How soon will I feel back to normal

I just finished 6 months of Interferon Ribavirin therapy for Hep C type 3A-It worked great but my WBC was low and I felt the side effects the last 3 months and had to stop going to the gym and was looking forward to feeling back to normal immediately after my last day....It has been 4 days and I still feel tired am itchy have short of breath and odd smell bad metal taste in my mouth. Coffee still taste strange and I also do not feel especially happy about buying my dream house and moving and starting up a new business-these should be exiting things but I feel strangely detached from them and they seem overwhelming.

How long does it take for the medication to leave the body ?


This discussion is related to Girlfriend with Hepatitis C.

[WriteItDown]

Everyone is different, both in the way they respond to treatment, and in how they recover. But no one feels better yet immediately after stopping. I believe it takes a week or ten days for the Interferon to leave your system, and a lot longer for the ribavirin.

After 24 weeks of treatment my husband started to feel a bit better after a week without any meds.  By two weeks without he was feeling a lot better, and a month after he was feeling almost normal. However, he had pretty mild side effects on treatment and I think his recovery was pretty fast. Still I would imagine you will start feeling better soon. It's a process, and you have to just go through it and realize you WILL be feeling better soon as the drugs leave your body.

Congrats on finishing treatment!

[kittyface]

Give yourself lots of time to feel "normal."  It takes about 6 months for ribavarin to leave the body.  In the meantime continue to drink lots of water and exercise moderately.  Most of all be patient with yourself and know each day will bring a small improvement.

It took a little more than a year for my return to "normal" after 48 week treatment. I'm still not quite there but that's a different story.  

The best to you!
Kittyface

[Trinity4]

I did 72 wks of treatment and it took about 3 months to feel normal.  I felt better several weeks after stopping the drugs but not back to my old self.  Towards the end of treatment I was so fatigued I didn't think I would ever regain my strength but I did.  I have no long lasting side effects from treatment other than it didn't work.  

Give yourself some time and you'll feel better.  

Wishing you SVR,
Trinity