side effects

[Gert2]

how soon after your 1st injection of interfuron will the side effect happen?

[Sheltimom3]

I just got my first shot.  No side effects Thank God.  I posted to this group the day I joined and never got any replies.  What noone like me?
Billie

[merryBe]

shot at bedtime means you sleep thru the first surge of INF into the bloodstream. My experience was mainly nausea the first day, having to go easy on what foods and how much helps it, and sometimes I take a procloppter or compazine on real bad days...
otherwise some weeks feeling tired fluey or wanting to sleep 16 hrs.

the sides get better with time served for almost everyone, butI still have a touchy tummy that first day.  Broth is a great comfort. If you work take it at weeks end so you can be sickest on your days off. it's the only sane approach.

mb

[mkp13]

Onset of side-effects is, indeed, quite variable.  I was told by my doc that I'd start feeling the flu-like stuff 3-8 hours after my first shot.  When that didn't happen, I started wondering if I'd gotten an ineffective batch of interferon.  But no.  I got hit 24 hours later.  Though I must say, it was nowhere near as bad as I'd expected.  In later weeks the side-effects happened up to 48 hours later.  Then by week five I wasn't having any side-effects from the interferon at all.  It's stayed that way ever since.  Now if only the ribavirin was that benign!

[Gert2]

Thanks so much for the info.  My husband will also be starting treatments a week or so after I start.  It's nice to know there is somewhere I can truly talk about it.  Thanks again
Gert@

[Wilful1]

Well, my sx started that afternoon, but they weren't too bad the first few weeks.  I felt a little like I had a very mild case of the flu.  Now, after 21 weeks, I'm very grumpy for the first three days with pain in one of my legs--weird, but everyone is different.  Best wishes during your tx.
Wilful

[Marc1955]

This is extremely variable. Some people feel side effects the evening that they inject. For others, the side effects don't show themselves until they've been undergoing treatment for weeks or months and the drugs have had a chance to build in their system. A lucky few never experience significant side effects at all. So it's hard to say. You might feel them early, late, or never at all.