Fifth Shot Tongiht

[ryaninbayarea]

Oh man.. This week has probably been one of my toughest weeks. Week 1-4 had exhaustion and nausea, but I always recovered by late Tuesday or early Wednesday. I felt lucky to have three good days per week. This week, every single day has been difficult due to the level of exhaustion. At the age of 43, I felt like an old man of 80..

I'm imagining this is completely normal for everyone? I have type 3.. I drink around 100 ounces of water per day, and I make sure to get plenty of rest every night. I avoid caffeine and sugars. What are your thoughts?

I complete my 5th shot tonight.. I'm just praying next week isn't worse.. Crossing my fingers.

[mathan74]

Hi :-) I too am in week 5 and to date have had a real mix of good days and bad days. Hang on in there and I hope you feel better soon.

[orphanedhawk]

FYI: Towards the bottom of the page you'll see this a link which explains things like cbc, complete blood count, wbc, white blood count, etc

Hepatitis C Acronyms/Abbreviations

[Dawn703]

Everyone is right, what you are experiencing is normal, and it will come and go. Drink lots of water. I usually take in no less than a gallon a day and sometimes more. You are a bit shy of that. On shot day I try to take in a gallon and a half, but substitute some of that with coconut water (not milk) around shot time. Moving around helps as well. And as everyone said watch your cbc results. For me my first 4 weeks were terrible, then things leveled out a bit and didn't have such terrible sx. Then again around week 8 or 9, it was worse than my first 4 weeks. After ending incivek, I have felt sooo much better. I still have the fatigue and shortness of breath from the anemia, but I can not tell you enough what a difference it is.

[flcyclist]

cbc = complete blood count

You should keep a close watch on the white blood cells (wbc), absolute neutrophil count (anc), hemaglobin (hgb), platelets.  Keep a copy of each of your lab results and make sure you ask your doctor to explain what you don't understand.  Your doctor should keep a very close watch on these numbers also.  Good luck.

http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/cbc/tab/test

[ryaninbayarea]

Thank you dor the advice.  What are cbc's?

[ryaninbayarea]

Thank you dor the advice.  What are cbc's?

[angel216]

in my 5th week...i agree, for me its not day to day how i feel its more minute by minute....kinda all over the place.  water helps and resting when you can.  keep up the good work you can do it

[1swimmer]

Yesterday I was feeling great; did chores and pre- prepared some meals. Today, I had a really tough day and made myself exercise after work. The swim helped a lot. So, take advantage of the good moments. You just never know how it will go.
Cheers,
C

[ryaninbayarea]

Thank you for the advice,  it is really appreciated. Just hearing my experiences are similar to my own is helpful.  Luckily, I am able to work every day, have a wonderful spouse, and I pretty happy most days. Take care of yourself and best wishes on your treatment

[ryaninbayarea]

I agree with you.  It's nice to know all this effort and difficuty is worth it. Best wishes to you too

[BoceprevirGal]

Now it's good to know the medicine is doing The Trick!

[flcyclist]

What you're experiencing is very normal.  The beginning few weeks for me were not too tough, then around week 4-5 after the meds completely saturate the body and blood cells, things got tougher, including mental attitude.  As mentioned, it's very difficult to predict how you'll feel in weeks to come.  A rough week may be followed by an easier one.  Just when you think things have tapered off, then other sides sneak up on you.  

Do the best you can, get plenty of rest, drink lots of water and avoid too much sun/sweating.  Be sure to keep a close eye on your cbc's, especially your hgb and wbc.  This will all be behind you soon.  Good luck moving forward.

[BoceprevirGal]

Yes, I feel exactly like you explained it, only I am 49 yrs old, so I feel like a 90 yr old woman.  I ran into my old Dad yesterday, and he was walkng faster than I was!
   For some reason, my joints keep popping out,  and I can barely walk now. I keep marveling at the fact, that half a year ago, I was skate-boarding and cycling everywhere, but now I am still like The Tins' WoodsMan.
   For some reason, the more rest I get, the more tired and achey I feel. So I popp up at 7 am, and try to get most of my hard work done early, before I get too tired, which works well

[Revalation]

Everyone seems to have ups and downs sometimes they are week to week
and sometimes they are day to day and even moment to moment.

I had by best day during treatment two days ago, but I don't feel to swell
today.

Whenever, you need help the forum is here for support.
From what I've read over the years there really is no normal.
Just hang on and when you feel bad know it will pass.

Hope you feel better soon,

Reva

[debbiemac40]

Hope things get better for you.. With you just starting and posting helps to see how you feel.  I know everyone is different but to some point seems the same.  I wish you the best and hope you are able to keep posting.
Debbie

[ryaninbayarea]

Thank you for the comments. It is reassuring to understand my experiences are normal, and there isn't a norm from week to week. Thank you for your comments, it makes me feel much better.

[ryaninbayarea]

Thank you for the comments. It is reassuring to understand my experiences are normal, and there isn't a norm from week to week. Thank you for your comments, it makes me feel much better.

[uriah1]

I had the same experience and I agree with orphanedhawk.  My second month was probably the toughest physically, the last month was the toughest emotionally.  But there never was a pattern and I finally quit trying to figure it out.  I did journal every week a quick paragraph about how the week went, what foods worked, how the nausea was, the itching, etc.  Glad I did that now.   I learned to be kind of flexible and I learned not to make plans...so I wouldn't have to cancel them :)  
Good luck on week 5!  You are doing great!

[orphanedhawk]

What I found is there was no norm, to base how one week would be compared to the next. Sometimes I'd have a week of utter exhaustion followed by a week that wasn't so bad. It didn't even seem to relate to my labs, which in the beginning I was doing weekly.

You do not have to limit coffee. In fact there's a study that supports drinking coffee with better SVR results, and many that show coffee being beneficial to the liver.

I personally never measured my water intake, just kept drinking lots of it.
The only other thing I can advise, is be sure an get some exercise, do some stretching every day that you possibly can. I believe it helps reduce the possibility of long term side effects and helps us rebound after completing tx.
Good luck.

Enjoy the lovely warm weather~ I'm in the bay area too :)