Natalie Cole

[Debbie223]

She is in People this week talking about her Hep C. It is interesting. She has had a pretty tough time. She is tx for a year and had to stop her Riba the first month.

Just wish her the best...

[Bill1954]

Sadly, the charlatan Floyd Wrong (I deliberately misspell his name in here) is unable to provide any evidence that his products are effective for managing HCV. To the contrary, he relies strictly on anecdotal reports; similar to the snake oil panderers of times past.

His bovine thymus product*can’t* work; its proteins will be denatured and rendered ineffective by the GI tract when ingested. The only thing he’s relatively good at is curing his ravenous bank accounts.

You are misinformed if you believe interferon therapy is successful in only 13% of patients; this may have been true years ago prior to the addition of pegylation as well as ribavirin. It now delivers long term successful results in around 45% of genotype 1 patients, and >80% in genotype 2 patients.

I’d suggest you familiarize yourself with current treatment protocols; things have changed for the better over the years.

Good luck to you—

--Bill

[nunulips]

hep c since 1972 organic all the way... love floyd wrights site for hep c and linda pages book for natural healing. interferon is only overall 13% effective. what they don't tell you about nutrition will hurt you. i had third stage cancer 38 years ago and got a bad transfusion.... never has a doctor talked to me about food of supplements. sadly they are not doing their patients much help as it takes the whole picture...

[Rockerforlife]

What i am saying is protien is not always protien...just because you eat meats and fish dosent mean its the best...like i was saying, the protien from this organic whey is the best quailty protien...i think it makes a difference...just my belief....its like anything else in life...there is always better out there...maybe its worth a try...i take"harmonized protien" maded by" progressive"...do a google

[R Glass]

At some point realty hopefully will set in. Eat all the natural crapage you want if you think that what is it takes. Bite an Avacodo and all of you Riba. sx. will go away. Get real. Springfever I am realy Nicole

[Trinity4]

I guess you directed the post to me Rocker?  I'll answer anyway, just so you know.  
Steak, ground beef, chicken, pork, fish, peanut butter, eggs, nuts.  Try to buy organic meats if they are available.   I really do eat pretty healthy.  I've lost some weight but not a lot.  What I can't do anymore is exercise like I used to.  Because I'm so tired all the time, working and tending to things at home is about my limit.  I'll take an occasional walk, but I can't swim laps anymore or work out.  I've stayed out of the sun pretty much all summer which has contributed to my paleness.  I drink as much water as humanly possible, probably should drink more.  I'm not a very big person, and so far all my bloodwork has stayed at acceptable levels.  Haven't needed any rescues.  I thought for sure I'd be anemic, but nope.  HGB hangs around 11.  I'm not much of a supplement taker, but I may start taking a multi vitiamin without iron of course to see if boosts my
energy levels.  It's the meds, and it shows more in my face than any place else which is why I think I've aged so quickly.  Maybe after I get off tx, and start to feel and look better, they'll think I've had some work done. Having more hair would improve my appearance drastically as well!!   I need to check out where Dolly Parton gets her wigs!!
Big hair is coming back in!  She can keep the boobs though. Not my style!
Trin

[PegOnPeg]

Geez, I want the oxygen & the IV...I sing pretty good...where do I sign up??

[Rockerforlife]

Make sure you get the best quality protien know to man..."organic whey powder"...also try a greens powered drink called "green rx"....i really believe you will feel a lot better with high quality food....what do you do for your protien intake?

[Trinity4]

I think I've aged 10 years in the last 6 months.  My hair is sooo thin even with a short hair cut it's very obvious.  Someone asked me the other day have I changed hair products because my hair used to look so shiny and full of body.  Not anymore!  My face is gaunt and white as a ghost.  Even darkened the shade of my makeup - still look pasty.  I have dark circles under my eyes which I never had before.  Technically, it may not be "chemo" but it's nasty stuff and alters us physically and emotionally.  Doesn't matter what name they give it, we all suffer.  

[springfever]

Maybe Nicole is a member of this forum.  Or at least a lurker.
I've often wondered who of you is rich and famous.

I'll use the term chemotherapy in a heartbeat when I need it...self preservation.

[proud48]

ditto!!!!!!!!
proud48

[Rockerforlife]

Chemo Shemo....iis all killer drugs in the end....call it what you want....as long as it cures us...who gives a rats a.ss what its called

[Facta_non_verba]

Wow, what a stir this generates. Both celebrities with illnesses and the term "chemotherapy."

Guess what? Rich people have more money, nicer houses, bigger cars and get cuts in line. It's no surprise that they can get better medical care. I have to qualify that with the memory of Kanye West's mother, so there are exceptions. I've come to the conclusion that life's not fair, which is actually OK since if life were fair I'd probably be worse off.

