Are they all back now, all 4 of them underfoot again, i thought you were down in the family head count for a while yet? Tig's right, they will keep you too busy and time will fly because of them, until you get your EOT+12 week SVR done in October. I hope you are still down to doing just the one job?

So with your "everything is in perfect order" 4/5 week LFT's and UND, between then and your October bloods, you might have some LFT's snuck in (if you are anxiously wanting more good news before Oct.) as you might be to the labs and having some bloods done anyways being that you and your docs keep a good eye on your sugars and such.

That is very good to know the sugar blipping thing stopped for the last couple weeks on treatment, and, good to know about the rebel hiccoughs. With my epclusa+vox i had some well-defined glurgling, blurgling with every dose - tried to convey this to my study doc continuously, they eventually reported this "round peg" symptom (statistically) in the only square box hole they are allowed to pound it (fit it) into - they called it "nausea" , haha, I tried and tried to correct them - to no avail! Oh well, at least they got it noted down vaguely correctly under the GI heading.

So, please do keep us posted about how well your sugars go from now on, you mentioned perhaps a change in meds in the future might happen, that would be interesting if you see any long term changes to the good after you have been relieved of this viral hitchhikers health robbing effects. I hope so.  C.

Hi there ! good to meet you so glad to hear your wonderful news! and Yea, 4 kids and normal? hummmm Looking forward to seeing your good news in October!!
Blessings, Iris

Hello Heidi,

So good to hear from you! Congrats on reaching EOT, WOOHOO

I’m glad your blood sugar is behaving and back to normal. You’ll begin to notice improvements all the time, I’m sure of it. Your final blood work will come quicker as long as you forget about them! The wait is aggravating, but the truth is worth the wait. You responded perfectly to treatment and great things are in your future, a happy and healthy liver is one of many!

so awesome dishbrat . , back to normal living. yay!

i'll be testing around that time too; but we got this and i know we will be und then too

Just stopping in to say hello to all you lovely people!

I finished my 8 wks of Mavyret on the 30th of July, and my GI doc decided to just wait until Oct to run my next panel of bloodwork, since I was undetected at my 4/5 week mark. SOOOOO.... it's just a wait and see thing now. I've been keeping busy, trying to resume my 'normal' life (ahahaha we have 4 kids, what the hell is normal??)

Blood sugar has totally been my pre treatment usual again. The last week or two of treatment, I had NO issues with it. I did tell my 'specialty' nurse, so she could report that side effect. Something else that I experienced, and actually still do, is random deep hiccups LOL! Like at least 25 times a day. It amuses my family and co workers....but it can be embarrassing at the wrong moment!

Hope you are all well and behaving?? LOL! Have a good day all! :)

Great news Heidi ONYA

woohoo dishbrat!! , have a wonderful celebration

Congratulations, Dragon Slayer! WOOHOO

I barbied a couple of nice thick filet mignons last night, baked tater and a salad. Yum! Enjoy the celebration!

WELL DONE!! (Literally! heehee) Good news arrived with your awaited for UND VL!! A lovely UND for you, to match those wonderfully improved/crashed LFT's. Great crashing all around! Have a happy day today.  C.

Just at the tail end of week 6 here! And I finally received the results of my 5 wk blood work!

NON-DETECTED.

Now if you'll all excuse me, this celebratory steak isn't going to cook itself on the grill :)

Hope all of you awesome slayers are doing well! 

Hey, nice LFT's DB!

And, you get LFT's twice! Bonus!, to have another set right along with your VL coming up!

Ya, I hope the LFT's just keep tweeking downward, just like that VL is doing. 

Sorry about the ups and downs BS's, but good you and doc are on it and you are coping. 

What kind of things do you try, to manage the highs and lows you experience? You had mentioned you had tried some tactics. Is it generally morning highs and late lows??

Hope all else is going OK, not too much work/demands and that you are feeling stoked about all your good effort and good results! C. 

Hey DB,

Nothing wrong with those numbers! You cleaved your ALT in half, woohoo on that! It takes time to get all those results where they need to be and yours are clearly headed that way. As long as you're as confident in your progress as I am, you should sleep like a baby tonight! It’s looking nice to me!

hi db, so glad you are managing well , so good to hear from you

5

Just checking in, as I start week 5!

No issues to report with the Mav, aside from wonky blood sugar readings, and some quick bottoms, that leave me a bit dizzy at times. I'm keeping on top of the highs/lows best I can, and my Family Dr feels once I'm done with treatment, I'll be back to 'normal', possibly having to adjust dosage of my meds too :)

He did run my liver functions, when he was checking my A1C, at the end of week 3. My liver functions are in normal range now, AST 24, and  ALT 50! Hoping to see those numbers drop lower, when I go in for my 4(5) week bloodwork, on the 10th, for my GI Dr.

