Haggard & Hollow-Eyed Injection 72

My "chocolate lovers delight" cake. My celebration cake!


I considered this treatment for Hepatitis C as a “tour of duty” that I had to endure and see to the end. It became a quest and while it knocked the stuffing out of me and has taken over total control of my life I pushed through it. I won’t receive a medal, certificate of achievement, or 15 minutes of fame in the news or on the television, but I will know that I persevered to complete it. What an achievement and I know I did my best.

Sunday, January 25, 2009 I injected the last needle of interferon. It's a miracle that I made it without being hauled off the treatment.

I hope you don't think I'm a drama queen regarding this, but it was a fight from my first diagnosis on December 18, 2006. I fought, lied, cheated and withheld information from the nurse practitioner (and my doc) as soon it became glaringly clear that she would haul me off treatment for the most stupid reason.

I had to suffer six more months extra of penance (from a 48 week treatment to a 72 week treatment) when things didn't go according to the clinic’s protocol and I made it. The bar was set pretty high here. It was pure anger and determination that kept me going along with the fact that I investigated the virus and had help from a Hep C forum located in England and in United States. The nurse knew that I wasn't going to "lie down and show my belly.”

I would negotiate everything with her to stay on full dose of the treatment or worse ...getting my script shut down. I was threatened with these options constantly. I would struggle into her office haggard and hollow-eyed, grey pasty skin and my tufted out thin hair and she would eye me trying to figure out how to sabotage my journey. She became the enemy. She became someone who could kill my chances of completing treatment if things weren’t perfect. She knew it was brutal and I wasn't going to give in...I signed up for it and I pushed to keep going.

I withheld information and side effects from her and my husband and I know that if I had of dialed 911 the night of the propane "poisoning" the local hospital would have not allowed me to continue and the nurse in the city would have let that happen. I would have been hauled off in a heartbeat. The list of sides that I suffered was relentless. I suffered continuous ache in my liver area and it's because of the strain on the liver dealing with such horrible chemicals. I had two lung x-rays once at the beginning of treatment and once when I complained about the side ache. It was all clear for chest problems.

I constantly battled fatigue, dizziness and brain fog. These were sides from treatment and mainly because my red blood cells were pushed so low I could hardly function.

I did report my eye problems and they sent me to an eye doc in the city and he determined it was migraine flashes and not bleeding retinas (caused by the tx) I managed to overcome hurtle after hurtle and learned to "sit down, shut up, hang on and go for the ride." My vision isn't the same as it was and I am hopeful that it will improve once I am clear of the chemicals. I’m tired of having all the blinds closed and running around the house with sunglasses on all day. My husband told me recently it was like living with a rock star. The vision will eventually right itself, I hope. It will take time.

I have had chest pains which I was supposed to report, but knowing that I would be hauled off treatment. When I experienced this pain I didn’t tell a soul. My red blood cells were so suppressed that the lungs and heart were sucking for oxygen. I just lay on the couch those days to see if I could get through it. I knew that the "heart ache" I was experiencing was a warning sign and the nurse would have hauled me off the treatment. ...and the extreme exhaustion and fatigue was always there.

I had the ultimate hypochondriac’s wish list of side effects. BRUTAL I want my life back and it will come with time.

# 70

I just injected #70. Everything is moving in slow motion. I am worn out and sick. Of course, I’m still angry as hell over this diagnosis and the extended treatment from hell. It was my choice, but I never bought into 72 weeks.

My father-in-law has been combating serious health problems and has been in and out of intensive care since before Christmas. He ended up there the other night with a bleeding ulcer from the blood thinners. My Mother-In-Law is needy (justifiably so) and is clinging to her son.

My husband is showing the signs of stress and fatigue from trying to appear to have a stiff upper lip through crisis after crisis. The propane scare really upset him because he felt responsible. When someone is on any type of treatment for any reason they do need to be looked after and I think he thinks he let me down and it could have been very serious.

Now he’s dealing with his father being seriously ill.

One thing about treatment you cannot predict how your life transpires while you are on it. You seem to get hit from all sides with “life going on” while you are battling your own demons.

The refrigerator repair person was back to replace the part that was ordered for the fridge and he was horrified at what happened regarding turning on the gas stove accidently. He called his supervisor immediately and this company is going to file a report to Maytag regarding this hazard with this type of stove. I expect that someone will be contacting me to come and determine what happened so that it never happens again to anyone else.

