Hep C Discussion Forum

By the way brother, I just made you immortal. You have to promise to watch th entire less than 4 minute video. If I am not worth that let me know and I will edit to less than 3.. LOL

For Dave my brother!

I will always have time for the friends, that is until I am dead, then well... I hope to se y'all there.

Hi Jimmy,

I might buy a time machine but probably not a watch.

It all relative ya know.

Hehe Canuck,

As for "TAKE NO PRISONERS!!" ... that is solely expressed in appearance! ... (see photo below)

Note permanently engrained traits of riba madness: Those beady eyes, that Cheshire grin, dinged sword, fleur de lis atop helmet ... all just daring a dragon to ever step into my path again and reeking of invincibility!

Hugs back at ya there Syd ... You've got LOTS of friends here and DON'T you forget it!

Linux ... (That weird guy with the aluminium foil hat, working on the broken Flux-Capacitor, you know the one)

Top o' the day to ya Canuck, my insightful and most articulate northern friend.

Smarter than you, NOT ... but I think we all, that would be anyone that goes through the process of learning that we have HCV, experiences that disabling, initial strike of fear, that overwhelming feeling of being alone and lost, the knowledge that we are now committed to the system of doctors, health departments, to being treated (of which we know nothing), the desperate searching for anything that can make sense of it all, the waiting, more fear, this time of the tests and possible results, of the treatment, more waiting, the confusion, which meds, what terrible side effects do they have, the fear of drastic change to our lives. Anyone who has to face the fact that we no longer are on a free ride, don't have that "get out of jail free card", no longer have that youthful feeling of invincibility, that one that let us overlook the fact we were not eating a healthy diet, overlook the fact that we drank or smoked or didn't get enough exercise, that feeling that we could live forever ... all gone, in a flash, now nothing but darkness, fear, hopelessness, despair, confusion, anger ... but we all keep going, we get past those first few hurtles, we move ahead ... and in doing so we grow, we learn, we find ways to educate ourselves, we navigate more obstacles, we learn the ropes, we find others who can help us, we gather stores for our armory and make maps so we know the road ahead, we steel ourselves for the fierce battle that lies ahead. We wait. We look around us and find new friends, cohorts, those who will enter battle with us and those who have been through battle before us. There is silence while we wait and contemplate, we gather our strength .... we look to our higher power for guidance.

The battle, the war with Dragon (and oneself, at times) begins, we still have our fears but they are overcome by the combined strengths that we've pulled together, the friends that we've met the camaraderie with those along side us in battle. The battle does not let up for we are fighting for our lives, our armor gets dinged and our faith and hopes are challenged along the way but we pull together and reach out to lend a hand to those who have fallen, we wait and forge back into battle and fall ourselves yet someone helps us up and we move on. With renewed strength we fight on until the Dragon is down, we think it's dead but we are not certain so we wait. We wait and don't let our guard down for there may be others. Again we fear that this Dragon who has lived within us for years, for decades could resurrect so we wait. We gather and celebrate others battles that have been won, we help new recruits, new soldiers get past those initial hurtles and steel themselves for the battles they are about to face, the Dragon they are about to slay and we wait. We still must have our guard up for the Dragon is still down but not confirmed dead, we wait. We look forward to a day when the battle is but a memory. A day when we do not fear the Dragon, a day when we can we can take ALL of those things we learned from this battle, from our journey to and from the battlefield and blend those lessons with all the others that we've learned through life. A day when we can look back and say we've grown, become a better person for it all.

It is this we ALL have in common, it is this that has made us grow, to learn things we might never know, about others, about ourselves. We are the Slayers of Dragons and we let no Dragon live but in memory. It makes us all that much smarter and better for it.

Dave

Thanks so much for the kind words, Syd and Wendy!

My dear Syd, you sure are having a rough go of it and I do wish you relief from all that. Being HCV-Free is wonderful step in the right direction, I hope it allows your liver to heal which will allow your body to take care of the rest. All of these things do take time, please do your best to get good nutrition to help your body heal. I think most Doctors get so involved in Dx and Rx that they tend to overlook proper nutrition as a means to improve our health. My very best wishes are with you, and you are more than welcome to have a long whinge any ol' time, so not to worry.  Wishin' ya well with a big ol' hug!

Hiya Wendy, I went to the market yesterday to get greens and fruit for more smoothies, while there I though about what you said and picked up some fresh ginger and low and behold, right next to it they had lemon juice (imported which is NOT from concentrate) and it even seemed priced fairly reasonably ... so I picked some up to add to my water per your suggestion (fresh lemons would be fine too, of course, but the ones there looked terrible). Thought I'd make some more ginger concentrate per Tigs ginger ale recipe then freeze it in an ice cube tray to use for tea's and such. Also thought I might grate some up and dehydrate it to see if that works for tea or to put in capsules (not sure how that will go but I've got a bit of mad scientist in me, LOL). I appreciate the incentive to drink the lemon water and am always open to natural ways to heal and stay in better shape, Thanks. 

