after treatment

[mike c]

A question for anybody treated with an ongoing Svr  .
Have you found your pretreatment  ailments such as muscle and joint aches, itching/allergic reactions/  have changed  for the better as your liver heals and time goes by.
Im hopeing if i decide to go on treatment again and im lucky enough to clear that as my liver has time to heal i will see my health improve.  
Thanks  MIKE C

[honey1616]

Great to see you here,,,,Sounds you are doing great and enjoying your new job traveling the states.  You sure have come a long way and I know you are so thankful!  My hubby and I both made the big 6 month post mark,,,SVR so things are great on this end. Take Care!

[Califia]

Hey, truck drivin' woman, good to hear this great news.   I'm really happy for you.  Congrats!!!

[jonihs5]

I am officially 1 year SVR. Not only has my liver improved, my aches and pains are maybe half of what they used to be. I have gone through some major life changes since my 6 month. 3 years ago I had liver failure and was given a 5% chance of survival. Now my husband and I went to truck driving school and are driving in all 48 mainland states. I can drive 10 hrs. a day (before I couldn't even stay awake that long) I was a 2b and txed 6 months. Life is good. For any of my old freinds still around, my new e mail is ***@****. I can only check every 2 weeks or so, but would love to hear from you. God bless! Joni

[mike c]

Glad to read  that the muscle and joint pain has lessened after tx .  My Muscles and joints  are becoming a major problem for me.   Ive had to curtail my mtn hiking as my knees are really suffering, Even my biking causes much pain the next day, The muscles just dont want to recover from exercise.  
   My main reason for being hesitant about re tx is the after treatment depression i suffered. It  took me almost over the edge.  Im told by my doc the chanch of another major depression is higher if i retreat.   I think if i do decide to re tx now  i need to be watched carefully FOR SIGNS  im slipping into depression.  I had been thinking of waiting for one of the new drugs the Bio`s are testing such as vertx~s vx950 but its only in phase 2 trials or one of intermunes new hep c drugs.
Guess ive got some real soul searching to do,
Thanks again.
MIKE C

[amommy]

I am glad to hear from some of you that your sx dissipated after tx.  One of the major things holding me back from treatment at this time is the long term effects of treatment.  I have not ever been given a straight answer about this, and have not really found any articles about this.  I seem to have mild disease, and it is such a gamble-  die either with or of the disease or perhaps because of something caused by treating this disease....gee aren't we all lucky we get to make that decision?!?!  (insert sarcasm here)  Anyway, just wondering if any of you extremely knowledgable people have more insight than I into the long term effects of treatment?!  Thank you!

[cuteus]

wow! long time no read! You sound GREAT!


amom; there aren't many QOL studies post SVR out there and most people who have gone on with their lives don't share in the forums anymore as you can see by Jonis' post.  It seems as if the majority do not suffer severe long term effects from the tx, though. Remember that your own interferon (fighting hcv) and other immune responses are also damaging tissue with every ongoing yr that you are infected. Maybe some of that damage is irreversible or predisposing us to severe sides while on tx, who knows. In my case, after suffering for yrs with joint aches, CTS and such, and going thru tx, I don't find them entirely gone after tx, so my guess is that the damage might have been irreversible, but the aches are not disabling. So keep that in mind.
and gl

[stc1993]

mike they have infergen (sp) for non responders from what I have read on this site.  I believe it is 3 shots a week instead of just 1 though.  they have pegulated interferon now a days too.  i'm on that tx, pegasus interferon & copegasus Ribavirin.

Monte

[mike c]

Thanks for the info Tony and webegood.
Id also like to ask you what TX were you on.  And if you dont mind please your age.  Im 60 and im not sure how age affects your ability to clear or even stay on the drugs,  When i last tried the therpy 6yrs ago the choices were limited to Interferon or combo with Ribaviron.  I was able to go 48weeks  and work but was on the edge with Anemia.
No response , Im 1a.

MIKE C

[woodbeegood]

mike-i fell alot better now than before tx. i used to have a good many aches & pains that i attributed to getting older-figured arthritis was settling into knees, hips, shoulders etc-but all of those are gone now

tony-yes i still have to be careful-only go out after 2 or 3 in the afternoon or i will burn-was never an issue with me until about a year before i was dx-then i would get a bad rash from the sun & well on tx-i might as well have been a vampire-lol-had to cover everything from head to toe-so i just hibernated in the AC

[Tony-z]

Yes,


I have found now that my liver has healed some, that my aches and pains are not nearly has bad. I also noticed that I am clearing Meds faster. I have had to adjust doses up because my liver is processing Meds faster. Several things are better over all.


                    Blessings


                       TonyZ

PS,
Has any one noticed that even 7 months post TX I still sun burn very easily. I am of Greek descent and olive skinned, I have never burn like this before TX.