Injection #2

Injection day #2 came and went last thursday and brought no unexpected surprises. I had decided on two things before I took the injection. Firstly I was going to do the injection early on in the afternoon, just after lunch. Most people I think tend to take their shot later in the evening and then head off to bed to sleep throught the dreaded fluey sides....lets just say I'm keen to get on with this virus slaying! Secondly, I was going to do the injection without pre-dosing with paracetamol and only take them if and when the sides became intolerable. This may seem like a crazy approach but not having been effected by the second peak in week 1 I was confident I wouldnt suffer too much and I was keen to see what the "baseline" effects of the interferon injection would be with no paracetamol in my system. Sure enough there were no physical sides at all.

I am the first to admit that to date I appear to have been extremely lucky and at the moment fall within the 20% of people that show minimal or no sides. Fingers crossed that I fall into the 50% of people that clear the virus.....on that note I still havent got my genotype result back.

The minimal sides to date have been mainly mental, although I do feel a degree of fatigue especially later in the afternoon. Before tx I was preparing the veg plot and could spend a 4 hour session just digging. Last friday I managed 40 minutes of digging and was knackered.....and those spuds really need to go in! My thought pattern seems to be all over the shop at the moment and this makes structured rational thinking quite hard at time. I guess this is the ineviteable fogginess which to be honest, I have suffered from to varying extents for years. Just seems to be more intense at the moment but that may just be psychological. It doesnt help that work commitments, which require a degree of cerebal dexterity, are mounting up. I've managed 3 hours today so thats a start. Affected by a small wave (well, at the time felt more like a tsunami) of depression/sadness at the end of last week. Not sure if it was tx related or just the overall realisation that I'm pretty much on my own during this tx journey. I have told friends and family and I know I have their full support. But I also know that a lot of skeletons and ghosts are going to be brought to the surface during tx and that still scares the hell out of me.....dont get me going on that now though!

Blood wise, most things are doing what I would have expected. Red and white blood cells, platelets and neutrophils have all dropped more than I would have liked but its impossible to know at this stage if this is going to be a problem. The liver enzyme ALT is dropping which shows that the on-going attack on my liver is slowing. Hopefully this means those buggers are having a tough time. Bilirubin has shot up which is a bit of a concern but probably related to the increased destruction of red blood cells as a result of the ribavirin.

Mainly for my reference but also for others starting tx and wanting to compare my important bloods were

----------------27/3/8 (baseline)-------3/4/8 (week 1)
ALT-------------104-------------------87
Bilirubin---------14--------------------29....ouch!
Neuts------------2.41-----------------1.39
RBC-------------4.04-----------------3.88
Hgb--------------13.6----------------12.1
WBC-------------5.17-----------------4.09
Plates------------130-----------------112