Hi Lloyd:

what a coincidence, reading the article. I"m 56 year old female, was diagnosed with Hep c 5 years ago. I had my ribavarin, pegasys combination on jun 2003.

It lasted 40 plus weeks treatment. I went through all those side effects as mentioned. One side effect that is rare which I experienced was not able to tolerate strong body colognes, it made me nauseous. my lab work was also declining later part of treatment, then i started to inject procrit, well that made me sicker.

I used to see the commercial on tv for procrit, my thoughts were What a lie: i did not feel better I felt more achy. the time came to end treatment due to the anemia. Mind ya I"m a nurse working in a county hospital in cleveland Ohio and also working with gastroenterologits I could not face my co-worker as a Hep c patient . so I decided to have treatment at another institution.

due to my hospitalization It was better to have my blood drawn at my worksite and occsionally at the treating hospital. The thing that most upsets me is the pcr results were higher at my work place versus the place of treatment. I tried to contact The lab co-ordinator of both places and no one was able to tell me why pcr results were different if the ranges should probably be the same.

Well a year went by after treatment, deciding to see the same Dr. with hope to have a management treatment with much less torture a the first time, I figured being managed like some one with htn or heart disease. I contacted my nurse practioner and got things started. I knew what was ahead of me and was ready to combat this uncurable virus.

I started the second round on feb 17 2006. this is my 46 week of treatment. Besides my regular med Herbal remedies are being used like milk thistle green tea tab, folic acid, my hemoglobin is not able to raise no higher than 8-9 . at this point procrit is twice a week, for at least 2 months and still no changes in my lab work.

In the mean time I"ve moved to another department in the same place of employment noticing doing more errors and after 23 years of service I"m practically out the door. My mind is not clear to make any decisions I"m not moody due to my zoloft which my primary care physcian increased the dosage which is very helpful. I"m in the process to start counseling to be able to cope with my new surroundings.

At this point I"m a nervous wreck or at the end of the rope. Of course I want to keep my nursing job of 23 years. Called my nurse practioner"s office cancelled my next appointment without rescheduling. I decided no more teatment the
ribavarin and pegasys and procrit doses left in the refrigerator, Have not pour meds down the sink but Guess what? I guess I could live longer without further torture, by not drinking alcohol and i dont use illicit drugs or smoke. I got this disease 1974 after getting 2 units of blood during childbirth through cesarean section. was diagnosed wfith Hepc in 2001 after having a needle stick and the patient was hep c. Presently blood transfussion is not my choice no matter how safe it is meant to be.

there might still be a chance of hep c virus in the blood transfussion. By the way my last pcr done last august 06 was non reactive. At least this time one blood lab is dealing with the blood test.

sincerely nilsa

Hello Nilsa:

I am glad you stopped. Interferon is all about money and stupidly. It is an unsafe drug. I have never had one single email or phone call from anyone in the entire world that expressed satisfaction from using it, even if they were enjoying a sustained viral response.

Regarding the PCR, facts are, if you take the same blood and send it to the same lab in two different vials, it can come back 1/3 different on average. The test sucks.

Some of the things I have observed is that taking anti depressants related to Prozac, which Zoloft is, raises the viral load in people and also the ALT.

Procrit is a pathetic synthetic drug that was designed for cancer patients who were expected to die.

There are very good natural ways to raise the WBC which do not cause all the problems that Procrit does. Using Procrit is a relatively new approach in hep c treatment. It is a wide spread failure. Natcell Thymus will work better and make the entire experience much more tolerable.

Because there are so few hep c patients compared to other problems like heart disease, there is little or no publicity surrounding the drastic side effects of the drugs used.

It dose not sound like you have experience the extremely bad side effects. In time you most likely will develop some bone and joint pain, most people do.

Please keep me informed as to your recovery.
If you need any help trying to recover from any of the side effects, I am here.

In good health
Lloyd