Hep C Discussion Forum

i'm glad to hear you are having a good time stl

I needed to reduce the photo size. HD files are often too large. Tig

Hey STL,

Drink plenty of fluids, dont spend lots of time in the sun, remember to take that BB every day and have fun! Let us know about your trip when you get back. It’s good to get away and forget about those four walls for a moment in time. It will do wonders for your attitude. I always feel a bit at odds when I’m away from home, but find it helps clear the mind. It also makes me appreciate my own surroundings when I get back! I’m a creature of habit now. I think it’s called “lazy”, lol!

Cheers!

have a wonderful time STL, may the woozies be easy for you today.

please feel free to call me 5 , that is how i sign my posts anyway :

Hi Canuck,

Yes you are right it is lovely I found the forum and 5.1.18  (Gorr its weird writing a date that way - to me that reads 5 Jan....lol - when I joined and went to write my start date I wrote it my way 1/5/18 and then realised no North Americans don't write it like that. Couldn't log it your way because to me that would just be wrong, so solved my widdle dilemma by writing 1 May LOL)

Took my Tab an hour ago and feeling great at mo. Big day today so here's hoping. Just getting packed up now. No Canuck I have never had feelings like this before which is what makes them weird and makes me confident it is the drugs causing it. Everything else I have felt at the odd time may or may not be side effects, because I have had them before. Things like feeling a little Nauseous - mmm felt nauseous before particularly if I need to eat. Insomnia mmm I'm a terrible sleeper anyway. You know what I mean. Little things that I can't say the meds are causing this because they are things I have had before. I still walk heaps without a problem.

As to the BP, no idea how long I have had it. I only got a hint to a problem when I went in for day surgery a few months ago and the nurse took it and asked if I was stressed. MMM Funny question I thought. Nothing else happened, wasn't told I needed to see my GP or anything but it irked me a bit so next time I was at the docs I mentioned it. It was 170 something over 90 something. I tried diet for a month because I didn't like the idea I had to take a pill daily for ever, but sadly that failed. Added everything to my smoothie that "will lower it in two weeks" rarara. well next time I went back it was 185/96 so she put me on a very low dose pill. Perindopril 4mg. I have a machine now and Its still not ideal - right now 143/87. She gave me a script for 8mg the other day but told me I could finish what I had of these. I might go get it anyway or try 2 of these...lol

Well I must away. Take Care.

Hey STL, 

Very good you and 5.1.18 have been keeping us so well informed.

I am still of the mind that both you and 5.1.18 are going to hit an "evening-out" on these feelings you both have been having this last little while on the "new to you" HCV meds. 

I was glad to know about you (recently) being put on BP meds?

With your BP hx, and recently being put on BP meds, of course you will know to monitor your BP at home to look for any fluctuations. Did you ever get any wooziness or headache or head" band" tightness before (before HCV treatment and before you got put on BP meds)? 

How bad was your BP in the past, and for how long, prior to you being put on BP meds, what kind of BP med did you get, and how has it worked thus far?

I felt dough-headed while on Vosevi (understatement) but I was that way prior to the HCV meds! - (Tig and others will attest to it that I am still that way. heehee). The worse of the mental quagmire was during treatment though, and without being able to prove it I blamed the NS3/4A I was on (the VOX) - hard to say though. Some on epclusa feet little or nothing, others do, for others it stopped after an initial period. 

I am still holding out, for that both you, (on your epclusa) and 5/1/18 (on her Harv), will hit a better plateau on how you are feeling and soon. Onward, your doing it, and winning, as we speak!   C.

Day 10 and feeling pretty good considering. Have to stop this eating especially sweet things. LOL very naughty.

ROFL Tig

Yes Canuck that is what she showed me. Pointed at the Hep C line and said see your not much over, this is good.

heehee. Tig is abjectly un-offensiable! You'll see, once ya get ta know us better. Believe me, i keep trying all my best tactics to get a rise out of him and it never seems to work no matter what I come up with. I knew he was jes jestin around, because he easily feels old just being that he went through interferon then interferon/riba/vitrelis, most distasteful oldtime drugs! Cured the hard way makes a person tired sometimes, but he's never cranky. If you thought the insulting gifted pill box made you officially old, all we really have to do is look back (just a few years too!) to know EVERYTHING is old, pre-harvoni!  

Hm, if I am recollecting correctly, seems to me I am just a hair older than dinosaur-dirt Tig, so what does that make me then?

Oh love it that I have these old fogie HCV stories, well kiddies .... waaaaay back in 2015, I had to drive uphill 400 km's to get to treatment, both ways, in the snow too, with only a partial brain, swollen ankles and half asleep ... hee hee

You got rooked, coming out of the office with just a pill box - (being that I got my drugs via a trial) I got lunch everytime I visited!

