Having trouble 6 months after finishing treatment

[stella154]

Hi! I finished therapy for hepatitis c, genotype 1a, about 6 months ago.  I was taking peginterferon alfa-2a and ribivarin for 6 months.  I will find out soon if the virus is gone.  My question is about how I should be feeling at this stage.  I have extreme fatigue almost all the time.  My depression is worse than ever even though I take 2 different anti-depressants.  I have pain that makes my quality of life intolerable.  I told my doctor if I had the choice again I would choose not to do the therapy.  My doctor is sympathetic, but doesn't know what is wrong with me.  I have lost all zest for life and have to push myself to do anything.  Will this ever end?  Does anyone have any suggestions?  I can't live like this.  I am only 32 years old.  I welcome any thoughts or suggestions.

[R Glass]

My God, they call it a suicide shift/clutch for a reason. I wouldn't make it around the block before hitting something. I ride a Softail (modified version of The Rigid)

[willbb]

chopped.....never had a  chpopper   ..what ever that might be

[willbb]

  Ricky..I didn"t have much residual pain from my short stint at tx. but 4 years on my chpopped rigid tail w/suicide shift aged me bout 20yrs.  :)
Will

[R Glass]

I’ll go out on a limb here, these are complications due to “medicinal effects”
Just a couple of days ago a neighbor told me “you aged over night since you did that treatment. You look 10 Years older but I don’t miss that Harley waking me up when you came home.”
I wish I could still wake him up but, when I do feel up to riding, I'm home early and my body wracks of pain. PEOPLE DON"T AGE THIS FAST

[copyman]

Add me to the list of people who don't feel 100% after 2+ yrs. Nothing serious,  mild fatigue & minor pain. I truly believe this is from the TX drugs.

I'm still glad I treated and was cured. I was feeling ok before I treated and I knew there was a chance of permanent side effects. But decided it was worth the chance. I jumped at the chance to do Telaprevir in a trial.  Better to feel this way then suffer with liver disease if I didn't treat.

[paen53]

Precisely!

Even though I was lucky to find a Dr. that was very supportive and knowledgeable DURING tx, I felt kind of dumped afterwards when I started developing issues. I understand that many of the problems were outside their area of expertise, but my PCP was just as clueless. And I found myself questioning everything the PCP recommended and running it through my liver Dr, bouncing back and forth.

This is just my personal opinion, but I think the fibro dx they tend to lump some of us into is a last ditch effort to placate us because the symptoms fit - kind of....And what's scary about that particular dx is that the meds, well, one anyway (Cymbalta) is not liver friendly, especially for those of us with compromised livers. When I ran it past my liver Dr. she said only low dose and LFT's every couple of months. I didn't come this far to start pounding my liver into a pulp again.....

It all reminds me of pre dx times. Some of us found out thru an exam for insurance or donating blood, but many of us sought help for years with unexplained symptoms or mis-diagnosed symptoms -  trying to find someone to believe that what we were experiencing was "real". Deja vu........It seems here, too that we have to be proactive about aftercare and become as knowledgeable about it as we can and often on our own.

Those of us that have been on boards such as this have seen many changes with overall HCV  in the recent past. Maybe this too will change with time and as more and more people begin to be treated. I can only hope......