Are there any spouses out there that are having a hard time dealing with this?

[Talia429]

My husband has Hepatitis C genotype 1a.  2013 has been a bad year as far as his mental health goes.  He is physically ill every day, but his mental health has gotten worse and it's really hard to deal with.  I don't know what to do because his family and mine have both told me to leave him, but I feel bad doing that.  He says that if I can't even handle him now, I wouldn't be able to handle him while doing treatments.  He won't do the treatments because of YouTube videos that he watched where people explained how it made their viral levels go up.  He is one of those stubborn people that won't look at what good it's done for people, instead he focuses on the bad it's done.  He's upset with doctors because he is mad that they give him advice on what to do when they don't have Hepatitis C and they have no idea what he's going through, so he looks at it like what right do they have to be a doctor for Hepatitis C.  He thinks that just because you go to medical school and study about it in a book doesn't mean you know anything about it or what people go through.  I'm sick of trying to "hang in there" every day.  I am really young, only 32 years old, and my husband is 34.  He is suicidal and tells me every day that he wants to die because he is sick of the pain.  He won't go to a mental health care facility because he is one of those people that doesn't believe in taking pills.  He thinks it's a government ran operation and people who are dumb enough to take pills are nothing more than guinea pigs.  I don't know how to deal with his anger anymore and I know that I shouldn't have to.  I really love this man and ever since a doctor gave him a timeline of 5-7 years left to live, my husband is sticking to that and became an angry man ever since.  Are there any spouses out there that are having a hard time dealing with Hepatitis C symptoms and if there are what do you do and how do you deal with it?

[reallyscaredindian]

Hi Talia,

I have seen a few posters on this forum and also on other Hepatitis forums say that doctors were not very optimistic about their prognosis. But the posters were treated, attained SVR and have been living happily ever since.

The doctors were wrong.

Your husband is only 34. He is young. He is unlikely to have the side effects that many of the older people experience during treatment.

If he attains SVR, the virus would not be able to damage his liver any further.



I am in the same age group as your husband. And I am going for SOC treatment. I know it might be tough, I will have to deal with Sx, but you know if this is the hand that we have been dealt with, then we have to play it, to the best of our abilities.

Your husband will be okay. Please try and make him read this forum. Its a wealth of information. There are so many wonderful people who have had varying liver conditions: a number of them have benefited from treatment.

The doctor might be wrong. Please do not take his word for it. Seek a second opinion.

[can-do-man]

From what you had said it seems your husbands mental health issues are far worse then his hep C. also when you say he is physically ill every day that is not from Hep C. If a doctor really did tell him he had only 5 to 7 years left to live then you really need a new doctor ASAP.

Not only is Hep C curable treatment is becoming more and more easy to do, and one would guess unless a biopsy has shown different at his age the odds are very much on his side there is little damage. A lot of us here had it for 30 plus years before we even do we had it... Good luck