Living Without HepC

I have just completed my last injection about a half hour ago. So that´s that done and finished …. actually I can summon up the energy to say “hurrah - that´s an accomplishment!!” While doing the preparations, I did find myself thinking about the first injection almost a year ago - and all the apprehensions that went with it. Today it was a surprisingly routine event to get out a needle and inject myself - never thought I would be saying that so casually. And I have no plans to be saying it again either. So another week on the “ribs” and that too will come to an end.

I have been thinking that as this part of the journey comes to a close I am now ready to go on to the next phase - the “post-treatment return to health”. Recovering from the physical and psychological effort of hosting these medications and focusing on getting my liver back to as healthy a state as possible. So it´s not an ending, just a close to this chapter of my life with HepC.

I am glad I decided to finish my treatment “on holiday”. It has immersed me in “everyday” life here in Spain, whereas I was sitting about “energyless” at home alot and not doing much. I am not doing much here either but there are lots of family and extended family events to celebrate (birthdays, anniversarys, new babies) as well as the local annual Feria celebrating the patron saint (processions, fireworks, concerts, Flamenco). So a great atmosphere to be in - even if I am watching more from the sidelines than I usually do.

Interestingly, I have had a few more sides recently that are reminiscent of the early days of treatment. Nausea and indigestion, occasional “chills”, trouble sleeping as well as light-headedness and vertigo. The “half-wittedness” continues and I feel very much precludes me from enjoying the events going on around me - which I usually join in with gusto. I also look very washed out and tired despite the hours of sunshine and relaxation. However as I lie in the sun I am certain I can feel all those vitamins energising me and that seratonin increasing in me. Happily I don’t actually have to do much and I am spending alot of time sitting around, lying around and just “chilling”. (Very similar to how I described my life at home above - but alot more enjoyable, I have to say, with lots of warm and sunny fresh air to be out and about in.)

Tomorrow (post injection day and all) we are off to Morrocco for 4 days in the Rif Mountains. It might not be the most obvious thing to do in the very very last week of treatment but I am looking forward to the adventure as I haven’t been to the African continent before. If I have to “sit out” another week of treatment I can at least enjoy a new experience at the same time. Fortunately for me, we are going on a coach tour which I suspect has a mainly elderly clientele so I am confident I won’t be the only one who is slow and easily short of breath!

So for the next few days until I gain internet access again, hasta luego.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 3rd, 2005 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.