As I said in my post on Saturday, our visit to Morroco made a strong impact, with its rich sights and sounds. We stayed in a Riad (old nobleman’s house built around a courtyard) in a small town called Chefchaouen in the Rif Mountains. Click on the photo below to see some of the others we took on our trip there.
We arrived back in Spain from Morocco yesterday. And I have only seven more ribavirin tablets to take over the next two days and the treatment is finished. 
I think ending the treatment on holiday has worked well for me (although this may not be the case for everyone going through treatment). Even though I have been lazing about in the sun and sitting about in cafes drinking coffees I have, in practice, been more active than I was a few weeks ago sitting at home for hours and not going out at all some days. And I feel better for the sun and the exercise, although I continue to be frequently fatigued, and continue to live with all the other (by now) usual limitations.
Yesterday Carol felt nauseous and light-headed for a few hours while we were travelling. I could empathise with how she felt and realized how used to these type of symptoms I have become over the past year most days. And how tolerant I have become to coping with aches and pains in a way I never used to previously in life before doing this treatment. I guess that has to be an advantage to having been through this experience.
Our trip to Morocco was great. It was an almost continuous rich barrage on all the senses. Colours, the light, the air, sights, sounds, people, different perspectives on life, cultural differences. It made a real impact on all of us. Although we were only there four days it seemed longer as time seemed different there too. I could write at length about my impressions – but as this is a journal about HepC treatment I will limit myself on my comments. However I will upload the pictures I took though and make a link to them in a few days time (once I´m back on my own computer).
My speculation about going on an “elderly” coach trip was right. Although we went walking along a river in the mountains one day and walked up and down steps for two hours in the walled part of the old town on another, the general pace of the group was one I could keep up with – and needed only the same breaks as others. I should add that the party was actually not “elderly” as much as “mature” travellers.
I can see by my writing that I am feeling tired now and will wind this up as I can´t remember the other point I was going to write about. I am aware that as this treatment comes to an end I am ready to move on now and get on with adjusting my life yet again. More changes. I will be living without the medications and relying on my self and the inherent healing abilities of my body to move on to wellness and a return to health. I am ready now.
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.