Dave

Hi Dave,

sorry to hear you have been having a rickety ride for a while. I hope that when that final test comes, a huge weight will be lifted from your shoulders. 

I had a few weeks of thinking I was improving but, yes, am still very shaky. Not sure whether it's the end of the RIBA fumes but the tests I had last week really shook me. I'm annoyed with myself as it was so  easy and only the idea of it was invasive. I'm lucky the polyp thing was benign but I was hoping I didn't have oesophageal varies at all. And I didn't need to find out I've got an ulcer as well. And I need an MRI on my pancreas. Friggens - looks like the only organ that might still work is the one that gets no exercise. 

I know I'm not as exhausted as I was before and during RIBA treatment, but I certainly haven't bounced back to health either. I'm still  tired. Maybe because I don't exercise enough, my body aches unless I am lying down. I am still over emotional and as the weeks drag by before that final test, I am becoming more anxious. 

I had another melt down at the hospital on Friday. I waited for an hour and a half for meds at the pharmacy - they want to try to treat the ulcer with antibiotics and I'm allergic to list of them. 

sorry, I started commiserating with you and have just ended up having a long whinge. 

What I meant to say was, cut yourself some slack. You're allowed to have the odd wallow in self pity. Have a couple of down days, make some bread, take your wife out on a date. 

Syd

Good thoughts Wendy,

I did feel dehydrated this morning and I'm sure others as well when I experienced headache. That is, without a doubt, the reason for the AM headaches. It's difficult not to get dehydrated with as much salt as there is in most everything other than fresh fruits and vegetables from the grocery store. Yesterday afternoon we did have a pork roast with stuffing and I could feel the salt from both (we don't add any salt to anything but the dang stores inject meats with salt water and anything processed such as the stuffing we ate is full of salt and no doubt tons of other nasty stuff e.g. probably has monosodium glutamate and stuff I can't even pronounce. I just need to process foods myself, stuffing would be easy ... since I do bake bread and put very little salt in that. Just can't eat any processed foods these days ... it makes us sick. I do know this but it takes a lot of lifestyle change, creative thinking and downright work to eat healthy these days. We're moving in the right direction, now have a good food dehydrator that helps us process and control some things ourselves, baking my own bread and trying to eat mostly Mediterranean diet ... it's a lifestyle thing and if we want to live a healthy life we need to do it. I'll pick up some ginger next visit to the store, read up on ways to get some into our diet daily.Thanks for that hint, I need those to help me keep moving in the right direction.

I usually have a water on my night stand since I need it to take my meds in the AM but I haven't been consuming a glass of water first thing, before anything else as I did during Tx ... I need to do that EVERY day.

Adding Lemon is something I should also be doing to help my liver heal (as well as other benefits i.e. vitamin C and minerals).

I don't know enough about Ginger really but everything I've ever read and my gut tells me I should be consuming a daily amount of ginger as well as garlic along with a consistent healthy diet. It's work but it can be fun as well, just need to always be conscious of what we are consuming (easier said than done, that is for certain, LOL).

Dave

Hello my good friend SF,

Sorry to hear that the headaches are getting you as well.

My guess is that it's residual meds and my slacking off with water and greens intake and that time will be the only thing that gets rid of these lingering side effects entirely.

My mind wants to think I'm done with Tx. I don't recall ever experiencing a medication that lingered so. Or, perhaps others linger as well but the fact that these meds are just so much stronger and carry some sides, I just tend to notice them more.

As for the pattern (if there is one) of the ebb and flow of certain side effects such as headaches, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that perhaps that pattern is due to the fact that many of us comply with adequate water intake and good nutrition during Tx but many of us tend to back off on doing those extra things once we've reached EOT. In turn, that brings the sides more to the front.

Just hunch but, LOL, that's all we have sometimes

Dave

I just peeked in and this was the first topic I saw. Oddly enough I am experiencing dull headaches as well and throughout the day. Clearly I did not take Riba but it's still happening. I have not taken anything for them as they are tolerable but they are just there.

It would be interesting to know if anybody who was on Harvoni had or is having this. I would be around 7 weeks past EOT and they have started recently. 20 days behind Dave.

SF

Yep, yep, and yep.... The Riba blues! We have discussed your activities recently and I'm in complete agreement with JK, it takes an extended period to recover and clear Ribavirin from your system. 

You may not be sleeping well yet and with your increased workload, on top of any residual anemia, your body isn't feeling like celebrating yet. Doesn't matter if you are mentally, your body isn't physically ready for it. Then there is the mental stress of waiting for your SVR Viral load. That's the advantage of one at EOT or week +4. It does wonders for putting the little creep on your shoulder where it belongs, in a box in the garage!

So, slow down, get the headphones back out and reduce the demands you've been placing on yourself recently. I'm writing a prescription for a green smoothie or two daily, along with a return to treatment quantity water intake. Don't spend too much time in the sun for awhile, that bothered me for months. Rest easy my friend and stay confident, success is a few weeks away!