I am a school bus driver-- question about meds

[joannehepc]

I took a treatment in 1991 which was with interferon for 6mths... I have been in remission.... just now ( 2010) started to have problems again and viral count is 13 million 622 thousand something..... I need to know if they have drugs I can take and still drive professionally....??????????????  does anyone know about this type of thing?

[Trish77]

"yes I backed into a culvert at 4 am on a dirt road that was not lit up and the same color as the field. But it was dark and our roads are not lit, reflected or asphalt with white or yellow lines! And yes I did run over the off duty police mans black nissan. But again it was dark, so was the car and my right passenger wing window was not adjusted properly. So I did not see it"

If that off-duty policeman was black, good thing he wasn't standing beside his Nissan. I'm thinking he woulda been a goner.  Then again, he'd be a visible minority so maybe he would have been okay after all.

[Marcia2202]

Personally, I wouldn't have been able to drive at all on tx. I was weak, brain fogged and debilitated. In bed for all of my treatment.

I actually sold my car, 'cause it would have been throwing money out the window to pay road taxes and insurance for a car standing in the street for a year.

[Diane12855]

I just wanted to say that I didn't mean to make it sound like nobody on tx should drive a school bus. There were already people saying that they didn't think there'd be any problems and I thought it would be best if the OP knew BOTH sides of that coin since she is in the deciding phase right now.

My brain fog comes and goes. Stress seems to make it worse and the kids on the buses here in SC are pretty tough... actually, they have so little control over the kids at the middle school my kids go to that my kids often complain that they couldn't hear their teacher in class, so you know they are bad on the bus.

As has been stated above... nobody has any idea how they are going to react to the drugs beforehand... actually I have no idea how I'm going to react to the drugs tomorrow. The past couple of weeks have been pretty easy on me... but this week has been the pits so far... you just never know.

Diane

[EyesofBlue55]

Well said p-nut(oops)I mean blondie.You couldny have said it better!!!The roads here ARE paved and ARE lit up.My neck of the woods is pretty well lit up.I also dont drive but an hour in the morning with students on board  total of 20 minutes, and 2 hrs in the afternoon with my babieson board 30 min with 1 hr break in between.Most of my route as you can see is dead-head time.....Not bad for a part time job.And my students LOVE my cookies !!!! cindy-windy  LOL !!!

[willbb]

yikes

[blondie717]

Oh Thank You Diane, I was really bothered. Your probally right! good info and insight. Im glad I did'nt through my pills out. LMAO. Whew. I have since been thinking I would be near seventy by then. So I found myself wondering. Does my family even live that long? A few, maybe Ill get lucky. Thanks for educating and saving my mind!! Your brain fog is not that bad you see.  I hope you are still doing well. ginger

[blondie717]

Dear little miss Cindywindy. Im in week 10. I do not get brain fog,(true I forgot what week I was in, but not from fog, I think it was wishfull thinking and the 1 wk, 2wk visits that confused me) everything else I must do I remember and think clearly. My driving is fine durring the day and all my life! yes I backed into a culvert at 4 am on a dirt road that was not lit up and the same color as the field. But it was dark and our roads are not lit, reflected or asphalt with white or yellow lines! And yes I did run over the off duty police mans black nissan. But again it was dark, so was the car and my right passenger wing window was not adjusted properly. So I did not see it. lots of folks our age have trouble driving at dark ( Im under 50). But I do fine when driving in big lit up well maintained roads. Like Boston, Ny, Chicago, La, Dallas and all major interstates.  You obviously have no problem seeing where ever you are @ as the busses here leave when its still dark in the morning. I think you will not have a problem if your sx are like mine. There are so many meds in the world. So is no one going to drive? So is a person on TX not going to be allowed to drive @ all? My girlfriend drove herself to chemo and radation. She did fine (I was a passenger)Id like to point out that if it does not effect you you should be able to do it. And if your not allowed, then no one on tx should be allowed to drive the roads at all. because they could crash into a school bus, a semi, a family or the pope!

[Diane12855]

In 1991 they only treated with interferon... it wasn't till 1992 that they finally had fool proof screening for the virus in blood samples... so they probably didn't even do viral loads at the end of tx back then, much less the 6 month follow up that we now do in order to see if we SVR'd. There is no remission of HCV... either you have it or you don't. The OP didn't say anything about being screened any time since 1991 besides this last time, so we can assume that she was infected all this time and just didn't know it.

Unfortunately, one of the bad things about tx is that we don't know if it is going to work or not until that 6 months post tx VL. I'm on week 38, and I know how you feel... I don't want to have gone through all of this just to have it come back either... but there are people that has happened to... sad to say.

Diane

[blondie717]

I thought once you tx and were svr you were done w hep c ,????? What do you mean after 20 yrs you have it back?? What do you mean remission , cancer patients that go 5 yrs are considered clear. This bothers me as Im in TX wk 10. started tx @ stage 0. Tx has not been bad. But why do it if its just gonna come back?

