Ribavirin kicking in

[St. George]

Does anyone feel the Ribavirin really hit them a few hours after they take it?  I wake up feeling decent but as soon as I take my first dose I'm feeling lower than a snakes nuts.  I feel my liver swell and my extremities get ice cold.  I'm conviced the interferon is a cakewalk by itself but the Ribavirin is the evil component to treatment. Any thoughts?

[rod56]

hi im on interferon and ribaviran. with in 20 min of my first injection as i drove home tingling in legs and forearms . then i had 7 riboviran. for the first month headaches itchy around torso and kidneys keep well hydrated . i was on 7 riboviran a day but had to cut back to 5 it was effecting my breathing so they had to cut it to 5. i can breath a lot better.  check your oxygen level only takes about 4 hours for result . moth ulcers .the first day i went completley white. . bit of blood from rectum . all so nose ive got 2 weeks to go with treatment. i have growths in liver and both kidneys and 1 adreanelene gland and other 2 in torso.  feel free to ask any thing. cheers mate.

[OldLabRat]

My toes and fingers are really cold go numb turn real white then their sore for a week if I let'em get  cold.   Wearing electric gloves in the winter,  been off the peg/rib for 5 years.    And every joint in my body cracks~

[yodennis]

After being on Incivek the side effects from Ribo are like the side effects from jelly beans! Then again my Ribo has been reduced twice secondary to my descending hemoglobin and anemia when you have kids, and a job, and a performance schedule is rough.....As the sun shines because it has no alternative so do I learn to live with the sides (which are worth the price of my present undetectability)...Good luck. d

[James10500]

Not every ones hair falls out, I had three bald spots. Hang in there it will end some day keep focused on the finish line.

[angelgabriel]

my feet n hands get so cold it drives me nuts. i can cover then n they r still cold. like achy cold. just cant wait till this is over. now i am waiting for my hair to fall out. omg!

[puffin]

i can taste the riba. i think at times i can smell it too.   i seem to want to drink lots of water just to rinse the riba out of my body.  i definitely taste and smell it soon after i take the pills and then it fades after a few hours.   what time do you guys take the riba.  i take the morning dose at about 8:30 AM and the evening dose at about 5:30PM.  i have been thinking maybe i should take it after breakfast and after dinner.  someone told me the riba keeps you up or gives you bad dreams?  

i' m three weeks into treatment...i also just got the itchy red pin point dots on my legs and arms.  hope they go away with time.  i'm thinking the riba is to balme for them.  any body else have the red dots?

[friole]

forgot to mention -- Fresnoborn posted yesterday -- scroll down the threads -- and she is done.  Bless her heart, she lost 65 pounds.

[NYgirl]

In a little while your body will get used to it and once you achieve the higher serum level it should just pretty much not bother you anymore.

In the beginning tx isi horrific but after a while = you can really almost forget you are on it.

Honest. Hang in there. That Riba is YUCK (but if it does it's job and stops the virus from replicating and growing...it's worth it.  Try to remember THAT)

[friole]

Good.  Another 4 weeks is a good thing.  I will do shot 49 tonight since my doctor okayed another 8 weeks for me.  Besides the prescription for the 8 weeks, he wrote me another for 4 weeks to replace the dose of pegasys that I left in the car and it ruined  Since  I will only need one of those, that leaves 3 left.  You can contact me at my screenname and it is at aoldotcom.  I think your VL at 12 weeks was higher than mine.  I was not comfortable, even though my vl was only 40 IU's at 12 weeks.  As a 1a, I think we need all the help we can get, and I wanted to do 36 weeks after clearing. WE DON'T WANT TO DO THIS AGAIN!
Kathy

[grimaldi]

Oh, here's one to remember.
After I finished treatment. I was on for a very long time remember. Viral load nondetectable afterward. Some time later had a follow up test. Bang. Doc called me at home. HCV was back.
Really threw me for a loop. So retested twice. Both came back nondetected. There is such a thing as a false positive test.
So don't let it throw you.
And hey. the first time I was on treatment, viral load went down to <600 after nine months. But I didn't complete and it went back up over the next three months. So I did another 12 months on treatment and got rid of it. So do whatever you need to do to get through it.

A guy is walking down the street.

He

[MagTX]

Hi,  thanks for the encouragement, I think we all probably need it...I.m trying really hard to get this done and continue, even with all the complications I'm having, it's so tough....
I don't know how you did it twice and for so long...I'm happy for you, best wishes for the future......

Mag

[wMich]

My unscientific take on it is that the unpredictability of the ribavirin side effects seems to make it the nastier of the two for me. I've in some ways adapted to the "flu-like" stuff associated with the interferon. I get a predictable onset of malaise from the shot 24 - 48 hrs after administration which lasts 2-4 days. The riba on the other hand, since the levels remain high and most of us dose twice daily, can rear its ugly head at any time and in many ways, mentally emotionally and physically. My skin is really affected. Not to discount the wrath of interferon but anyhow, thats my take. Best of luck St. G, avid and Kalio, I see you're "getting short" too  - Lee

[grimaldi]

Hey,
I did the treatment. finished about two years ago. nondetectable for hcv now. Actually did it twice, 9 mos then 12 mos. glutton for punishment. Ribavirin ugh.
Fatigue, depression, brittle hair, cold extremities.
for those of you with weight loss and poor appetite, I was on sleep meds that seem to have munchies as side effect. like those ambien reports. Anyway, didn't lose weight. and slept ok.
Be advised about the depression though. I had chronic depression longstanding before. wasn't on antid for treatment and crashed and burned. Off for 3 mos then back on and completed the treatment on antid meds. ask your gastero doc for a psych doc. Just part of the routine that will help you complete.
The other thing that helped most was going to a support group.
Best thing I did. I was alone and hadn't told anyone before or during treatment. The group was my lifeline.
There are tons of links out there for hcv. read. and forums like this are pretty good support.

http://www.epidemic.org/index2.html
http://hepcassoc.org/news/news_archive.htm
http://www.gmavt.net/~folder1/hcv.htm

[St. George]

Also, can your liver swell from the ribavirin even if you are clear?

[avidreader]

I throw in Riba as the SX culprit too. I don't notice much at all from the Inteferon shot but I think I've had every Riba side in the book--I just find the stuff generally very debilitating. I'm on week 47. Doc had wanted me to go to 60 weeks, but insurance denied extension (I'm a first time treater but I responded quite late in treatment.) I had pretty much talked myself into only a few more weeks, when lo and behold another month's worth of meds showed up on my doorstep today. Guess I'm going to go at least 52 weeks! Congrats to a few other folks I know are finishing up right about now--Fresnoborn I think? Who else? I've got my fingers crossed for SVR across the board (literally and figuratively.)

[MagTX]

Yes, Riba is definitely to blame for really bad sx look at what it does to our blood counts.  It's killing off so many good cells, all the way down to the hair follicles and their cells, thinning hair anyone ? haha  I've ben loosing hair since wk 9, when does it stop?
Mag

[St. George]

Your feet and hands get cold too?