On Wed, 28 May 2008 15:47:41 +0100, Paul
<dontspamme@westgreen.freeserve.co.uk>, in message ID
<6trq34dhk2sa519ll9m1nu0bcqfib0phc0@4ax.com>, in the newsgroup
alt.support.hepatitis-c wrote:

Just an addendum to my own post.  I was on a 24 week tx so I probably
got off much lighter than some regarding after effects.

A roller coaster ride ;-)

I had suffered from extreme anemia - two months into therapy my HGB was barely
above 8g/dl. I felt like I was at Death's Door at that point. Still, it took
another month before my bcld finally referred me to a hematologist, who
immediately started me on Epogen 40KIU/week. A couple of weeks later he
boosted the EPO to 60KIU, and a couple of weeks after that my HGB finally rose
to between 9 and 10gl/dl, where it stayed for the remaining 33 weeks on tx.
Still ridiculously low for a male, of course, it kept me mostly vertical, and
I did not suffer any dosage reductions in the combo meds through the entire
course of therapy. But anything resembling physical therapy was just not
achievable.

Two weeks after completing tx, my HGB started rising dramatically. By the end
of the first month it was above 12g/dl, and a few weeks later it was back in
the normal range above 15g/dl. Over those 6 weeks there was a correspondingly
dramatic improvement in overall well being, and I was able to start expending
energy again, but there were still all kinds of remaining collateral issues
that took much longer to resolve.

I'd lost so much muscle mass (I lost 40 pounds off my 6'5" frame over tx) it
took almost a year to get physically back in shape. My hands had developed
deep scar tissue at the finger joints from skin splits and cracks (it was a
particularly cold and dry winter during the worst of my therapy) and it took
well over a year for my hands to fully heal and the fine motor skills to
return.

More positively, the rather mild "brain fog" I experienced pretty much
resolved in the first month post-tx. And I was fortunate that I never really
experienced the infamous "rage" - I think I was just too physically wiped out
to muster enough energy for that.

Trivial stuff like hair changing back from dead-straight to my naturally curly
state took about 6 months (and looked just as weird going through that process
as it did going from curly to straight at the front end of tx ;-) And the mild
skin rash on my legs and arms only took about two months to fully resolve.

Things like taste and smell also resolved quickly - within a few weeks of
ending treatment I could enjoy and/or tolerate pretty much everything that had
made me instantly nauseous during treatment. For instance, the whole household
had to switch to non-scented bath soaps and shampoos and avoid applying
deodorants and perfumes while inside the house while I was in the depths of
therapy.

So...Bottom line, full recovery was a fairly drawn out process to get back to
being "pre-tx me", with some things only taking weeks and others taking many
months to a full year. But I expect my case would be skewed more towards the
"worse case" recovery model, almost entirely due to the collateral damage
caused by the anemia I experienced - which, fwiw, was clearly shown to be
two-fold, both hemolytic due to the Ribavirin, and aplastic due to the
Interferon. Not typical at all...

Was it worth it? Hells yeah it was worth it!!!

Cheers - and may you travel a much shorter road to recovery! :-)

/greyhackles