sharp shooting hee hee..

Good idea Kiwi......I'll shoot for some kind of design with these lovely new red circles on my tummy, lol!  Thanks guys.......SOOO good to know I'm not alone with these interesting sx.

Alan.....mine is also never itchy or dry or raised at all...it's just there.  Which, in itself, is a big plus if it doesn't bother me, lol.  So yours takes about 3 weeks to vanish, huh?

Sorry to have freaked you out with the weird sx.  That was rough......I thought that might be the end, lol!  My body must be particularly sensitive to Interferon.  Yeah....fun stuff, LOL!

So I injected 0.3 at 10:00 yesterday morning (CA time) and was OK until about 7:00 pm.  Then got low-grade fever and the cold again, but NO shaking, No nausea, No dying feeling this time!  My body hurt and legs felt like they do after I run 5 miles straight.  I went into a coma-like sleep and woke to alarm at 8:00 this morning just to take my 3 Ribas, then back to sleep until 12:30 pm!  I could just barely hear the phone ringing several times downstair this morning....couldn't open my eyes or move at all.  This Interferon is heavy stuff!

I do notice pain at my right, lower ribs and also around the back, all around liver area.  Hope that means Interferon is working, not killing my liver more.  I will think positively.

Hugs to you all,    Judy  : )

haha i asked the question about the red marks, and its common alright. it shows up a bit better after a warm bath, but i can generally see at least 4 ot 5 red marks of various shades as they fade gradually. im going for a flower shape round my belly button, lol, but it lets me figure out where i shot up last time....

so. red marks are normal mate. dont worry bout it....

have a good evening.. (well its sunday evening here in new zealand,,, so sending a hug.)

kiwi

Very good to know, Kim; thank you!  Makes things easier for sure.

Either I screwed up last night's injection or the Redipen was faulty.  I'm not sure, but I only got a couple of drops of PegIntron, if that.  Called the Kaiser nurses this morning at 8:00 and they said I need to inject again.  They tranfered me to Pharmacist, who said same thing.

So I used one of the 2 Redipens I have in fridge and injected 0.3 this morning at 10:00.  NO SX other than heavy feeling and super tired; that's it!  Whoo-hoooo!!  My Dr said if 0.3 is good, then next week I go up to 0.4 and then back to 0.5.  I'm happy.

Btw, I have a 2-inch diameter red circle around my injection area on belly from Friday the 9th.  When I did my first dose.....0.5.  But nothing where I injected today......or yesterday's Fail.  Is this normal??

Hi, Judy

For me, the injection site red patch is an every week thing. Never itchy, never dry and scaly, never a problem at all. But a pretty pink red color about one inch all the way around the actual site. It usually takes a day or two to appear. And when I sit in a warm bath it is even brighter and more obvious. I always have a couple of these in some stage of disappearing. It helps me to move from place to place each week. By the third Sunday they are almost all gone. I would classify this a totally normal, and in fact it is an indicator that (for me, anyway), the shot went well.

I am so glad you have not had the trouble you had last week. Your account of the trip to the ER had me so freaked out I couldn't rest. It's just so amazing the differences we can see from one week to the next. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason. That;s why it's so much fun, right?

Alan

Never mind the dart question.....I just found the Club on here, lol!

Thank you so much, Shep.  Well, last time it took 2.5 hours for sx to come on, so I'll let you know tomorrow.  I just did the injection about 30 mins ago.  I know I didn't get much interferon......if any.  I watched it drip out on my sterile setup and my heart sank, lol.  Hope I don't die with only Riba for a week.

Do you mean that you actually play darts or are you referring to the injection as a dart?  I'm getting a little spacey, sorry, LOL.  I'm so sorry for your best friend.  Has she tried triple therapy?

The little Vic bottles are so handy for all kinds of things. And all all those fine stryrofoam coolers and ice packs building up in the garage. What perks!

I got the Vic after I bought that huge pill organizer, then realized they already had their own, little, daily bottles!  But they need to be kept refrigerated constantly, right? 

Well, I just did my second PegIntron injection.  My dr reduced me from 0.5 to 0.3 for today after my severe sx that landed me in hospital.  I don't know what I was thinking.....the redipen clicked as I was injecting and I thought I was done, but then realized the plunger wasn't all the way down....it's difficult to push down completely.  I accidentally lost some, right onto the plastic package.  I stuck myself again to get the remainder but wasn't much left.  I wonder if I got any at all? 

yup when i started on tx, i got weekly one, with am and pm on it... i put my riba and my morning anti depressant in there... its really handy to keep track... only once i forgot... and in the morning i was like, oh crap, ive missed a dose... only time tho....

gettin used to takin so many pills tho.... cant imagine being on triple. jeez peg and riba are bad enough...

That is so scary but thank goodness it won't kill us....good to know!  I worried about doing just that weeks before starting tx so I bought one, clear organizer for Sun - Sat for Riba, and then a gigantic one with Morn, Noon, Eve, and Bed for each day of the week for the Victrelis.  I keep the Riba one on one counter, and the Vic one will be in fridge when I start that next month.

I'm attaching a pic of the organizers here, lol; that Vic one is huge!

I was a space cadet even before treatment, so when they gave me my starter kit, containing a pill organizer based on morning an evening doses, I went and got another with only one strip and used it for mid-day. So I had three dose events all laid out for each day. The Incivek came in weekly packs with three distinct doses for each day. They were very hard to open. So I would cut them all open and put a week at a time into the organizer. Also, I was using two of the big, blue Ribapak ribavirin each day (one with the morning Incivek and another with the 2PM Incivek), so these went in, too. I don't think I ever missd a dose, although I was an hour late once or twice. Without those pill organizers I would never have made it. The starter kit also contained a small electronic clock with 5 daily alarms! In the early days I used this each day. After a few weeks I was so married to that schedule there was no way to forget. Now, looking back, I can't believe I did it. Today it's just two riba doses with ANY FOOD I WANT. Life is good.

Alan

I just realized I missed my Riba dose last night. Ugh! I don't know how I possibly forgot to take it last night of all nights, because last night was shot night, then I ended up having to force myself to stay up late enough to take my Victrelis. But when I came down this morning to get my AM dose out of my pill organizer there were my 3 little Sunday PM pills still sitting in the container. &%$#@!

You did the right thing by calling the Vic folks. Sure beats spending the rest of the night with all that anxiety and fear. It's not easy. We just do the best we can.

I'm sure everyone has a system for tracking the med schedule. I certainly have mine. My riba comes in a big bottle with a 28 day supply. I can't take pills from that because sometimes I don't know if I'm coming or going, much less whether I took my pills 5 minutes ago or not. So I count out my 5 pills the night before and put in a smaller dedicated bottle. At 6 pm, there ought to be 3 left, and at 10 pm, none. Same with the Vic, but I am already starting from a little bottle with a 1-day supply. The 10 pm time is rough and confusing, as I'm typically woken up by my cell phone from my nightly nap, and it takes me a while to figure out if its time for meds or time to go to work, or if I hit the snooze a couple of times, whether I already took them. All I have to do is look on the counter and find my little bottle with 4 Vics left, and its ok. My daily working supply doesn't go in the cabinet and never leaves the kitchen counter. I "own" that little corner. Don't touch it, clean it, or rearrange it!

I would imagine taking just one pill too soon is no big deal.  I double check before I take any med, especially if I am tired or just woke up. As the carpenter's motto goes, measure twice, cut once. 

I had taken my Vic at 10PM and at 11;30 my riba was due, I put the wrong pills out and took 1 before I realised my mistake. The vic help line said its fine. Scary.