TREATMENT COMPLETE
Today is Wednesday 16th March, on Monday the 14th I attended my local hep c clinic for the penultimate time in this latest term of treatment. There to give my final blood test, only this time there's no LFT & so on, just one vile with a tablespoon of blood within is required but to me it is the most important drop of blood ever shed, for within it lies the answer to whether the virus has been purged or if it still remains.
Within this blog is the story of my up's & downs, how I first found I had contracted the hep c virus & that I have could have carried it for some 25 years. For twenty years I never dreamed that a treatment would come along & like so many others, learned to live with it, coming to terms with it yet some times being drawn down into the murky depressive depths giving little thought to any possible future of happiness of my own, never mind one with a partner, preferring to avoid entertaining thoughts of relationships that appealed greatly & maintain a course that was governed by events around me rather than choices made.
So here I am, 6 months post treatment, a treatment that lasted 50 weeks, basically 18 months since the start, fortunate to be virtually virus undetected at 4 weeks with a count of 43 then virus undetected at 8 weeks and it stayed undetected right through treatment to the end. The big question now being has my body been able to fight the virus on it's own without the aid of Ribavirin & Viraferon and maintain what is known as a Sustained Viral Response or SVR & that is indicated by the blood test I now write about, called a Polymerase Chain Reaction or PCR test.
They say time flies when your having fun, well it wasn't fun but time has certainly passed quicker than during the previous 6 months treatment period, yes the 12 months of treatment flew by, apart from the last month or so, it seems when a target is within reach it suddenly slows down to a nail biting snails pace. That last month of agonising wait is pure child's play when it comes down to the months leading up to treatments result. Whilst I find myself recovering physically very well & all my other tests i.e; metabolic bone scan, abdominal ultrasound scan & all other bloods came back as normal, apart from my thyroid levels which were out of whack at tx end but now returned to normal, the thought of treatments success has played havoc with my mind.
The liver like the brain does not feel pain, that is to say when we think we can feel pain in either organ in fact we can not, any pain we feel comes from the surrounding areas due to different causes, yet I & am sure many others experience phantom pain the conjures up the worst imagery.
Fact is what's done is done & this particular story of treatment is nearly over, I thought about keeping a lid on my situation so should tx fail I could get my head around it & announce the result when ready, but blog or no blog doesn't change my course. I have laid my thoughts & experiences out before all of those who have read & I feel I owe it to myself to maintain this process to the very last.
In the UK it takes two weeks to get the result of a PCR test, I 'll post a result blog around that time so for now... that's all folk's !
Peace,
Peter.
Today is Wednesday 16th March, on Monday the 14th I attended my local hep c clinic for the penultimate time in this latest term of treatment. There to give my final blood test, only this time there's no LFT & so on, just one vile with a tablespoon of blood within is required but to me it is the most important drop of blood ever shed, for within it lies the answer to whether the virus has been purged or if it still remains.
Within this blog is the story of my up's & downs, how I first found I had contracted the hep c virus & that I have could have carried it for some 25 years. For twenty years I never dreamed that a treatment would come along & like so many others, learned to live with it, coming to terms with it yet some times being drawn down into the murky depressive depths giving little thought to any possible future of happiness of my own, never mind one with a partner, preferring to avoid entertaining thoughts of relationships that appealed greatly & maintain a course that was governed by events around me rather than choices made.
So here I am, 6 months post treatment, a treatment that lasted 50 weeks, basically 18 months since the start, fortunate to be virtually virus undetected at 4 weeks with a count of 43 then virus undetected at 8 weeks and it stayed undetected right through treatment to the end. The big question now being has my body been able to fight the virus on it's own without the aid of Ribavirin & Viraferon and maintain what is known as a Sustained Viral Response or SVR & that is indicated by the blood test I now write about, called a Polymerase Chain Reaction or PCR test.
They say time flies when your having fun, well it wasn't fun but time has certainly passed quicker than during the previous 6 months treatment period, yes the 12 months of treatment flew by, apart from the last month or so, it seems when a target is within reach it suddenly slows down to a nail biting snails pace. That last month of agonising wait is pure child's play when it comes down to the months leading up to treatments result. Whilst I find myself recovering physically very well & all my other tests i.e; metabolic bone scan, abdominal ultrasound scan & all other bloods came back as normal, apart from my thyroid levels which were out of whack at tx end but now returned to normal, the thought of treatments success has played havoc with my mind.
The liver like the brain does not feel pain, that is to say when we think we can feel pain in either organ in fact we can not, any pain we feel comes from the surrounding areas due to different causes, yet I & am sure many others experience phantom pain the conjures up the worst imagery.
Fact is what's done is done & this particular story of treatment is nearly over, I thought about keeping a lid on my situation so should tx fail I could get my head around it & announce the result when ready, but blog or no blog doesn't change my course. I have laid my thoughts & experiences out before all of those who have read & I feel I owe it to myself to maintain this process to the very last.
In the UK it takes two weeks to get the result of a PCR test, I 'll post a result blog around that time so for now... that's all folk's !
Peace,
Peter.
