What to expect?

[linthomas]

Hi everyone, well it's still me the soon to be kidney transplant patient. I hope. Picked up Pegassist yesterday, Those are some big needles, just wondering what to expect next wk, will be taking Procrit the day before and I already take Xanax, so I'm just wondering if the sides may be worse because of the renal disease, I'm pretty stable as far as medically. Just getting nervous about starting. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Linda

[jmjm530]

I'm glad your GI is keeping tabs on you. See if you can get her to do the PCR every two weeks as well. I think you may get down to your target number sooner than she thinks so why keep staying on the stuff if you don't have to? Also, a week #1 CBC isn't a bad idea either with your compromised kidney function. She's probably right not to expect anything but why take a chance?

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Regarding the shots. Most people have the most success injecting where they have the most fat.

In many cases, including mine,  that's the abodomen. There are charts on the Pegasys web site and probably with the materials your GI will give you.

Basically you have a lot of choices in the abdomen/love handle area but you're not supposed to go near the belly-button or directly on the waistline. I alternate upper right, upper left, lower right, lower right. If you have a lot of fat on your thighs or upper arms, then those would also be good spots.

All the best with a fast and successful tx.

-- Jim

[MichaelT]

To your first question, yes. The pegylated interferon provides more constant anti-viral action over a longer period of time; PegIntron doesn't last a week, but Pegasys does. The three times a week dosing of non-pegylated interferon was criminally irresponsible, since most of the week was spent without the interferon!

Interferon provides direct anti-viral action. If you inject interferon, the viral load goes down (okay, a tiny minority of folks don't have this happen, but mostly it is so) and as the interferon breaks down, the viral load goes up. So three times a week dosing of regular interferon permitted too much time to the HCV to play and reproduce. With pegylated interferon, direct anti-viral action is realized almost all of the time.

Sorry I can't help with the second question. God bless!  -Michael

[hiya24]

Yes, you are almost half way there!! Way to go. Be sure to reward yourself frequently. Ice cream is my personal favorite!!

How is your VL going? I had a 4 log drop at 12 week. And almost another 2 log at week 25. I may be faced with either stopping treatment if I don't clear soon or continue treatment passed 48 weeks in hope of achieving SVR. My odds of SVR have decreased since I didn't clear by week 12 but I am still hopeful that this is going to work.

[chellski]

hiya24:  hey! congrats on getting to #32!!  I'm doing #20 on sunday nite!   way to go - you're almost there!

linda:  good luck with you tx - as stated above it's amazing how time flies....it seems like i was just making the decision to treat and here i am, almost halfway thru!  (hopefully, i'll just have to do 48 - if its 72, so be it)

good luck!

michelle

[polejumper]

Always think positive,with me I made it through 4shots thinking all I read was,nt going to happen to cause I breezed through the first 4 with no side effcts at all ,thinking I've got this licked .5th week started the opening of the gates of Hell for me.That was just my expierence,so I hope your's is all a cakewalk.Goodluck.

[friole]

In the progression of all of this, I figure we are the class of '06. I am in second grade and you are about to enter first grade.  Fortunately there are a lot of graduate students here (those with SVR and those on their 2nd and 3rd rounds of tx to guide us all on our way. Thank goodness for all the levels of knowledge here.