Dear Mr. Wright,

to give you the quick run down (I could talk for hours on this subject). I am a 47 year old male who contracted non-a/b in 1984 in an OR accident. I am retired from the U.S.Army as a Special Operations Medical Sgt. and I currently work as a technician in an ER. The monster we know as Hepc reared it's head 3yrs ago. I am genotype 1A with EMC(cryo) it took two years of convincing but, I completed 48 weeks(Oct 05) of Peg-Intron a2b 150 sc once a week with 1200mg of Ribivirin daily. At week 18 my load went from 12,600,000 (initial load) to 580. Because I had a greater than 2 log fold drop they allowed me to continue. At week 24 my load was 0. At week 48 my load was 0. I good the first month after Tx but, I once again feel pretty blah(joint ache s,shoulder pain,nausea). I went thru Special Forces traing, Ranger and Parachute Training and combat and nothing was as horrible as the interferon therapy!!!!!

I worked full time (but I still used 12wks of sick time and 90 days of disability). The Va was of no help even though it was documented in my records I had a servicetime related tattoo. The medical community is suffering from a serious lack of knowledge about HepC as your book points out. I see people come in to our Er and they are referred to as patients who have HepC and God knows what else. HepC scummers.They are pushed off as less than human.Allowed to vomit and defecate on themselves. Drug seekers probably. Some Doc's and P.A.'s come to me for knowledge/questions. They constantly have to watch what they say around me. It is sad!!!! The sad thing is the person who is a scummer is a 51 yr old female that had a blood transfusion or someone like myself. Also I now take 1200mg of Neurontin a day for the polyneuropathy I developed during week three of Tx which I was told to plow thru it'll go away(right). My Doc only treated me because of the cryo (positive serum and biopsy). My liver biopsy was stage 0-1(excellent). His mentality was wait and see your cigs will kill you before the HepC.

I have ordered your products and will adjust my diet and exercise in hopes maybe I can feel alive again (my Gastro Doc says the next step is two new interferon based treatments if it comes back). Please feel free to correct grammar and spelling you may post this letter where ever and feel free to contact me or allow anyone who wishes to contact me . I work full time 3p-11p. Take care,be well and God watch over you.


Sincerely,

Thomas J. Senecal Jr.
ginnysenecal @ hotmail.com