Will check in when I get the result of my viral load etc, hopefully next week!

Happy 4th of July!

Hey DB,

Won't be long, Jul 9, and you'll have your 4 week VL and LFT's done!! Wow, how time flies (well, at least sometimes it does!).

Good you get meta-panel/A1C with your family doc next week.

I think I recall you said (if and when) your sugars have become "off-kilter" (in the past), that "they did tend to show the high AM levels", so, that would not be exactly surprising, would it?? I know you had a fear of your blood sugars becoming out of wack during treatment, because of some scary stories/reports you read, but I know you are an educated, practiced person, knowledgable in managing your sugars and a good partner in your care with your doc (re: your BS's), so, it is easy for me to feel confident in you and your doc managing any small blips like this that you may run into, I am still sticking by the likelihood, that your BS's, may show some blips along the way and generally will be fine. Low sugars during days? - you, if anyone, will know how many calories to put in, how many you can burn away (at work, or any extra ones you may happen to be burning because of the gym).

You mentioned you are already doing some things slightly differently in order to see if it has an effect on the higher AM sugars, and the lower daytime ones - what kind of measures can you/do you employ? Lots of people it seems get some lab blips, and all ends up evening out.  As long as you feel OK, that is always the main thing.

Good timing you get to bump heads with your GP next week.

It won't be long that you have to guard yourself from over-extending yourself while on treatment, just keep trying to get enough good food, rest and sleep, between the work/family and gym. I just have a feelin you are a superb and expert "balancer".

So glad you posted, nice to see you doing good, and gettin there!  C.

Great that you are doing so well Heidi. Even managing a bit of Gym. You have a great attitude. Hopefully your sugar will stabilize, sounds like its pretty good with the low numbers most of the day.

hi heidi,

glad to hear your fog is lifting and you are pacing yourself . 5

I'm well on my way thru week 3 now :)

The fog/daze is pretty much gone, the nausea still comes in waves for me though. thankfully, I'm managing fine, and haven't had to miss work or anything. The Mav has given me some interesting sugar readings too LOL I've had some real low numbers during the day, and some surprisingly high numbers in the mornings when I first wake up. I don't see my Family Doctor until beginning of July sometime, so I'm sort of switching my meds around slightly to see if that evens it back out again.

I'll be getting blood work next week for my Family Dr, just a metabolic panel  and A1C....and then bloodwork on July 9th for my GI Dr. (He ordered CBC/No Diff, Liver Profile, and Hep C Rna Quan)

I hit the gym when I feel well enough, I will NOT over extend myself! This is a time for healing!

Have a good night all!

Well done, Heidi! Big ol WOOT on your first week completed! As Canuck and the others have already mentioned, the first of your treatment may be filled with highs, lows, and fog. These are easy meds in one respect, side effects, but extremely powerful anti-viral drugs. Think about what they are doing right now. Destroying a once elusive Dragon, with ease. Just a few years ago, things were very different and very difficult. Success rates in the 30-50 percentile, if you were lucky. The drugs, considered chemotherapy agents in most circles, were so harsh.

Sit back and allow these miracle “Magic Beans” to do their thing, mostly and thankfully under the side effect radar. Don’t push yourself too hard. Save some of the renewed vigor for Dragon fighting and getting through treatment. You’ll have plenty of great days ahead, spend these days taking it slow and measured. If you have to do something, I’ll permit you 20 minutes per day doing the “Happy Dance”! Imagine your Dragon laying on the floor and dance circles around it. I know for a fact, it really iritates the crap out of them, lol! 

wow, i just realized i don't feel that daze right now; i had it for weeks and it felt like auto pilot. this feels strange but good.

i still work out on my days off; not on working days and usually only 2 out of the 3 days...........and def not too intense; but it does feel good.

it's def a strange mix of feel so good, feel not so good....very interesting

C. is writing in red ...

Dishbrat wrote:

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First week of Mav, is complete!   YAY!

I do NOT have any really bad issues to report! Wonderful. Nausea on day 2 for a few hours, non stop potty breaks from water consumption, and I almost feel like I'm in a daze at times LOL! Not LOL (necessarily) - you might be in a little bit of a "daze", some people do go a bit dazed-feeling, at first, on these potent and new-to-us (and our virus) anti-virals.  My blood sugar has been excellent, my morning numbers have even dropped a bit. Yay, whee, very good mornings then, we'll see how you do as you go along - but so far, so (very very good) . 

