Hi Steve,

Sorry about the late reply. I'm in the middle of detoxing from the Incivik. yuk..did you say what genotype you are?

I know some genotypes are more susceptible than others to sx (side effects). I have genotype 1a.

I managed to avoid a lot of sx over the years because I radically changed my life style and diet when I was 26. That was 14 years before I was diagnosed. I stopped drinking and became a veg head.  I started running in 1997 and incorporated daily exercise into my life at that time. The worst of the sx was permanent jet lag. Mix with menopause (4 years ago), shake well, and I've got a bad case of depression and tiredness. I work at a local government agency, in a fast paced department filled with 20 and 30 somethings. The last few years I found myself lagging behind and depressed most of the time. So I found this wonderful medical clinic, and decided to take the plunge lol.... again.  So I think moving a lot is a key to staying healthy, along with feeding the body correct food.

I'm looking forward to losing the jet lag and being as energetic as my mom - who is 75 and runs circles around me.

I have 10 or 11 weeks to go - the stats look good. I'm glad I decided to do it again - even with all the horrid sx - in the end I will be cured of this virus.

I hope you have a wonderful day, bro.  Kel

Hi Steve, welcome from me too.  Treatments for hep c have advanced a lot since you did yours in 1994, and there are more options available, according to what genotype of the virus you have.   Do you remember which one you have?  Just to give you a brief explanation...people who have gen.1 (a or b) generally do what is known as `triple therapy` nowadays, which is the 2 meds you mentioned (interferon and ribavirin) plus another one which is either victrelis or incivek.   Whereas if you have gen 2 or 3 you would do the double combo of interferon and ribavirin on their own.

Whichever tx you`ll be doing, the fatigue (due to anemia) is fairly common to everyone, although some people find the experience easier than others.

You`ve been through a lot over the last few years but the main thing is you`re still moving forward.  Your brother must be an amazing person! Stay in touch and do feel free to ask as many questions as you like.  Best of luck! 

Nice to hear from you Tig, I have no idea what treatment you are referring to. If I remember right, which I probably do not but when I was on just the interferon 20 years ago it seemed like I had the flu all the time.But the fatigue and trying to work was the worst part. It took my Dr. back then almost 6 months to find out that I had non a-non b hepatitis. Which is now hep.c. Are you on the transplant list? Which state are you in, if you don't mind me asking?

Thanks for replying Kellie. I was so worried my biopsy was going to come back as liver cancer. My Dr.'s nurse explained it all to me about how or why I would not be suitable for treatment. She said if it said "advanced cirrhosis" I would not qualify for the rib-interferon treatment. I would be too far gone for it to help. But since mine said trace of cirrhosis then I would qualify. I don't think I would even qualify to be put on the list for a new liver because I am 61 years old. Never heard of the Incivik. I was on just regular interferon alpha 2B back in 1994 but it didn't help at all.

I do have a Dr. Kahled Selim in Oklahoma City. He's a Hepatologist and when he saw how elevated my alk phos was he wanted to find out why. That was the first time I saw him. He's pretty aggresive about this stuff and that's a good thing I believe. Of course I am thinking the worst. That I will probably be dead in 6 months or less. I hope not but like I said I was going along just fine for 14 years and now this pops up.

Hep.C  did a lot of damage to me. It cause almost total hearing loss and also after my transplant they put me on prograf and predsinone for anti rejection. After 4 years of the predsinone I became diabetic. Type 2. Also I had respiratory failure in 2007 and almost didn't make it out of that. But 38 days later I walked out of the hospital. These days I never catch the flu, I go straight to Pneumonia and usually in the hospital for a few days. Sounds like a lot of fun huh.

I hate to dump all this on you Kellie but I just wonder if there are other peoplr out there that has had as much trouble with hep. c as I have. The only good thing to come out of it all I guess is that I got stuck by an insulin needle at work so it's a workmans comp thing and they have to pay all the bills. Plus my income for life. I used to be a trash hauler (garbage man) and picked up a bag of trash and got stuck. When I opened the bag to see what I  had been stuck with there was about 30 or so insulin needles there, UNcapped. And so.............

Hi Steve and welcome to the group! I'm on week 5 of the Victrelis triple therapy and yes, the fatigue can be tough at times, sometimes worse it seems. I try my best to keep a routine sleeping schedule at night and avoid naps during the day or I find it even more difficult to stay asleep at night. I'm not the least bit surprised to hear you're tired, it's the most common side effect I believe. I would suggest you reducing the complexity and intensity of your current workout and save more of your current levels of energy for normal daily activities. Hang in there and just take it slow and easy!

Hi Steve, Welcome! This is a great forum with all kinds of nice people in different stages of treatment that are willing to share their experiences. I'm on the triple treatment now - going into week 11 - with riba, interferon and Incivik. I won't sugarcoat it - the treatment I'm on now is a rascally kind of experience. But there's all kinds of different treatments out now with different SX (side-effects). I did 11 weeks of the riba and interferon in 2003. Compared to the treatment I'm on now, that's a cakewalk. But this is just my experience. I'm sure other folks here will share with you what their experiance was/is. You are in good company. Do you have a doc yet? Nice of your bro to donate that liver. I'll be looking forward to your responses. Remember can't live w/o a liver - whatever the treatment it has the ability to save your life. K

I had a living donor liver transplant in 1999. But now the hep c has returned bad enough to put me on the treatment, I hope. Can someone that has been on it or is on it, how it makes you feel and what is your activity level?I was doing great for almost 14 years but they said it could come back and it has. My younger brother gave me half his liver and it was done in Memphis at UT Bowld hospital. That place is gone now. I used to go to the health club 3 days a week for a little over 4 years now but it seems like I can't make it 20 minutes into my work out until I am wasted.

Any help would be deeply appreciated. Thanks to all, Steve..........