@maie13
If you can financially afford it find a good naturopath. I was offered therapy by someone before I started Interferon. At that time I was indoctrinated quite well and wanted to get the best modern treatment. I never imagine that it would change my life forever. I don't now much about the newer treatments. Maybe they are better, maybe they are not. Wait for ten years and see what people tell then...
Support your immune system. Vitamin A is essential in viral immune response as well as in cell differentiation. In order for Retinol to have therapeutical effects you probably will need high doses. You will need a doctor who can help you with dosing and monitor your liver function as in high doses Vitamin A can also be liver toxic and you liver is already affected by the virus.
Homeopathy and naturopathy are not the same things. Nature is powerful and our bodies are most powerful in healing themselves. I personally don't believe in homeopathy.
When I started treatment there was the "miracle" of those people that had antibodies but no viruses anymore. At that time it was said that the antibodies remain in the body troughout life. Well, now they found out that it is not true. Even the antibodies response of our bodies can be deleted.
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v6/n5/full/nm0500_578.html
However, it probably depends on how much your liver is already affected. I wouldn't know what to recommend, but probably I myself would for one or two or three years try alternative therapies first.
You seriously believe that you ending it will bring your parents peace??? This Post Interferon thing is cyclical or so I have found. If you overdo it you end up crashing and then the depression sets in but if you ride it out it passes.I have simplified my life as much as possible but any stress/overdoing it will kick me off into the cycle again. Please try to ride it out and if you don't have to see your parents every day,see them on the positive days and put a happy face on for them if at all possible.Don't forget,you are not alone in the "bubble" and we all understand how you are feeling at the moment. I have found calling the Hepatitis C Trust for a post treatment chat really helpful at times of deepest distress,they have all been through treatment and are good people.
I was treated in 2014 with PEG, Riba and Sovaldi for 12 weeks and have never been the same. I lost my skills on the guitar and my love for music and musicmaking. then i lost my friends because they all were musicians.
I was really good looking and loved to go out and socialize. after treatment i began to age at an unbelievable fast rate and stopped to go out because i shamed for myself in social situations because i stumble over words all the time, don't feel anything for other people and my skin is covered with a rash since treatment, forget everything etc...) so.. I changed from a good looking, happy and skillful 25 year old musician and programmer into an ugly, desperate, lonely, dumb and untalented 27 year old. thank you Roche.
I was on pegintron and Ribavirin in 2003. I never fully recovered from the treatment. I guess that both drugs stress the whole endocrine system. It is not only the virus which is attacked but the drugs induce changes in the whole body/endocrine system. For me the key point of getting better was to get a treatment for the thyroid. From various symptoms I know now that I was hypothyroid since interferon, but at that there wasn't a single thyroid test.
I don't know who else expereinced this, but e.g. in the time of the treatment I was wetting my bed almost every night, I had herpes outbreaks almost every day and it was terrible. I also lost my hair and 10kg within the first month. All these side effects show how deeply the treatment effects/interacts with the endocrine system.
One possible explanation is that by creating a state of high immune system response to the virus our bodys are running 125 miles per hour for half a year while we don't add more fuel - in the sense of more nutrients.
E.g. when you smoke the nicotine "forces" the adrenal glands to produce more cortisol than your body would produce under normal circumstances. Nicotine also forces your brain to produce more dopamine than it would do normally without the external trigger nicotine. Now it is only chemical reactions in your brain and adrenal glands that create dopamine/cortisol. For these chemical reactions you need e.g. Vitamin C. If you now constantly overuse these pathways by smoking but at the same time don't add Vit C to your daily intake of whatever it will lead to a Vitamin C depletion in the body.
Similar is probably true for interferon treatment. The interferon triggers a strong immune system response and since it is itself a strong external stimulation it will make many resources go that path towards fighting against the virus. Ribavirin has "hypomagnesemia" listed as adverse effect.
But these nutrients will then be missing at other places. It will take some time to restore the balance. It takes time to detox after the treatment. It will also take time until the body has restored it's balance. This is a strongly simplified view on the action of interferon, but it is one part of the whole process and it is the part that we can influence.
But if you don't know all this - and I certainly didn't in 2003 - you might think it is just a matter of time and compensate the tiredness by e.g. drinking more coffee and smoking. But this can increase the imbalance. If there is a thyroid condition as well the body will absorb even less nutrients since the metabolism is slowed down.
If you eat high carb and sugar then your metabolism will need even more magnesium, since it is needed for glycolisation and so on...
I don't know if this will help anyone reading this but by taking thyroid medication and refilling depleted iron, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Magnesium, and B Vitamins and so on my condition improved a lot in the last two years. I was suffering since the treatment for almost 13 years and I was close to loosing everything since I simply couldn't function anymore. Now I don't have brain fog anymore, by back doesn't hurt in the morning when I get up, I feel joy and energy again, my depression had gone. I didn't get much help from doctors. They told me I am simply stressed and wanted to give me antidepressants. So I was doing research on my own.
Don't think that small amounts of Vitamins will help to restore the balance.
Feel free to ask questions. I don't know if this is the right path, but I know that I feel so much better. I started to recognize myself again. Our bodies are designed to life and I believe that if we give them all they need they will be able to restore the balance.
Get your thyroid tested and if you can afford it get the nutrients tested. If you can't then you have to do trial and error. Which is what I did for most.
One more thing i keep reading people say that side effects will go away after treatment.....Guess who says this?...People who never treated....So if your one of these please don't offer advice if you have no clue about treatment.....anyone can can e-mail me at ***@**** to talk about treatment...or post treatment
I just found this article
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19042060
another nutrient that is depleted during Hep C and interferone treatment is zinc.
As well as Vitamin A
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7196691
Good luck to everyone! Don't give up, even after 13 years our bodies have the ability to recover if we provide them with the nutrients they need.