The Rest of Week 1

Well, as I write this, I have already entered week 2 so true to my usual self, I am already falling behind and becoming disorganised...I promise I'll try harder, honest. The second half of week 1 has been surprisingly free of sides. Not what I had expected at all. The second phase of the interferon never really materialised and apart from a slight cough, the ribas dont seem to be doing much - from a sides point of view that is, lets hope its putting an almighty big spanner in the viral replication works. The eczema (notice this week I can spell it - thats something I apologise for, my spelling is cr&p) has subsided and I havent been bothering to put anything on it.

The health service appears to be playing hot potatoe with me and I feel I am being passed backwards and forwards between consultant and GP with neither really wanting to take responsibility for my treatment. A little bit worrying when you consider the potential dangers involved but I'm hoping I have amassed enough knowledge to be able to self monitor myself. I have no real problems with this approach, in fact it puts me in the driving seat which I think could be of benefit down the line.

I had an appointment with my GP on tuesday and I've got to admit I must have bored the pants off him - 40 minutes of boring! The said hot potatoe had been thrown firmly towards my GP and the consultants were expecting him to monitor me and only report back to them if there was a problem. Unfortunately, there are no standard guidelines to tell GPs how to monitor interferon and ribavirin treatment so he doesnt have a clue what is really expected. I thought it wise to bring him up to speed! I had hoped that I may have succeeded but no such luck. Turned up for my weekly blood test on Thursday and the request forms authorised by him were all wrong. No Full blood count, no LFT but a "gold ticket" PCR form. Thank you very much - I'll have that for a later date. It was a joke; in the end I had to tell the phlebotomist what tests I wanted. Will be heading up to the medical centre in an hour or so to see if the results are back. They're going to be interesting because of the lack of sides, I'm sure they've given me syringes of water and a tub of smarties.

Well, not a lot to add to the rest of week 1. As I said, its been fairly uneventful. I really should have made more of an effort on the work front but there is always next week. Probably not the best attitude when you're running your own business but there have been more important things on my mind. I also blame the lack of work on a small group of nomadic friends I have made. For anyone that stumbles across this who has been diagnosed with HCV or for those it effects in other ways can I recommend a superb UK based support forum. No medical experts so medical advice should always be checked out but full of lovely warm supporting people who are at various points along the long and windy road of HCV treatment.

http://hepcforum.co.uk/phpBB3/index.php