Still runnin'

'1000 visitors to Prometheus!' greeted me the message in my inbox this morning. In little over 8 months, writing posts about disease and drugs, with no viral campaign or celebrity endorsement and next-to-no respect for deadlines, here we are: a 1000 visits to this humble blog. A milestone of sorts and yet I couldn't help but feel guilty about the whole thing. It's been over a month and nearly 120 visits to the site since my last post and I feel that I've somehow been neglectful not only of this blog but the loyal readers who have been with me in one way or another since the start of this experience. I’d like to apologise for that and try to offer the following as a way of explanation.

I mentioned in my last post that I was waiting to hear from my doctor as the treatment didn't seem to be working for me. When I received the phone call, it was indeed the news I didn’t want to hear. The viral load in my body had gone back to the pre-treatment levels which effectively meant my treatment was just not working at all and I was adivised to comlo off the treatment straight away. Not the best piece of news as you can imagine! I found all of this out over the phone [much to the chagrin of my loved ones] and I haven’t seen the doctor since then. I have an appointment on Friday but regardless of anything they might say, I now know I’ll have to wait at least a couple of years for a stronger version of the treatment to come onto the market. In the meantime, we might try and see what we can do with the Hep B but I’ll find out a lot more on Friday and I’ll be sure to post. Promise!

I've been drug-free for over a month now and needless to say it has been a period of reflection and big changes. I'll be sure to share this with everyone on a future post.

On the marathon front, things are going well and perhaps one of the very few silver linings from this situation is that I can now train without having to cope with the side effects of Interferon. Mind you, the withdrawal effects were quite strong and it's only in the last few days that I’ve felt like I’ve gone back to being pretty much me pre-Interferon. Now I ache and I’m very tired but it’s all down to the running!

Before I leave you let me thank you again for helping me to get this far and even though we didn't get the result we wanted this time around, the battle continues and I don't give up easily!

See you next week.

Peace!

Introducing Mr Billy-No-Weekends!

Remember when I merrily mentioned during the first week of my treatment that I was just feeling a little bit tired? And then when I worriedly mentioned last week that the tiredness and achiness remained? Well, three weeks in, I'm physically and emotionally drained! As a very active 25-year-old, suddenly facing waking up in the mornings being just as tired as I was when I went to bed and knowing that I've got a long day in front of me, it's e-x-h-a-u-s-t-i-n-g! It's pretty much like taking the juice away from the duracell bunny! Mean!

Anyway, it just means that by Friday evenings [the night of the injection] I'm ready for a wild weekend of crashing on my sofa looking like your stereotypical dope-head without the aid of recreational drugs! A barrel of laughs as you can imagine... Thankfully, my partner is an angel and life is not as bad as it could be.

Having got that off my chest, everything else is alright. The tiredness is an annoying side effect but one that relaxing under the sun will sort out nicely. I'm still very positive and I'm feeling healthy. I'm eating more than normal [I've gained a couple of kilos] and even my sleeping patterns are starting to resemble a normal person's fare.

That's my weekly update and if you want to know a bit more, you know the deal, drop me a line!

See you

Tiredness here to stay!

Second week into my treatment and I haven’t got much to report really which, depending where you’re standing, it’s either good news or bad news. As I mentioned last week , after my injection I just felt tired and my muscles a bit achy but that was it. Regrettably, the tiredness and achiness never went away and it was, needless to say, a long week. However, bearing in mind the long list of side effects I was presented with before I started my treatment, it’s going rather well!

This week I had to give myself the injection and it was a very shaky affair I must confess. I don’t know if it was fear or anticipation but my hands would not stop shaking. Thankfully I managed to do it and it was alright. The tiredness and achiness are still here and they seem to be here to stay but I’m feeling very positive and very happy that no big side effects have really kicked in so, all in all, another good week I’d say!

That’s it for this week really. If you want to find out a bit more, drop me a line as I’d be happy to hear from you.

Thanks for reading.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention something else. I have had two injections so far and I've got two big red spots in my stomach where the injections went in. It is a well-known side effect and nothing to worry about but 12 days after the first injection, the first of the lovely red spots is still going strong. They are the size of a golf ball and a bit tender to touch. Nothing really massive really but I thought I should mention it anyway.

Good news for Hep C sufferers

Hello,

The EU has just approved a shorter version of the Interferon treatment for certain patients suffering from Hep C. If you want to find out more, here's a link to the story.

Thanks for stopping by.

And Off We Go...

Well, it's not exactly soldiers landing on the beaches of Northern France but D Day is certainly here... And D stands for Drugs!

I picked up my prescription from the hospital’s pharmacy, paid the £14.20 that it will cost me every month and then I sat opposite my very nice consultant, Ms X, who once again listed the side effects I may experience, gave me some goodies to take away [disinfection wipes, booklets and a ‘cool bag’ that will come in handy when I go on holiday as the Interferon injection needs to be kept in a refrigerator] and then we got on with the serious business.

I was shown how to inject 180 micrograms of Peginterferon alfa-2a into my stomach. Apart from a little sting, that was nice, quick and painless. I’ll have to repeat the procedure 48 times in the next year, every Friday.

On top of that, I will have to take 3 200 mg capsules of Rivarin every morning and 2 every night. ‘A bit excessive’ as my mum put it but apparently it’s just as important as the weekly injection. So, I’ll have to get into the habit quite quickly because I will not want to miss any of them.

So, what’s going on then? Well, I’m pleasantly surprised, I must admit. I’ve been trying to be as positive as possible throughout the last week and I think it’s paying off. Apart from a temporary fever, that went as soon as it came after the injection, all I’ve felt so far it’s a bit of tiredness but nothing out of the particular. So far, so good. I’m not going to get overexcited yet because as someone put it [Hi R] there’s 364 days and a few hours to go, so there’s plenty of time for the side effects to kick in but tonight, it’s going very smoothly!

That was a nice post to write! I was expecting to tell you that I was depressed, willing to fight to death with my girlfriend only if I could muster enough energy to get up from the sofa… But then, again, there’s still time! Ha!

I’ll update the blog next week on Friday and hopefully it’ll be an even nicer post.

I promise that this blog won't become just a diary of my experiences but I've just started a new job so time has been a luxury. But the useful links will start rolling in again quite soon. Just bear with me!

Drop us a line if you can’t wait a whole week to hear from me, otherwise see you next Friday!

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