Philzone.org Discussion Board: Archive 2004: Hep C Archive: Shot #7 down

This week went by slow - sure is nice to have this group to check in on - it sure helps knowing I am not going through all this alone. Thanks.
Hope everybody is doing ok this evening.

Hortkie, I did #7 WEd. nite. It shure has been a rocky road so far. Never once have I left this site without inspiration, hope and knowledge. It always feels like coming home. I'd just like to say thank you-all. Love and Peace gregr

Hortkie, I am one behind you. I just did number 6. That is 1/4 of the way. I am on a 24 week program. I have 2B. 180 mg.peg once a week and 1200 Riba a day. I have most the sides, rash, tired, sick, sick and tired, migraines, close calls with rage. One thing though I haven't started losing hair......yet. Good luck...Tony

Hi Tony and Greg.
Looks like we are on this trip together. Here is the readers digest version of how I ended up here-kind of long (I used to post on DNC when it was first starting up under a different name-xtski.)
I am on 800 Rib/day and one shot a week for 26 weeks. I am geno 3 (which at the time of dx my doc left me a VM and it was so weird - he said "I have really good news for you - call me as soon as you can" so I did thinking maybe there had been a mistake and my ALT and AST #s were not out of this world - but then he told I had geno 3 and we should start tx asap for I was some good candidate for svr and some study they were doing).
Well I picked friday evenings to do my shot so I could have the weekends to be sick . Folks at work do not know and I am just too busy to take time off. I have been pretty good monday-friday at work - but freakin tired when I get home. Right now I feel like a truck hit me - major body aches and headache. I felt ok but tired earlier today. Ribrage has been getting more noticable and I think I may ask for higher dose of AD or something - my doc is good and told me this may happen. BUT I just noticed the past couple of weeks - my hair is getting thinner - which sucks. I have red rashes on my stomach at injection sites, usually the previous weeks site is the reddest, my body freakin aches and sore, headaches are becoming too common. I am sure my story of how I think I contracted this is similar to most others at this site and I found it rather ironic that it is called 'Killing the Dragon' - for in the late 80's and early 90's I was 'Chasing the Dragon' every day - when i was first dx hepc I instantly thought about every event that I may have contracted this (and there were a LOT - my partner and I often shared rigs - we were worried about HIV and were neg for that - we had sources for NY bags and west coast tar - she OD'ed and I did also but she never woke up -EMT got me awake and the doctor/autopsy at the emergency room told me her liver was in terrible condition - but I didn't think much of it at the time most likely because just delivered a large dose of tar and was in shock in a sterile hospital emergency room and had no idea about hepc. But I have kept going back to that night since I was dx hepc a few months ago - if I had 'only known then what I know now"...(Doesn't Stevie Winwood have a song like that? 'Dear Mr Fantasy')
You guys feel free to email me direct if you want - I'll give you my phone # and we can bitch to each other when Rib rage gets tuff or you strt to notice hair thinning, etc...hang in there - as Rob the Drummer keeps repeating...its DOABLE. Love everyone on this site - it has been more help that you would think.
Cheers.

Hortkie, I like the analogy. I guess we all (or most of us) chased that damn dragon until he caught us. I was pre-tar chaser. Here it was brown down(from Mexico) or when we were lucky, China White. But always powder or rock.
I was just thinking today that it took 30 yrs to get me ( I never got popped for it or fatal OD). It's been 26 yrs since the last time, 32 since the first. It has been effecting me for atleast 20 yrs, but I have been able to live a fairly normal lifestyle until recently. This horrible poison seems to be working, so I may "win the war" afterall.
Hope everyone gained as much weight as I did this weekend. damnit, hmmmm turkey sandwich? Playing poker w/ brain fog continues to be funny. for everyone else. I managed to win a dollar in our annual thanksgiving family poker game, but I would forget what we were playing almost everyhand(when we would play a dealers choice round. We would alternate round of holdem,round of omaha and round of dealers choice) We had 6-7 players for almost 7 hrs. We all laffed the whole time.
I was dealing 5 card draw, but instead of asking for draws, I flopped 3, holdem style. My family knows what brain fog is now. This was great fun, but I know now I can't play serious poker again until off tx. 26-1/2 weeks to go................
I'm in Fresno at my folks, it's 2:10 AM and I'm still full from dinner( We had our tday today).

Sometimes I hold off posting, because I don't know the right words to say to people. Other times I can Ramble like MFM.
Anyway, PEACE and LOVE to all, Mark

I could never figure out why the previous week's injection site was the reddest! My first husband (we got married in the Haight) died of liver failure etc. 22 years ago (cirrhosis and "some type of hepatitis" as C hadn't even been identified yet), when we were in our early thirties, we were divorced but very good friends. Little did I know at that time, that I already had hep C for over 10 years..... it all just took longer to catch up with me. No doubt we caught it doing dope together.... Truly, people here do understand. Hoping you ALL feel okay today, Peace

Hello fellow zoners from rainy Berkshires..windy...raw..rough day.

