Brain Fog

[getridofitnow]

At about week 15 of tx my vision got blurry. I went to an ophthalmologists who diagnosed retinal hemorrhaging and cotton wool spots due to interferon. I went to another ophthalmologist and between the 2 of them and the liver dr they decided to lower dose to 50% for remainder of treatment. They said it could create blindness if another hemorrhage were to happen near optic nerve. Good news was I was SVR even with 50% for the remainder of the 26 week therapy. Some studies say 25 % of tx patients have eye hemorrhage problems.
The ophthalmologist stated that the vessels in the brain are very similar to the ones in the eye. He said “if this is happening in your eye who knows how much of this is going on in the brain and the damage it is doing. We can view the inside of the eye but not the brain”. He also stated that I should really take a hard look on continuing the treatment on tx.This doctor has nothing to gain from telling me this but at the time I didn’t figure he took into account the seriousness of Hep c and the gain I would have from tx.
Today I wished I had taken his advice. I do appreciate the fact that I had a hemorrhage which in turn reduced my dose of this poison. I wonder how much worse it would be if I had done a full dose and had to do it a full year.
How many others have this brain fog? I wonder if it ever gets better or if the brain cells are just gone

[working dog]

they told me no more interferon ever...had to stop right away almost 3 weeks ago...i'll go back to the eye doc in two weeks and hope the problem is clearing up...i had very sharp burning pain in my eyes that would last for about 15 seconds...now off tx for almost 3 weeks i'm falling down tripping over stuff with no faint feeling..i wonder if i got some blood vessels in my brain bursting...i can walk around fine ..never know when its going to happen..its really different...good luck and watch out for your eyes....btw...i saw a retina specialist after seeing a ophthalmologist....be careful

[ChrisDDD]

So are you saying you wish you had taken his advice because you now have brain fog or your vision has been affected but you're cured, or you're not cured?  I can say that I went on Infergen in 2005, which was my third attempt at treatment, and at week 9 of the Infergen treatment I had what the ophthalmologist said was the worst retinal hemorrhaging he had ever seen and recommend I stop treatment immediately and hope that my eyes healed.  They did.  MY doctor refused to ever treat me again with interferon, so I went to another doctor.  Same thing.  So here I sit in probably early cirrhosis after having HepC for 35 years with a hernia possibly related to the HepC?  Then in 2009 I suffered a mild stroke, so my doctor said his treatment goal now is to keep me as healthy as possible so I can tolerate treatment with the new PI drugs coming out in a few years.

There are other patients who got to stay on treatment even with retinal hemorrhaging and cotton wool spots, they cleared the virus and their vision returned to normal once the treatment stopped.  I am so jealous.  Then there are patients who have gone blind on treatment.  Also, I always think of brain fog as not being able to think clearly, not blurry vision.  I do believe others will agree with me here that treatment does wreak havoc on your body and your memory may have been affected, but the farther away you get from having treated, you will continue to improve back to your normal self.  I hope I've helped and I wish you all the best.  Write with any additional questions.  My thoughts are with you.