EOT

[ceanothus]

I'm so glad its finally ending! Last Sunday was my final injection and dinner time will be my final ribavirin. I can't wait to start clearing these toxic drugs from my system. The last few weeks have been horrible for sx, with my HGB dropping to its lowest levels yet (10.3 as measured a week ago, but by how I'm feeling I think it kept dropping after that test), the RLS got worse again (the dopamine enhancing drug had to be stopped due to other sx), the cracks at the corners of my mouth came back (I'm using the anti-fungal cream, thanks to you guys (my doctor didn't have a clue) and getting relief, the sores on the tongue came back (the biotin helps, but not enough), the coughing and wheezing have been pretty severe, the intestinal sx from the ribavirin has been awful, even my osteoarthritis in my hands is flared up worse (the Voltaren gel also had to be stopped, as it was causing a rash. I hope my body will tolerate it better once the ribavirin is out of my system, as it has been causing constant minor rashes all by itself). I've been feeling so crummy that I haven't been on the forum as much, and now I see I've missed all kinds of good news - so many dear people here who have achieved a well-deserved SVR just in the last week or two! Congrats to all! Is there any good advice for warding off the anxiety between EOT and getting the next significant HCV PCR results? My hepatologist says 12 weeks will be significant, but I know the standard is 24 weeks. Those of you with brains that retain every HCV fact: do you know of statistics showing reliability of 12 weeks versus 24 weeks? Also, I personally think I'd feel better if I was also tested at 6 weeks. I know it won't reliably show SVR, but it seems like it (assuming the results were UND) would give me more reason to hope and less reason to fear the worst. Any opinions? I love you guys!

[ceanothus]

Thanks Bean! I am feeling remarkably better in that a huge weight of depression has begun lifting and I'm regaining some of my usual amounts of both animation and intellectual function. Some other sx seemed to be rapidly improving but have since done some backsliding, so the initial "improvement" may have been just one of the usual fluctuations. Anyway, for now the mental improvement is enough to make me happy and I can be patient for the rest of it. Today is still just 2 weeks post-EOT. I can certainly relate to you using an old slip to get an earlier test done - I do plan to try to get one at six weeks. I know it can't prove I'm SVR, but at least I will know if it has returned early. I'm too worried about that possibility to wait 12 weeks for my first test!