Wow

I would like to thank everybody for posting such encouraging comments on my blog. You don’t know how much I appreciate it.

Anyway, I’m back from my trip to the big city, where I saw the doctor, and I’m really pleased with how it went. He was very informative, and the most amazing thing happened… I think I’ve changed my mind about getting the treatment!

Doc really made things clear for me when he pointed out that I’ve got two choices – either give the treatment a go and maybe it works and I’m cured, or maybe it doesn’t and I’m back where I was. Or, live with the virus and have my liver destroyed.

Here are some important things I learned about the Interferon/Ribavirin treatment that helped me to change my mind:
1) It doesn’t do any permanent damage. In fact, even if it fails to eliminate the virus, it might actually slow it down for a while.
2) My Genotype (Genotype 3) has a good chance of responding to the treatment.
3) Not everyone experiences really bad side effects. And because of my Genotype, I would only have the treatment for 6 months instead of 12.

So, my next step is to have a liver biopsy to assess the damage. That sounds pretty scary as well, but necessary. Then there’s the type of treatment to consider. It’s a bit weird, because there’s the government-funded one which has up to a 60% success rate, and there’s another one which the government won’t fund because it’s too expensive, but has a much better success rate. Apparently the cost is around $NZ15,000. The weird thing is that this other option never seems to get mentioned. They only ever mention the free option. I don’t understand why that is, since surely the pharmaceutical company would be happy to sell the expensive option.

There’s something freaky about the way the health system works in this country. And I haven’t quite got to the bottom of it yet…

The Day After Tomorrow

The day after tomorrow, I’m going to my first doctor’s appointment to discuss my condition. I didn’t make this doctor’s appointment. I didn’t even request it. The first I knew about it was when I got a letter saying that I had an appointment to attend. The public health system in New Zealand certainly works in mysterious ways! I have been for four blood tests over the past few months. That’s because I received letters in the mail saying I needed to go to my nearest hospital and give blood samples to be tested. Who are these faceless, nameless people that are organising my life? Do they also have hidden cameras installed in my house? It’s all very weird.
Anyway, this doctor that I’m due to see is located in my nearest city - 4 hours drive away. Since it happens to be our second wedding anniversary that day, hubby and I are going to make a little holiday of it, stay in a nice hotel tomorrow night, go to my doctor's appointment the next morning, and get in a spot of sightseeing before coming home.
There, see, there’s a silver lining to every black cloud.

Thanks Out There

I would like to thank the guy who posted the comment on my blog, pointing out that I hadn’t made any entries since October. It brought me back.
The truth is, it became too painful for me to write about it any more. So for the past few months I’ve been ignoring it. Just living my life as if nothing’s wrong.
It’s not like I don’t know it’s there – there’s still the diarrhoea and the fatigue, and an added problem now, incredibly itchy skin. So I can't completely forget about it - but not dwelling on it has been a relief.
Hopefully now I’ve settled somewhere in the middle. Not all cut up about it like I was before, but facing and accepting it. And if there’s even one person out there who can relate to what I’m saying and feel comforted by knowing I’m going through it too, then I’m gonna keep on blogging.
So thanks, man.