Vegemite, I was gonna tease ya and ask what THAT was, but thought i would spare you - I know what it is, my Granny ate it, and I always wondered, WHY?

Your smoothie DOES sound VERY healthy, and very much a meal, I am sure your epclusa IS enjoying it, Tig might not, (secret) he is not much of a "kale" man. I'd be game to try one, could you mail one ya think?

BTW - your preliminary report on the aprox. 7ish or 8ish kPa fibroscan does sound very good - likely similar to this colored graph chart for Fscores (what they showed you in the office?). http://hepcbc.ca/tests/non-invasive-tests/fibroscan/

I am enjoying your good attitude, your way with words and your humour! You'll be OK, (you'll see).  C. 

No, no, no! I didn’t take it that way at all! I’m thrilled to see the advances and even happier to be older than Dragon dirt! You’re the first to mention that some of the references to these fabulous new treatments are finally becoming more common. Advancements in care and commentary are always welcome!

Hi Canuck,

I have taken a green smoothie on an off for a few years. When I was diagnosed with the dreaded High Blood Pressure late last year I got back on the wagon trying to beat it with diet alone, but alas failed regardless and was given my first "you must take one of these every day" pills. Was failing the must take it every day thing - not badly but the odd "OhOh I Forgot" or mmm "did I take my pill" thing and then hearing the importance of not missing a pill once I was to start this treatment, I put it in practice to not forget ever. I had been practicing for a few weeks prior to the Epclusa, and havent missed one since. Put an alarm on ph and all. So this is now my morning routine. My liver nurse gave me a little pill box and all LOL must now be officially an old bird, with a pill box and all. (refuse to leave it in the middle of the table though ROFL)

My Smoothie certainly is a meal if I set it all out on a plate. goes something handful Spinach and handful Kale, Half Orange, Half Banana, Half Apple, Avocado, almonds cashews, walnuts, along with a multitude of seeds and spices, blended with coconut water and water. Makes 1 1/2-2 large glasses - more filling, fantastic energy boost and I figure a lot better for me than a slice of  Vegemite on toast, though it didnt help the BP sadly, hope the Epclusa is enjoying it.

Anyway Week 1 under my belt, pill box refilled. 11 to go!

BTW re the antidepressants that was when I stopped visiting specialists - my fibro man asked If I needed another script for them. (first visit 3 months after diagnosis) Hadnt even collected the last one. Did I realise I could get a script from my GP. He'd see me again in 3 months. I was livid - I'm not depressed I'm in Pain you idiot! I had just travelled (100 miles 160 km-whatever you talk) for that. That was when I realised what the majority of the medical professionals thought and why would I waste another 50 bucks petrol bill to come back. That was third trip in 3 weeks, my osteo man had left and the really old guy they had in that day, said I was fine, he didn't know what I was doing there anyway.....Praps he should have read my file! I Just learned to live with pain, ignore it lol. I lost a heap of weight, finally quit chain smoking, started walking etc adopting the "physician heal thyself" attitude, all about the time I found I was Hep C Pos.

Sounds like you've really been there too. My referral for the Hep treatment came via a locum while the doc was on hols. HoHum.... So thankful for that day, he queried my bloods, alcohol consumption etc and I said I am Hep C Pos. He was on it. Are you on treatment - no - why not and here I sit 10 months later. Without seeing him that day I sincerely doubt I would be any the wiser. so Thankful

STL,

I think you said you are taking your Epclusa in the AM? And described taking it with a couple glasses of water AND a super-healthy smoothie drink?

Epclusa can be taken on an empty stomach with lots of water (and with smoothies and whatever), it is not required that you take a solid food meal with your Epclusa dose, but I would always opt for taking any med WITH food, especially IF it is not contraindicated, and taking food with Epclusa is definitely NOT contraindicated. So, your smoothie is OK, but I am thinking maybe you should try some "solid food" with your Epclusa. 

A "moderate fat-containig meal" actually assists the absorbtion of the "VEL" in your Epclusa (in an infinitesimal amount), not significantly, but that tendency exists, so it is NOT at all a bad thing to take your Epclusa with a moderate fat-containing meal (like a solid food breakfast).

You may find any vague (or definite) stomache/GI complaints (nausea or such) might be less noticable when you take Epclusa with a meal.

I don't know what is in your smoothie, and if this is something you ALWAYS normally eat every AM as a routine breakfast, or, if it is something new, but if you ARE in the habit of eating just an "ordinary breakfast" every morning, and breakfast time IS the time you have chosen to take your Epclusa, then I would take the Epclusa with a "moderate fat-containing breakfast meal" (along with lots of water ALL day long), the healthy smoothie drink can still be fit in any time of the day. I am thinking a more solid (mod. fat-containing) breakfast type meal with your Epclusa might help your gut. If this smoothie is something "new" to you, maybe that itself may take some getting used to.