I've been taking my dose at 6 pm, with my dinner, and have been in bed sound asleep by 10 pm every night. I do get up for a bathroom run during the night, but I quickly go right back to sleep. Good! Lotsa sleep, lotsa water and peeing.  This is the most soundly I have slept, in years I think? Do you think (partly) it may be the relief of finally getting on/being on treatment? As soon as I got in my trial, got the meds in my hands, and that first pill past my lips, i felt a great relief, maybe you sense some of that too? Mornings, are easy to get moving, and I have SO much energy! Wow, lucky! I am actually going to start going to the gym BEFORE work, beginning tomorrow! Hey, hey, whoa, girl, take er easy, save time for working fulltime and such! Early days, slow and steady wins the race, pace yersef!

I do realize that not every day may be this easy during treatment, but, I do have to say I did all that worrying for NOTHING! This is a piece of cake for me! I hope all of you that are currently in treatment of some type, are having an easy time of it as well! 

It is true, one can have your cake and eat it too. heehee. C.

 

---

hey DB, my labs show that my glucose is lower than it's been in years, so i guess this means our livers are working better already.

Hi Heidi,

Glad to hear you are doing so well after week 1. Excellent news.

I am now 1/2 way with my Epclusa and all is going great with me. Can't wait to be free of this Virus. All is very positive with us all. Fantastic!

great news DB! i had it easy for my first few weeks too and that sure helped to get me thru it. 

i have other stomach probs that seemed to have flared, but probably not from the drug,just aggravated toward the end of my treatment.

it def is easier than living with the virus

have fun, good to hear from you and that your sleep and numbers are good. yay.

First week of Mav, is complete! 

I do NOT have any really bad issues to report! Nausea on day 2 for a few hours, non stop potty breaks from water consumption, and I almost feel like I'm in a daze at times LOL! My blood sugar has been excellent, my morning numbers have even dropped a bit.

I've been taking my dose at 6 pm, with my dinner, and have been in bed sound asleep by 10 pm every night. I do get up for a bathroom run during the night, but I quickly go right back to sleep. This is the most soundly I have slept, in years I think? Mornings, are easy to get moving, and I have SO much energy! I am actually going to start going to the gym BEFORE work, beginning tomorrow!

I do realize that not every day may be this easy during treatment, but, I do have to say I did all that worrying for NOTHING! This is a piece of cake for me! I hope all of you that are currently in treatment of some type, are having an easy time of it as well! 

Congrats Heidi...

I just finished my 8 week Mavyret TODAY.

Awesome...awesome...awesome.

I had no side effects and went to work everyday.

You will be fine.  You are on the way to your cure.

Water...water...water.  

Ziggy

DB , so awesome! good for you , and so it begins.

so glad to hear you have  transitioned  from "getting the meds" to "starting the meds" yay

5

Hey DB!,

Sorry, I've been wanting to post sooner than this, but I have had an "away", and just trying to catch up now. I did check in a bit while I was out of town and saw your 8 week start of Mav was imminent tho! Big congrats on that first pill past the lips - this is going to be good! 

I was so happy to hear things are falling into better circumstances for you, as far as slightly less family responsibilites and job demands, lovely you are down to "only" one job instead of three, and that your workplace will be "understanding", and that you will have a wee bit less of family "minding" to take care of whilst you are on treatment. Takes a little bit of the worry out of it, that your schedule has opened up a bit. Room to move. Always better. But I bet ya anything you are not going to be troubled by much of anything while on treatment.

Nice you are getting 4 week and 8 week bloods.

Yay Heidi, on her own "on treatment thread!!!!!!" .  You go girl.  Kill, KILL, KIIIIILLLLL!  C.

WooHoo! Good for you, Heidi! I’m thrilled for you and since STL nicknamed your first pill, the “Magic Bean”, I found this example to start your treatment. It represents Joy and Good Fortune. Both will be yours, I guarantee it! Don’t forget to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

Hi Heidi,

Glad you are finally set to go. Thats fantastic. All the best with your first magic bean tonight. Looking forward to hearing how you are doing with it, so be sure to post us some updates. There are a few of us currently being treated posting and it is great to hear how everyone is doing. It is a great place for sharing and asking questions. So many lovely people to help if there is a problem. Some very knowledgeable people here apart for us newbies. Hope you don't have any issues with your blood sugar.

My Mavyret finally arrived today! I decided to go ahead and start my treatment this evening with my dinner, instead of waiting until tomorrow as I initially planned.

Dr already put orders in for my 4 week, and 8 week blood work....so that'll take me to July 3rd, and July 31st (I'll be visiting my parents in South Carolina,  during the last week of my treatment, so my 8 wk blood work won't be done until Aug 1st or 2nd.)

I'm nervous, but so excited to start this journey! I'll be checking my blood sugar 3x a day as well, to see if there is any issues with it.

Have a great night everyone!

~Heidi~