Hep C Discussion Forum

no drinking... except for lots of water. ewww. but I do.i drink ensure to help keep nutrients in me & I juice kale blueberries carrots apples grapes. I really have not had an appetite yet. I am on day 5 & it has been rough specially the shot. wow. but... this pill has some pooooommmp in it so I know it is working.so i'll take the bad for the good. after fri shot then there will only be 11 left. only way I know to get thru. is just count down...   best of luck to all us dragon slayers.. yahoo...samonsite sam is holding my sword for me riding around in there.. have to put little bit of humor somewhere.. can't wait for for o results... yay.. this is my treatment this time after 4 attempts.. better be... :) love all my hepper friends.

Hi Omnamahshivaya.  I had a big problem with anxiety when I was on Inteferon/riba several years ago (and it was the tx that was causing my anxiety).  For me Ambien got me by for a while just because I could at least get some sleep at night.  Ambien *will* stop working for you if you take it every night though.  It stopped working for me and I was fit to be tied.  My doctor gave me some Xanax (low dose) and it didn't work either at the dose he gave me.  It only worked at a higher dose that he really didn't want me to take.  I never even dreamed of alcohol though as it's just way too risky to your treatment success.  I had cleared the virus at the 2 week mark and all the data was saying tx could be shortened from the 48 weeks if you were a quick responder.  I made it to a little past the 36 week mark till I was just shy of getting thrown in a padded room and we stopped.  I relapsed immediately.

Was it the xanax or shortened treatment that caused my relapse?  I don't know, maybe neither, but it's hard to put into words my disappointment of going through 36 weeks of insanity for nothing.  On the upside at least my anxiety was gone.  I'm very happy to hear the new meds are far easier to tolerate for most people than the old ones.

I'm not going to judge at all because I know what it's like dealing with anxiety.  For me it felt like doom was imminent for no rational reason.  As others have stated, though, alcohol is one of the worst methods of dealing with it.  I suggest you have a talk with your doc and make sure he's very clear up front that anxiety is a problem for you and to start looking at options that have the least risk of affecting your treatment.  Exercise should help some some but for me it wasn't enough (again mine was caused by the old meds though).  If your problem is you're just the type who likes to loosen up occasionally with alcohol (I can relate to this too), then you probably just need to suck it up.  Exercise may be enough for you.

I hope Malcolm or others will keep me honest with this next statement: If you fail treatment there could be a risk that some of the virus mutated into drug resistant variants called RAVs.  This might make it more difficult to treat again later.  You would likely have to turn to new drugs to treat again...drugs that aren't even approved yet.  I don't know how big this risk is but this would be my biggest concern.  You really need to do this right and not find yourself at the mercy of the new medications coming out in the future.

The other thread Tig was referring to was related to alcohol after treatment for those who get SVR and have low fibrosis.  This is a related but different question and I don't think anyone with even a little knowledge of HCV would tell you it's ok to drink any alcohol while on treatment.  I don't think there's any specific evidence that shows the risk, but there's plenty of supporting data to show it would be a big risk.  Think of it this way...I don't *know* if I hopped the fence at the zoo to frolic with hungry lions that I'd end up dead but I'd say it's a pretty strong theory.

If you're having some anxiety problems from treatment, trust me it's something your doctor is familiar with. This can happen during treatment, as these medications are well known for causing them. The worst of the worst in my opinion is the effects that Interferon can have on a person. Be thankful that you're not dealing with that. My best suggestion is to speak with your doctor about any issues you're unable to handle yourself and don't self medicate, with alcohol or prescription medication. Remember that you're on one of the absolute best treatment protocols available and you've only got 12 weeks of it to deal with. Do your best to avoid the temptation. Your chances to achieve SVR have never been better and anything you take that isn't prescribed or authorized by your health care team only minimizes your chances of success. Hang in there and remember we're here to talk about anything. Let's start by talking about avoiding drugs and alcohol! (Geez, I'm sounding like a Dad now). I am a caring Dad though, so it fits my personality and purpose in life Be well J...

Tig

Hi J,

Unfortunately for those that enjoy the occasional glass of wine or other alcoholic beverage, the answer is a firm NO. The effect of alcohol on the liver in general isn't good, but is tolerated in a healthy liver. But in a compromised liver, one with any type of liver disease, alcohol is doubly worse. One, alcohol causes inflammation of the liver in general, but alcohol aggravates the liver exponentially when it's compromised by HCV. Alcohol causes HCV to worsen in all of it's ugly nature and it's documented that alcohol reduces the effectiveness of treatment greatly. The studies I've researched all indicated a minimum of 50% less effectiveness of the medication and the likelihood of SVR. It's not a good idea at all. We just had quite the discussion here on the forum about this subject and you can find it by using the search function. If you can't find it, I'll help you locate the thread. But I hope you will trust me and understand that it's probably the worst thing you can do, especially at this point of your treatment.

Tig