put inf on hold for school and future career?

[gtl221]

I have posted before, and I thank you for reading my post, yet again. But I am 21 years old, and I have 6 weeks of treatment left. But i (genius as i am, a pretend, blind over-achiever) have chosen to move out of home, about 50 miles away to attend college, and as i search for a job, and try to pass my 12 units - i wonder if finishing this last month is worth it.
In all honesty, I am 21. This alone makes me unique to all studies thus far. Most people are above 30, right?
At any rate, I feel that this whole treatment has tampered with my growth, at least on the physical level.
You know how bad it is for bone marrow, and now my thyroid is acting up apparently. I just got a call. I guess a re-test will call a verdict.
I realise i havn't put much thought into my question; I've more ranted than anything. I guess thats why we're here for each other.
Okay. Is it worth it to finish treatment? The long term, *slightly possible effects of stopping early* are 6 months or at any point in my life after this moment, and i dont even want to say it, but hep c coming back.
Consider this: I am 21, so any statistic is null, I was on Telaprivir, so inf and riba are many times more effective, and I am struggling to juggle school, finding work, and try to have a life!!
In all this, you may wonder, WHY THE F*** would you do that to yourself?
And I ask MYSELF the same thing.!
I guess at one point I just considered killing off hep more important than anything.
ANyhow, please, tell me what you think - and if you have any credible or thoughtful things to say, please say them.
Thank you.

[nygirl7]

it doesn't sound like you are physically incapable of finishing so I would definitely advise you to try and hold on - while the chance is good that you have succeeded if you stop and relapse you are not going to be able to do another PI any time in the future...that means you will have to do a much longer term with regular old SOC.

While you are young now and being 50 seems a zillion miles away, if you were to fail treatment now chances are you could have a good deal of fibrosis later on - without the benefit of the new drugs to pull you through and assist you.

Everyone wants to quit when they get down to the wire but asks the folks who have relapsed and then had to treat again if they think getting every benefit you can right now would be worth it.

Since you aren't physically incapacitated or having constant transfusions or anything I say go for it, kill it now and then move on with life.  Shoot four little shots left is nothing. You can do it.

[newleaf09]

Youth is a good predictor but not a guarantee.  I think a lot of us have had an impulse to bale at some point when we've been clear of the virus for a while.  That's pretty normal but makes decision making harder once you get to that mind-set..

What are the criteria in the study you are in?   Did you do bloodwork on the side to see how early you cleared?  Was it well within the guidelines for stopping at the 6 mo. mark?  I don't need to tell you how upset you will be, after you've gone through this much, to find the virus still active after you stop the meds.  An interferon-responsive patient on the right drugs can clear the virus from the blood fairly easily but it has not been established how long it takes to clear all virus particles from the liver cells and they don't have a way to look for that except for biopsy material and a lab that could search for virus in the material (would be a pretty specialized procedure).

The standard minimum for even the easiest genotypes is 24 weeks from day 1 to EOT.  Whatever you are thinking, do talk to the study team, as they suggest in the informed consent.  Then make your own decision.

[smaug48]

When the end is in sight, it's difficult not to want to quit early and believe that you will still SVR.

But If you stop now, and then relapse (a very real possibility, even though you've taken Teleprevir aid your age), you are going to regret quitting early, guaranteed.

My 2 cents: finish treatment and kill the virus so that you can truly move on with your life.

Good luck with school!!

[Kristina538]

OMG you only have one full moon left!!!   Can I be so bold as to advise you to at least wait until you get your thyroid results before making a decision.  

I did a six month tx and my thyroid wacked out a little near the end, but has stabilised.     I can certainly understand why that would frighten you,  but check out some of the posts on thyroids.  It seems to go hyper on tx, and then flip to hypo.   From my understanding it's the hypo which may see you need to be on long term medication.  The hyper can right itself, and mine did within 2 months post tx.

It just seems that you've come so far.  You have your whole life ahead of you and it would be a much happier less stressful time if you weren't forever looking ahead to either getting sicker or doing another treatment.    

My specialist told me (at the time about 4 weeks before the end of my tx), that I had a one in four chance of clearing.  Your specialist should be able to give you some type of prognosis.   If you are thinking of stopping please try to get some facts around your chances.   Tx is so hard, we all have crawled our way along.   I believe 'killing off hep' is more important than anything, at any age, and dare I say that you were making more rational decisions pre-tx than now?    My heart goes out to you at this time and I'm hoping you can get some facts from your medical team quickly to help you make a worthy decision.