[EyesofBlue55]

RIDE and COME ....  put in one sentence....  

kind of reminds of something more enjoyable than being on a school bus...

Funny I never thought of it that way  !!!!!LOL!!!!!!!!! cindy

[Marcia2202]

I know Mike, Goofy is too good. I don't think anyone here can match up with him.

But you can't blame a lady for trying.... :-)

[EyesofBlue55]

My bad..policy instead of law.We dont have a policy like that where I workWe have regular drug screenings and they only look for illegal drugs in your system.which Nyquil is NOT).God forbid we are not immune to colds and any other disease,most of the time acquired from the students we transport.If they wrote everybody up for taking a medicine that may make them drowsy, wed have nobody to drive our PRECIOUS cargo!!!!!And a DUI?Your fired-personal vehicle or not !!!!
Yes I love my job.Bus drivers have always been given a bad rap.Its the ones that only drive for the money that give the good ones a bad name.My children are VERY well behaved abd treat me with respect.If I have a headache that day I tell them and they talk at a whisper.They respect me.
We also have security cameras_ive only had an instance once where I had to use it(14 yrs ago)Bottom line is my kids know if they dont behave-they dont ride!!!!!PERIOD
And yes safety is my first concern for my students-If I dont think I can drive-I will not.....

[mikesimon]

Please - don't denigrate Goofy's humor because, frankly, that "joke" was rather weak compared to Goofy's material.

[R Glass]

Look at Miss Marcia. I am impressed.

Speaking of Policy, If I don’t quit spending so much time goofing off on this computer and get some work done, I’m  gonna get terminated.

[Trinity4]

I'll just come along for the ride :)

[Marcia2202]

Gotta think of something when Goofball isn't around...

[Bill1954]

Hahaha :o)!

[Marcia2202]

RIDE and COME ....  put in one sentence....  

kind of reminds of something more enjoyable than being on a school bus...



Sorry, couldn't help myself...

[R Glass]

Back up a little bit. I never said anything about Law. I said Policy. Example, there is no law that says I can’t wear Tennis Shoes and Shorts to work at my jobsite. Company Policy says I will be terminated. The Policy here is (School Board not Judicial System) you cannot drive a school bus under the influence of any medication they could impair…… Your policy may vary.

"Your idea of a shool bus full of screaming children is way out of line..COME  and RIDE mine .I have control of my children-something alot of drivers dont have."

I don’t think so. Maybe in your neck of the woods but not here. Here either the PD or Sheriff Department is stationed at most transfers (this is not for their safety) Some busses have security riding with them. I can't blame the drivers because lack of Parenting.

[EyesofBlue55]

Being a school bus driver also(for 15 yrs now)I know too well what my responsibilities are as far as my job.I will be treating this summer hopefully and plan on continuing to drive as long as the sides dont mess with me.There is NO law here in the states that says I cant while on antiviral therapy.Nyquil? I thnk I would have fought that one and as far as getting a DUI-in your personal vehicle or not that driver should have been fired-Peroid!!!!!We as drivers take an oath to the safety of our children and if I dont think I can do it I wont.As far as my employer goes-they dont know and wont know-I dont have to tell anybody.If you worked with 350 gossipy women-I dont think you would either.

I know several truck drivers that are driving and doing tx.It all depends on the person and how the sides are gonna affect them.Again this is a common sense for the person doung the tx.

Your idea of a shool bus full of screaming children is way out of line..COME  and RIDE mine .I have control of my children-something alot of drivers dont have.

[R Glass]

I called a friend of mine whose wife has driven a School Bus for years. He said the policy here is they are not allowed to drive taking any medication that could impair their driving. He said one was written up for Nyquil. Another was fired for 1st offence DUI that she received on her own time. I know they are strict here and I don’t know what the policies are there but, it would surprise me if they allowed you to drive under the influence of any medication that could jeopardize the safety of the children.

[Trinity4]

Not everyone experiences debilitating brain fog or suffers impaired cognitive issues so I must say it should not be made to look like it's a given for everyone.  I've sure I've driven with a hangover or maladies from other illnesses that made me an endangerment to myself or someone else than anytime I was on treatment.   It really depends on the person and how they react to the drugs.  Anemia, fatigue or other medications a person may be taking all play a role.  We should be guarded but not paranoid about driving while on treatment.  Again, common sense should prevail and I must say in my case it didn't take anyone else to tell me when I was lacking it.

Trinity

[Diane12855]

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/brain-fog/show/1225540

[Diane12855]

What you say makes a lot of sense except in my case... I didn't realize that I wasn't seeing the lights right until my son pointed it out to me. I try to be careful when I HAVE to drive but I still find my mind wandering and on riba rage days (I know Mike... it's really caused by interferon) when my 2 kids are talking and fussing a lot my concentration just goes out the window... much less my patience. I couldn't imagine what I'd be like with a whole bus full of loud, rude kids in my ears.

Diane