Starting Treatment in Septmeber - Advice needed

[toxy]

Hellow Everybody, My husband is starting the treatement in September and needed some advice from you:
1. He has pylori bacteria in his stomach and doctor prescribe antibiotics, I am afraid that antiobiotics are dangerouse for Liver, how do you think will they aggreviate the liver condition even more, so far he has F1 fibrosis

2. I read that in order for the ribavirin to work well you should it less fiber food, which food is richin fiber that we should avoid?

3.  what advice can you give how can we prepare for the treatement?

4. and the last question for those who has already been through it, what shall we expect when we inject the interferon, what side effects did you have, I know that people develope high fever, how did you deal with it, is it allowed to take drugs to reduce fever?

[spectda]

Many doctors do not advise supplements or milk thistle while on treatment. Some believe that the protection offered for your liver by milk thistle may actually protect your liver from getting the drugs to eliminate the virus. Make sure you speak with your doctor about any supplements or vitamins your husband wants to take while on treatment

I would insure you have a very knowledgeable dr (preferably a hepatologist) with a lot of experience understanding how to aggressively treat hep c to  get you through this and make the best decisions for your husbands health and success with treatment.

Many doctors know something about hep c and could treat. That doesn't mean that they will understand how to respond to issues that arise in a manner that will offer him the best chance of success and safety. Less expereinced drs are often not aware of the limits that our bodies can handle before intervention with rescue drugs, dose reduction or removal from treatment are used to insure safety.

I drink much more the half my body weight in water oz everyday of treatment. I still get side effects and had a very difficult first injection. I hope your husband is one of the people who does not suffer with too many side effects.

Take Care- Dave

[dabink]

My husband began treatment at the end of March for Hep-C 1a. One of the things I don't see mentioned here is the need to drink water! He must drink about half his body weight in ounces of water. So 200lb = 100 oz. of water per day. The treatment is very dehydrating, so all that water is necessary to keep his cells hydrated. I have to (practically) nag my husband, reminding him to drink water. He also likes it with just a little splash of fruit juice to make it taste better. After a while, the whole thing becomes routine. We set alarms on phones, old palm pilots - whatever it takes to remind him (and me!) to take his medications. There is some thought that if you take all medication at exactly the same time each day and week, you will see a better result.
Good luck, have patience and know that it is all worth it. Even if your husband doesn't ultimately clear the Hep-C virus, the "rest" his Cirrhotic liver will get while on treatment is well worth it - make sure you have him take Milk Thistle, this is considered part of normal liver disease treatment in Europe and it has been shown to have no drug interactions. Remember, that although the goal of treatment is to eradicate the virus, the ultimate goal is to heal his liver. I think of my husband, 47 with Cirrhosis and HCV 1a - as having one of those permanent gold coffee filters for his liver. Even though he has some scarring, it is still working and we are just trying to keep it clean so that the "coffee grounds" don't overflow!

[yoyoma123]

Hi, just took my first injection yesterday. Maybe he will be like me which just had a little tired feeling and thats it. The trick for me is to drink alotttttttt of water. WHen i say drink alot of water is alottttt of water so the sides are less. Tell him not to worry cause I was very scared and I took it yesterday and it went very normal, no big deal.

[spectda]

" talk about using antidepressants, many people use them during treatment that were depressed before treatment. "

I meant to say not depressed before treatment, I seem to have issues with typing accurately since on treatment. - Dave

[spectda]

hello-
1) I am on strong antibiotics and doing treatment currently. Most drugs are not good for the liver. The antibiotic should not do any serious harm to his liver especially at stage one which is very minimal damage.

Pylori from what I have read is easy to treat and get rid of with antibiotics and he needs to get rid of it. It's extremely common as you may know

2) take some fat with the riba (avocado, nuts, cheese,) avoid the fiber after ingestion to insure riba is obsorbed

3) Educate yourself on treatment and insure you have a doctor who has a lot of experience treating hep c (preferably a hepatologist). You should know his genotype because it effects how long they treat.

Find out how long the doc is going to treat. At what point does he stop treatment if not responding. how often he will take blood to determine viral load and if anything serious is happening to insure proper response.

Find out if the doctor is willing to use rescue drugs. Procrit for anemia rather then dose reduction of  ribavirin, neupogen for low white blood cells and especially absolute neutrophil count (ANC) rather then dose reduce interferon. talk about using antidepressants, many people use them during treatment that were depressed before treatment. I don't know about all of them, but there are probably other rescue drugs used for other situations that arise.

find out what  kind of interferon the doctor would be using. If I had a choice I would probably use pegasys over pegintron. Pegasys generally has less side effects and possibly a higher success rate (although this is debatable). for some people it is the opposite though and they have cured with pegintron and not pegasys.

Be prepared for your husband to be feel miserable, depreseed and possibly angry. He may not experience this but many do.

4) Everybody is different, but most seem to have the fever and flu like sytems with the first injection. He can take tylenol for fever or aches as long as it's the prescribed dose. For me the injections after the first were not nearly as bad, but still lousy. I had no fever after the first injection

It would be great if your husband joined the forum, it is more helpful then you can imagine, not just for support, but for the education you are asking about. Keep reading everything you can.

Good luck and welcome - Dave

[Diane12855]

1. I wouldn't worry about the antibiotics hurting the liver at F1. The H. pylori is a pretty rough critter on its own, and he needs to get rid of it before starting treatment if possible. Treatment caused me some pretty bad nausea, and I wouldn't have wanted anything added to that mix.
2. The fiber they are talking about is ADDED fiber, not fiber that is naturally in food. He needs to eat something with fat in it at the time of taking the Ribavirin though. That helps with absorption.
3. Enjoy feeling good now... in case he doesn't during treatment. And learn as much as possible. Knowledge is power.
4. My first injection caused the most discomfort, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be. I take Ibuprofen for the pain, others take Tylenol. He should ask his doctor which is best for him. Take the pain meds at the time of the shot... don't wait for it to get bad to take something. Also... VERY IMPORTANT!!!!! He should drink half of his weight in water... ex. if he weighs 180 lbs. he should drink 90 oz. of water a day. If he doesn't drink enough, his side effects will be worse.

For you, the spouse.... Try not to take things he says personally. I have caught myself saying really harsh things that I would never normally say, and didn't mean. Feeling unwell all the time tends to wear on a person after a while. Also, look for signs of depression in him, and tell his doctor if you see them. He may feel embarrassed to admit a weakness, so remind him that these drugs are very strong and can alter brain chemistry, and no amount of will power can stop that.

I hope this helps,
Diane