We went out for dinner, went to the movies, went for breakfast, watched surfers brave the cold, fed fish and chips to seagulls and generally had a good time. It was cold though, and now I’m home we are preparing for a really cold snap with the possibility of snow on the ranges.
It was another uneventful trip. Even though my haemoglobin is low, it didn’t seem to hinder me a great deal, I just managed within my boundaries. I did things I would normally do, at the speed I would normally do them. The only thing I noticed was that I liked to get into bed at night and read, rather than stay up chatting.
It was nice to get away, and for that “away” not to be the hospital in Sydney!
I found the biggest issue for me when travelling is the lack of routine that leads to successful compliance with medication. You need to have a day’s worth of your medication (for me, that’s Viekira Pak with ribavirin) with you all the time in case something delays you. It’s also useful to carry some food with you (fruit, a muesli bar) in case you need to take your meds and you are not near a place you can get some food. Apart from that it’s the act of remembering. That’s why I put a reminder app on my phone. I don’t trust my own memory, so I carry a computerised memory around with me.
So why am I posting food pics and holiday stories? To show that this treatment is manageable. You might need to vary some of your routines, you might need to cut yourself some slack. You might need to cut back on your work. But this is not Interferon.
Let me repeat - this is not Interferon.
This is not like the treatment 10 years ago. Or even 5 years ago. This is a walk in the park compared to that. I’ve had some weird side effects, and even with them, this is so not like Interferon.
If you can access treatment, do it now. Don’t put it off. Don’t wait. Don’t be scared. This is a Golden Age for treatment. Make the most of it.
Every day you put off treatment is another day hepatitis C gets to ravage your liver.
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