New Year's Eve!

Well, today I finally got back into the gym and I wanted to die. I did 1/2 of my usual cardio and about 1/3 of the weights I usually do. Nausea and body aches hit and so in calling it a night, I weighed myself and am down to 155lbs. Yikes! That's low! I know I've lost muscle mass and therefore, feel unattractive. I have this scrawny body with love handles and no muscles. Sexy! ;)

I've also noticed that virtually every meal I eat, I find a hair in it. Don't worry, it's mine. I don't wash my hair every day anymore to hopefully keep it for a while but hair loss is inevitable. From what I understand, after shot #2, hair stops growing and then several months after that it begins to fall out. My hair is still growing which is exciting. I'm still going to buzz it once it starts to really shed, though.

All in all, my sx (side effects) from this bloody hepatitis c treatment are manageable. Many people are much worse off than I am and I recognize that I am a very lucky person where this is concerned. Many people can barely get out of bed and just hurt every day, always tired, etc. Don't get me wrong, this is no picnic but it's doable. I'll be extremely happy when it's done and I know that as long as it doesn't kill me (which I'm refusing to let it kill me), it will make me stronger. When I am so tired that I want to go to bed at 7pm, I get up and walk around my little apartment. When I hurt (oh yes, those joints are still yelling at me), I get up and walk. There's not much I can do about the 'brain fog' though. Wondering what that is? I've always had a bad memory but my treatment for hepatitis c has helped me forget more things more frequently. Sometimes there's confusion or sometimes I forget something that happened yesterday. I asked my friend Tina if she'd seen the movie 'NINE' with Penelope Cruz and Nicole Kidman and she told me that she and I saw it the night before. Oops! Oh yeah! We did!! Or sometimes I'll forget where I'm going while I'm driving and just automatically drive to a familiar location like a zombie, thinking that that's my destination. Then I get there and wonder what I'm doing there and realize that it's the wrong destination. That's not as frequent as the forgetting things but still annoying when I take a detour to make a stop somewhere and then forget to stop (i.e. the post office to mail my Netflix).

And that brings us to, it's New Years Eve!!! I'm heading out with two friends tonight to a nightclub here in West Hollywood. No, I don't drink, but I still get tanked up on Sugar-free RedBull and dance until my body tells me I can't dance anymore. Haven't gone dancing in a while so this should be interesting. I hope I still have it!

Everyone please have a wonderful and safe New Year and I truly hope 2010 brings you all much health, love, and prosperity!

Adam

1st shot done

Friday at 10:30am PST was my first shot of interferon. I went to work and around 1pm I started to get a slight headache. By 2 I had chills and a slight fever. By 3 I was headed home to bed. It was one of the worst nights of my life.

The shot itself was easier than I anticipated. You swab the area with alcohol, let it dry, clip the needle into the syringe, pinch some fat on your stomach (I admit to having some) and then push the short needle into the gripped fat/skin. It goes in about 1.5" so it's not bad. You pull on the syringe a tiny bit to ensure no blood enters meaning you hit an artery and when all clear, you push the interferon into your body.

If you've ever been so hung over that all you can think of is that you want to die, and really mean it, that's where I was minus the fun alcohol-infused night before. I honestly wanted to die. I started thinking of everyone I'd be leaving behind and for a couple minutes thought I was in fact dying and I was amazingly prepared.

All night I had a fever, body aches, chills, joint pain, nausea, headache. I kept getting up to use the bathroom because I had had so much water throughout the day. It took everything I had to get to the bathroom but I pushed through.

My alarm went off at 7:15am because I need to take my ribas at 7:15am and 7:15pm (give or take a few minutes) and I woke up feeling on top of the world with an extra bounce in my step. By 1pm the headache and fever resurfaced which makes me wonder if it's the ribavirin giving me sides and not the interferon. I was exhausted from shopping for about an hour which is unusual as I'm typically quite active. Having gone to a holiday party tonight, I took my ribas at 7:15pm and by 10pm the headache and joint pain began. I sit at home, some joint pain and a slight headache, but alas, I will go to bed and see what tomorrow brings at 7:15am.

Drugland

Well, after initially denying my interferon, my insurance company has agreed to pay for both medications. This is quite exciting as without my insurance, my interferon alone would be about $2400 per month plus the cost of my ribavirin. So, the 4 syringes are sitting in my refrigerator and on Friday AM, I meet with someone to show me how to self-administer.

Side effects typically take a day or so to appear and hopefully I'm in the lucky 12% to not experience sides because they're hellishly nasty. I've got a bunch of vacation days through my company that I need to take (before losing them in 2010) and so I'll take a couple days off while I see how my body reacts. It will be a good time for reading and to get that ever-growing Netflix queue down.

Come Friday I'll post a blog to say how the shot went and I'm sure I'll have some emotions running through me. Stay tuned!

Adam