Injection 69 This Evening

Well, my husband and I used up two of the kitty’s nine lives on Friday. We had a huge blizzard here in Atlantic Canada. The whole day was upsetting regarding our snow removal as the contractor the group hired to plough the neighbourhood dropped us on the day of a huge storm. That was a struggle to get someone to plough the main road and our driveway.

A repairman came to try and repair our fridge ( that is less than a year old ) and left around 4 p.m. Anyhow, he accidently switched on the gas stove while he was repairing the fridge and I thought it was rotten food from the freezer that had melted and warmed up on the drain pan. It’s a three step process to turn the burner on the stove. You have to press the button in hard, wait for the flint to “tick” and then wait for the gas to ignite. He pressed it in (probably with his side or butt) while dealing with the fridge and by passed the “tick” and the burner was left on putting out full on propane.

The defrosting switch is malfunctioning and he took the fridge apart and used a heating gun to defrost the fridge. I noticed a vague rotten food odour when I came upstairs as he was leaving. I was really perplexed with that because I thought I was a good housekeeper, but figured that he must have heated something up in the drip pan and it was stinking to high heaven. He had an old towel to catch the water that dripped out. I turned on the outtake fan above the kitchen stove to see if it would clear out. I also turned on the outtake air exchanger in the bathrooms to clear the stink out of the house. It could have saved my life.

I went downstairs after they guy left and my cat howled and yelled from upstairs and I kept speaking to her thinking that she was calling; now I’m not so sure. Asian cats tend to call for you with a howl to see if you are around. I was thinking it was odd that she was calling for me even though I answered her several times and that I should go upstairs and see what she’s into, but now I think she could smell it and was calling to me.


It was a comedy of errors and my husband who is usually home by 4:30 p.m. each day for the evening. He would have eventually figured it out. He came home to have his supper and race back out to do his job. However, when we had our supper I turned off the outtake fan and my husband determined that the odour was on the towel and we washed it. I smelled in the fridge and the freezer and determined that it wasn’t the inside of the fridge it had to be the work the repairman did and he set of something stinking in the defrost pan. I was confused to why it had such a rank odour. We micro waved supper and husband rushed out to finish his work for the day. It was just not a normal night. Husband is usually home. I went downstairs and I was down there on the computer and watching tele until husband came home at 8 p.m. I was still confused why the odour was so strong. I came upstairs and changed into my bleaching clothes as I was determined to try and scrub the area to see if I could get rid of the rotten food odour...even though I didn’t have the energy or strength to do it. My husband came in the door and started to open doors and windows and I checked the fridge again. At this time the fridge turned off and I could hear “sssssssssssssssssssssssss” I came around the stove and asked my husband if he put the kettle on and he said no. The burner was left on full for four hours. The house was full of propane. I had to get outside and we had to call the propane company. I know I should have gone to the out-patients and had oxygen, but I didn’t because I didn’t want to explain these meds to the local hospital.

I am so sick I cannot reason anything out in my brain on this treatment. I was in the propane for a full four hours with the propane full on. It was the power burst burner and it is set to run full out for high heat fast. I vented the odour out of the house out for the first hour thinking I was clearing the room from refrigerator stink. As I became more overtaken by the fumes what reasoning and logic I had left was nil.

I have smelled propane from industrial, bar b q, while I am cooking and it NEVER smelled like this before. We are super careful with the gas stove and we always check it to ensure it’s not on, but I was thinking refrigerator, NOT propane.

I always try to keep the fire going in the woodstove (located in the same room) and I’m always switching light switches off and on. For some reason I never went near the wood stove and it went out. My husband always checks it when he comes home and just by luck he didn’t but he was surprised I didn’t keep it going. I was so lethargic and stupid from nearly being poisoned along with tx I am amazed I didn’t drop. I was dizzy and confused, but I thought it was tx. The kitty was downstairs with me all the time as the gas was building upstairs and by 8 p.m it was through the whole house.

It was such a comedy of errors and I am very fortunate that my husband and I are still here. I’ll never doubt my little kitty when she flips out and acts weird again.

Injection 69 this evening in another half hour. Three left following this shot.

RR