I am always interested in these threads where you guys share drug stories of the 60;s and 70;s. I enjoy my weed like most of us who came of age in the 70's, but never had ANY issues AT ALL with alcohol or any other drugs. Tried a few snorts..didnt like..but ONCE..just ONCE I did do the one nasty thing that got me in the boat Im in right now. It was a night in December 1976.....I remember much about it, where I was, who I was with..lucky I didnt get HIV at the same moment as Im sure the dude who I got the dragon from is GONE from that by now too....although I dont know for sure..I do think about it....and him..the party I went to afterwards. Upper west side in NYC mega huge apartment..filled with my ivy league college compatriots, all of us on the success track in NYC,...working hard....playing hard too....and never in a zillion years thinking that something unknowing had just occurred which would explode in my life 28 years later........the IRONY of this one minute in my life has haunted me since my diagnosis, but Im easily hauntable (LOL)..and I am moving on from that concern. Is their anyone else out there in zonerland who's history is like mine? Once? Just once? ONCE! not 5 or 6 times with a bit of knowledge....or a lot..all the time..but a completely dabbling "try this thing once" event. If there is...I could use some alternate feedback on the ironies of this and how it impacts them today.

The stat I saw was 96% of every intravenous drug user over the last 40 yrs was exposed to the virus, most on the very first time!
I think a stat like that should be published front page of every newspaper. One, it might stop some potential starters and two, many people have our problem and don't know it. But I think the "powers that be" would just as soon we all just go away and die. Education is a main key, and they don't want us educated either.(non partisan rant}. And in this, I don't think political party is a factor. It is the haves vs the have nots. period.
Didn't want to get political, sorry.
PEACE, Mark

Anyone have a Hemeroid problem on tx?

The doctors tried to blame my freedom years in late 60's, even the snorting years of 70's and I would have accepted it....But I was tested for Hepatitus. There was in epidemic in late 60's in Allentown. I now some of those are still around today. I was tested again in 1999 when I became a bone marrow donor (di not match my friends).
It is so easy for Doctors to say the drugs and usage did it but bull____! There are many ways to get disease! 5 operation in past for years, 4 emergency room visits, dnetist office and I helped a homeless guy who was bleeding. I also have learned other hcv people have been in my home. I have animals and the blessed Mosquito
so I do not lay blame. I wanted to during my denial Aug 31, 2004. But in January I start treatment and I have found it worth my while now to make people aware of this disease. Thanks to this site and others I have a feeling that just reading all the information about you all will help me in 2005 slay this dragon! Thanks to all of you for being here. And we will all work our way thru this! I am certainly not looking forward to treatment but with your notes in the past and now...I am ready for this Crusade! I have friends living with Leukemia, Ms and other diseases...their belief in living gives me strength. I have been an activist for over 30 years and I am not ready to hang my hat up yet!

Right On Shelly!

To quote Brother Mark, "Right on Shelly". That's
the right idea, let as many people know about this
Dragon we all are dealing with, as possible. And I
personally hate the looks and attitude ya get,
when I try to spread awareness about this disease.
Ya know, IV drug user. The facts are there, but
there are many other risk factors and even the
mosquito. How many times have you seen a mosquito,
full of blood and land on ya, to get more. I believe that's how that West Nile virus gets passed around. One thing I do is be real careful
about leaving small things like razors, toothbrushes out and Ilet everyone around me know
to not use anything of mine. Now that I'm feeling
real normal again, being off the "juice", I still
have a linkering side effect. I had the raw riba
mouth and throat, with chapped lips and blisters.
And now with my platelets still low, I wake up with bloody lips..Big risk factor! Every time I
use the bathroom sink, I clean it out real good
with bleach and Hydrogen Peroxide, just so any one
visiting, do'nt get infected, accidently. No kissing any sweeties, for awhile, with me.....
And to you peeps, just starting the first leg of
this Tx. journey, hang in there, keep a positive
mind-set over the different sides you may get, as
it's just a temp. Dragon Slaying effect. You will
survive, we all will survive. And keep up the
posting, as this wonderful Phamily of ours, is and
will always be here to help you over the many
bumps in the road. Peace & Love, SEA YA, Budley

Markm


""Anyone have a Hemeroid problem on tx?""

The answer is... YES!

Take a long hot bath with epsom salt...that'll help

Dan

Hat's off to all the brave dragon warriors on this strange, wild and wacky bus ride. May we all enjoy bright sunny days ahead.

Thanks, Dan, but it's gonna be a long drive to Long Beach. Be headin home soon. My hat's always off to you Major.
PEACE, Mark

Mark,

If you need to make a pit stop yer welcome ...front door is not locked.

Dan

Dan, signed off in Fresburg after last post, but thanks for the offer. I am at home now, safe if not sound. Beautiful night, clear, near full moon, cold as hell.? Very little traffic this late,wasn't as bad of a drive as I had feared.
Got in @ 1:15AM. Hope you and Sami are doing well.
PEACE, Mark

Matt, I read that a person has a 70 percent chance of getting hep C by shooting up (i.e. shared needle) once, and any kind of frequent or regular users have a 95 percent chance of getting hep C. And of course, it makes no difference how long ago in the past this occurred. Back in the 60s we actually thought a person was just fine if they managed to avoid hepatitis B. Well we have all these new facts today, and a whole lot more people need to know them. Peace

Guys, another statistic to remember is that 3 out of 4 people with tatoos carry the virus.

Let's change the tone on this thread a little, shall we? It doesn't matter how we got it. what matters is that we fight it, and help eachother to do so. Let's keep our chins up, and kill these damned lizards!

"We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until in God's good time the New World with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old."
--Winston Churchill

Fran..that 70% chance of infection from one experimental usage woulda educated me fast as to what I was 'playing' with, and woulda stopped me cold. An important # to get around to educate about prevention more...we all know that complacency can enter many unaware folks about safe behaviors, including safe sex as it relates to HIV transmission. Threads like this help those subjects be raised, and discussed.....Thanks Mark, Dave, Budley, Fran ,Dan and Jim for your input.