Starting treatment soon and frightened!

[Beaker426]

I was newly diagnosed with Hepatitis C.  I have had no symptoms at all; I was getting tests for autoimmune diseases for rheumatoid arthritis and just happened to get a hepatitis c test and came back positive, so it was caught very early.  I am a 23 year old female with fairly decent health.  I've had all the necessary blood work and my doctor doesn't see the need for a liver biopsy since my enzymes aren't elevated too much, but my insurance company may require one in order to pay for treatment.  If they don't require one, I should be getting a call from my doctor later this week that the medicine is in (had to be ordered from a special pharmacy) and I will be starting Interferon and Ribavirin treatment for 24 weeks.  I have genotype 3a.  I have no idea what to expect.  My doctor told me he can't predict the symptoms I will have since it is different with every person but I am completely frightened because I have not even the slightest idea on what's gonna happen during those 24 weeks.  I am married and have a 15 month old and a 7 month old and need to know if I need help caring for them.  Anybody have any advice or anything they can share to help ease my fear of not knowing?  I only have 84,000 per ml of the HCV in my blood if that helps and I am 5'4" and 110lbs.  Thank you so much, I appreciate anybody who can put my mind somewhat at ease!

[girl37gen3]

Hi Beaker,
I have finished my treatment 6 months ago. Im 37 years old, good health. I also expected the worse, but only felt bad at the last two months of treatment, when I developed anemia and hypothyroidism, before that almost nothing, I worked (I am an engineer) during all tx, never missed a day. I did gym (strengh trainning) during all first 4 months of tx (before anemia). So do not suffer in advance, each person is a person, and you may be as luck as me :-) Now SVR.

[Beaker426]

I see it blocked my email so I will try it this way... It's my username: beaker426 at gmail :)

[Beaker426]

My email is ***@**** if anybody wants to be my "mentor" and support system through this.  There are just some things I don't feel comfortable talking to my husband about and I'd really appreciate being able to have somebody relate to what I'm going through both mentally and physically during treatment.  Thanks, again, so much!  I think having someone will keep my head up and motivated!

[Beaker426]

Thank you so much for the responses!  The reason I want to do treatment now is insurance reasons and as of right now and at least the next 8 months I'm fully covered for the treatment.  I'm excited to get it done and over with and be clear and to not worry about cutting myself in public and blood, also I'm afraid of my children when they get hurt and bleed so I don't give them HCV if they don't have it already.  Another big reason is that right now my husband and I are living in an apartment-house owned by my parents so we could save money for a house, so we have a lot of family around for help with me and the kids, so that is a big plus.  

My mother showed me an article about drug trials for new medicines for HCV but, from what I read, I thought it was only for genotype 1? I could be wrong and I cannot remember the name of the drug offhand.  

After asking "Dr. Google" and doing research about it, I'm starting to feel optimistic about my prognosis since the viral load is low and I'm somewhat healthy.  I'm just absolutely terrified of the side effects and my husband is afraid, since there have been cases of suicide, that I'll try to kill myself.  I hate being sick and am not looking forward to being ill during treatment but I keep telling myself that the outcome is that (hopefully) I'll be free of the virus and can lead a long healthy life.  24 weeks seems like a long time but I have to keep telling myself that 6 months isn't long compared to how long life is.  

Thanks for all the support everyone!!  I should be starting treatment Thursday so wish me luck please!  And I could really use somebody to air my issues/problems/concerns/thoughts/etc. to!!!

[hrsepwrguy]

I would tell you that the decision to treat or not is a personal one that should be made by you and your doc, based on the current state of your liver, present circumstances (insurance, children, support, ect, ect). People have many different reasons for treating now or waiting.

[hrsepwrguy]

"Remember, that those recommending this harsh treatment to you will be profitting from it"

I am a little confused by this statement, are you saying that the pharmaceutical companies making these new drugs are not going to profit once the drugs are released ? Then why make them ? Are the docs recommending to wait not going to profit once the drugs are released ?