Some folks on Epclusa have noticed some GI things, but generally it was mostly in the beginning, and transitory, and will pass. Other have noticed ZIP! 

You and I (as GT3a's) are so lucky to have been recipients of Gileads "VEL" (you with your Epclusa and me with my Vosevi), don't worry, your Epclusa will work beautifully for you.

So many parallels in our hx's (sorta), I had all but given up complaining about how i was feeling over the decades, but once I was FINALLY diagnosed in 2015 tho, I searched hard through every medical record I could find, over all these decades of escalating symptoms/complaints, I found a mere couple FBS's, cholesterols, an estrogen level, a thyroid function test, even an Epstein-Barr test for mono - (close! but no cigar), I found not a single liver panel in my records!, if some had ever been done on me I wonder what my ALT was! As few and spotty as my records and tests were and the number of doc appointments i did attend, I did manage to find about a million of the R&M's and C&S's I had tho, and evidence of many other things I had to have done, kidneys, imagings/antibiotics, referrals out for gyne stuff, eyes, ears, skin and boney things, etc. Over the last decade (after about the third time round I had been offered anti-depressants), I had just about given up discussing things with them other than presenting myself to get scripts I wanted, or to ask for an xray, or a consult-out based on my theories, etc. Had it not been for a newbie GP doc in training - "listening" to me one day, (while I was just trying to get my script re-newed and get out of there before the no-smoking lecture came, or before she too would offer me anti-depressants), her, hearing me say, "yes indeedy (sigh) I had been feeling rather "punkish", FOR QUITE SOME TIME NOW!", frustratingly understated ("try decades dear" I did not shout at her out loud!). She decides to test me for anemia, (hm, OK, ya, nice of her, I think to myself) - ferritin came back high, hm she thinks and ponders, she calls me back for full monty labs, AND a liver function panel (well FINALLY!), and off we go, a high ferritin, leading to more bloods, a liver panel and eventually her and me to the HCV diagnosis. Then, off to the races with hep specialists. Thank goodness I got that student doc that day. She was not around very long after that, but I wish I could really thank her for getting me diagnosed : ) C.

Hi Tig,

Lovely to hear from you also. Should I have any questions I am sure I am in the right place for answers. Ive just had my two glasses of water with my bug bomb, while replying to Allison. Now Ive made my smoothie and back to typing. Have to say I felt a little off last night. Tired yet couldnt get to sleep, Lower tummy pains, felt a little like I might vomit but by this morn I feel fine. Don't know if it was a bit of this war going on inside me at the moment or something unrelated, but I feel ok again this morn so here I sit with a big healthy drink to get my day started.

I only learned my genotype on Monday and on googling it I did read that was not good. More chance of serious complications such as Cirrhosis or cancer. Also seems the cure rate is a little less with this geno, so here's hoping I will be lucky. I can't remember what my number was with the fibroscan 7.5 or 8.5 but she pointed at the graft and explained I was only just outside the ideal area in the greeny yellow section so was not bad at all.

Anyway nice to chat. Take Care.

*WAVES* Hi STL!

I'm new around here too, but these folks are wonderful!

Good luck with your journey, make sure you post a lot of updates, because like you and I, there are people reading these forums, before joining, to find different info on the different treatments now available.

I haven't started treatment yet, I've had all my prep work done though, and I see my GI Dr, on the 17th! From what I've read on his online clinical notes, I'll be starting Mavyret, for 8 weeks.

Drink that water, and keep that positive attitude! Have a great night!

Welcome and hurray that youre on treatment   

I too went yellow a couple of days after a blood transfusion,was told I had hepB and to avoid butter...eventually kinda felt better and went on my merry way( had a brand new baby to figure outraising) I gave up all alcohol, tried to eat liver healthy stuff, I always had highish LFTs and high iron ..so eventually a new Dr tested my hepB status and told me I didnt have it....I thought great, Ive cured it with diet, the high Iron levels are because I eat so much seaweed and spinach.... what I didnt realize was that Id never had it. Took another 15 years before I was informed about my donors HCV and got tested.

Anyhoo, isnt it fabulous that we can get rid of this nasty destructive virus..? 

Glad youve found the forum

Alison

Hey, I just read your excellent bio, which filled me in further very well - I too had a bout of "hepB" back in about 1973 (or so I always thought, and was told) got better from it (it naturally resolved), and I never looked back, until ... fast forward to 2015 when, finally, someone eventually stumbles over my hepC that I had also been packing ever since 1973! I did have the hep B back in '73, just didn't know about the hepC that came with it! - we could be twins (sorta). Good you are getting labs at 4 weeks.  C.