Blessings.................TonyZ

[SnoWav]

Im with you on the denial of getting older, my wife is always thinking I should act my age. We all have our own personal demons we fight good luck with yours.

[NYgirl]

We are all just piggies ;-)  I don't think anybody has taken any offense...we all know we smoke after all  :)

Any input on the ultrasound question?  I'd love to give SOLID advice to these boneheads but they seem to listen to the ultrasound DOCTOR over ME.

[2irish]

I thought the ultrasound was to check for tumors, as in liver cancer.  the biopsy to check amt of damage or inflammation.  that's what i was told.

[NYgirl]

What I don't understand is this, that is three people I know who all thought that they had nothing to do about treatment because the doctor made it sound that way.  Your liver is FINE the results are perfect.

BUT nobody says that it is for tumors and the like and NOT an indicator of the need of treatment.

The two people I know right now are CONVINCED and these men have had it a long, long time and have done serious drugs/alchol but both keep saying that I am nuts for getting treatment and much be MUCH worse than them because their "ultrasounds" were fine.

It just seems so naive and such misinformation I was wondering if it's just out here in NY/CT that it is going on?

It's such dangerous misinformation.

[mjellk]

I am female, 50, viral load in August was 1.8 million, geno type 2 and I've probably been infected since before l989. The 2 docs that I've seen here in Philly have both said no need to do biopsy.  Said that type 2's don't need 'em because of the good recovery rate.  When I insisted that I wanted one...they both said ok.  I will not be making any decisions until after the 1st of the year...

[cougareyes]

The ultrasound checks for irregularities in the texture of the liver. Tumours, fatty liver, and the textural difference can be indicative of advanced fibrosis and cirrosis (cirrhosis). Perhaps if some doctors don't see the textural change in the liver they don't consider the damage to warrant a biopsy.
You said you are a stage 2, on an ultrasound there probably wouldn't be anything indicative of that. An ultrasound can not be used to definitely chart liver damage, but as we've talked about before; I think everyone needs to know for sure.   Peace

[NikoS]

me too... am smoking still - only problem is I am 36... I guess that puts me out of the club...

want to give up I must say, been told to hold off & do things one at a time... I think I may go the way of NY res

[NYgirl]

Does anyone know WHY they make us have an ultrasound BEFORE advising on a biopsy?

I know TWO people right now who believe that they are 100% perfectly fine and do not need to treat because their ULTRASOUNDS came back fine.

I know MINE came back the same way.  The doctor who read the ultrasound results said I probably wouldn't need any other treatment.  THEN my doctor advised the bx and I found out I was a 2/2.  2/2 verging on 3 (but I prefer the 2/2 sound of COURSE! ;-)

In NO WAY was that what the ultrasound sounded like at all!

My question is why do they make it so MISLEADING?  I know two people right now who believe that because their ultrasound was fine they have NO LIVER DAMAGE and NO REASON TO TREAT - but as I know from my experience that is NO Indicator at all!

[cuteus]

I remember your name! now, to place you better...don't take this too wrong... did you find pee bee funny? and Theresa H?
good luck on that second round. I did my 72 with the same drugs, GL !

[cuteus]

LOL! and now am done, one yr post, can you believe it? I can't! I don't have to worry about active HCV anymore.  I think the 72 wks will do it for you, and as much of a PITA the tx was, it was doable and manageable once the anemia and the aches were controlled.
take care

[SnoWav]

I smoked from age 13 to 33yrs old 1 pack a day quit 19yrs ago that makes me 52 yr old. I can tell you from a non smokers view that the smell of a smokers cloths,car or house is very unpleasent and repulsive. Don't kid yourself on how hard quiting is it is all in your head the phyical withdrawl (withdrawal) is only a few days of discomfront. If you make your mind up and will yourself to quit then it is not hard at all. Hope you smokers can kick your butts you will be suprised on the good things you will experence when you make the change. 44 mile marker on the road to 48.

[scubadiver30]

Hi there. The ultrasounds checks, as some posters said,4 fatty liver, probable tumors and the size of the portal vein for (portal hypertension). It also cheks the spleen, gallbladder, pancreas, kidneys for abnormalities and/or stones. Its not the golden rule, but it gives doctors a good idea of what's going on in your abdomen. If it has a doppler you can see the blood flow in & out the liver. So its not bad at all, it is a good aid..That should be accompanied with blood panels, fibroscans & bx.  In fact I'm gonna get one every 6 months before I start my TX in 2007

saludos
the diver

[scubadiver30]

and about methods of infection... (we all know transfussions and IV use is the most probable cause) ...However, over here in Spain +200 people got infected in 98 in the OR because a single doctor called Dr Maeso (patient zero). Supposedly he used to shoot up anestesics before surgical procedures??? and then he would inject the patients..(that was told in the trial) I personally don' believe that bs.. but he's currently on suspension and asymptomatic and out of the 200 people infected, 4 have died (1 of HCC) and the other 3 for HCV unrelated causes..They all have his geno...Mostly old people that got procedures 4 other ilnesses. And now many of them are suing the goverment and asking for permanent disability subsidies (but the gov ain't doing much 4 them).. In fact many of the are being discriminated because they went public with it..Too much ignorance in this world....
What I'm trying to say is that there are many ways of transmission: dental work, careless doctors, tattoo parlors,..etc
Heck if I achieve SVR I'm nver going to a dentist again. I read someplace that a dentist in Scotland infected more than a 1000 people. The surgeon generla never go public with it because then nobody would go to a doctor again..

saludos
diver

[cuteus]

I read that article in the AASLD conference, and thought about you!

que sigas en buena salud.

[scubadiver30]

Hola

[felinesrme]

Quit smoking 10 yrs, 5 months, 28 days. Smoked from age 15 to 30, 1-2 packs a day and I am so glad I quit.  It was hard to do, you do go thru withdrawal and every so often I still find myself looking in my purse for the cigs when I get in the car (arg.  The biggest thing for me was changing my habits, like after you eat, I had to find something to do, and tell my self I have one when I am done with this...   If you really want to quit, you will find a way.

41 yrs, f, infected 1982, stage 3/3, geno 1b.  Start tx Jan 6, here's to starting the New Year off right!
Shari

[vegas777]

best of luck with your upcoming tx - may your sides be few and your SVR rapid

Beth