I see how we who have been on the stuff can call it chemo because we get a lot of the same side effects (and more) that cancer patients get. Also, as Jody515 points out, interferon can be used to treat some cancers. Still, chemo makes people think cancer. People feel sorry for cancer patients, but not so much for us. It's probably more accurate to call it immunotherapy, but noboby would understand that anyway.

I hope that Ms. Cole and everyone else on this road reaches SVR.

Jeff
Facta non Verba

[Marcia2202]

She does look good. But if you compare her to what she looked like 1 year ago, one definitely can see that she has been through quite something. She still looks amazing, she is almost 60. But she has aged about 10 years in such a short time. It looks like she's having a rough tx.

Well, we're all in this boat together... including her.

[Debbie223]

Hmmm I have read many times on this site where someone has asked the question is the tx considered Chemo.... Always invokes a mixed response. I have said to family and close friends that it is like going thru Chemo because we combine two drugs to tx one disease.

What the article in People stated was that she is only doing the shot once a week. She had to stop Riba the first month. I wonder how effective that is going to be. She states that she was receiving an IV with fluids in between her sets...that is what money buys, that and oxygen...Funny in People she looks really good and even states that she looks better then some of her 40 year old friends..

Just wish her the best
  

[Jody515]

Interferon is also used to treat different types of cancer such as melanoma, hairy cell lukemia & some type of kidney cancer. To me that is chemo & yes, I have had friends who took other types of chemo but did not stay sick as I did every single day I was on it.

[jdwithhcv]

I've done both chemo for cancer and hep c tx.  For me they are similar, except in cancer chemos I always had some down time between treatments,and hep c tx is of much longer duration.  I lost more hair during Hep c tx.  I lost more weight during cancer tx.  Call it whatever you like, I call it harsh.

jd

[Marcia2202]

My mother was on oral chemotherapy for a while, as she had leukemia. I know exactly how she was, because I nursed her in my home for nearly 2 years. She did not lose her hair and was not as sick from it as I feel from tx. And I have mild side effects compared to many others.
My step mother received chemotherapy for breast cancer... she did not lose her hair, nor felt really awful from it either.
So chemotherapy is not quite what a lot of people think either, it can be from mild to extreme, depending on what kind of chemo one is receiving and how much of it.

Some official medical sites classify interferon as chemotherapy, others don't. It is antiviral therapy, but it mimics chemotherapy. Actually one could go arguing forever, as even the experts have not agreed on this one.

Marcia

[RJGCEDARS]

Why not tell.....

The word "chemo" elicits sympathy from people. Interferon comes across as "what the hell did you do"?  I picture the word chemo as a child in a wheel chair, bald and hooked up to tubes or a 40 year old woman suffering from breat cancer.
If in fact she referenced her treatment as chemo and it is not, I find it terribly insensitive to people with Hep C and those thinking about going through tx. You have enough angst trying to get the proper information on what to do. The general public should have accurate information. What u decide to tell your intimates is private.

Just my thoughts

[GrandmaBRZ]

I am glad she was interviewed, record promotion or not, because hopefully it brings more awareness to the public of this disease.  She does look like she has been thru the mill.

[jmjm530]

I also mentioned that because of the chemo I had anemia. This was to explain to my friends why I couldn't run up mountains with them.

[jmjm530]

We've had these discussion before and actually quite recently. Some sources refer to interferon as "chemotherapy" and some say it's not, with a caveat. Same with doctors. In fact, someone recently posted that their NP thought it was worse than Chemo. So, at least from where I sit -- actually lying down now fighting a cold -- nothing wrong in describing tx as "chemo" in trying to reflect accurately what you are going through without giving too much personal detail. What I always did -- because yes,  "cancer" does come to people's minds -- I always said that what I had was not that serious, i.e. I wasn't going to die or anything/I'm going to be fine, etc -- but while I'm on the chemo I will be sick because it's a difficult treatment. Not sure what the big hubub is about. Chemo *****. Our treatment *****. Predudice and ignorance about HCV *****.

[Jacob43]

You may find different information but found this:
http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/default.asp?page=4009
If you can't open it, it says: "Although interferon is not chemotherapy, the way you manage side effects may be similar.  Or you can click on search at the top of the page."  My wife (a nurse) says she thought it was considered chemo.  Who knows.  This article says no.

[mikesimon]

BTW "chemo" may be "a perfectly good and accurate word...." but it is also misleading. I think if you asked 100 people what "chemo" refers to 100 people would respond with the word "cancer" in their response.
Mike

[jmjm530]

Trin:I am assuming here but she probably has and certainly can afford the best hepatologists money can buy
================
That would make sense but celebrity docs don't always follow the adage "you get what you pay for". With some, you pay a lot and don't get a lot of good medical advice. BTW I have no idea who she is using be it a quack celeb doc or a well-known liver specialist.


BTW, "chemo" is a perfectly good and accurate word to describe what we go through. I used it with a couple of friends because I felt that was accurate enough without being too specific. I have no idea why "radiation" treatment is being used.

-- Jim