Allen's Sovaldi + Ribavirin Treatment Log

Congrats, Allen. I'm glad to hear your ALT has normalized and you have more energy.
I have 15 days to go and hope I have the success that you are experiencing.

Hey, hair is important to use men also ;-) Anyways as for the hair loss I personally think I lost a bit, I noticed during the treatment that I would see pieces of hair on my keyboard as I work on computers all day at home and I think instead of falling out it was more likely brittle and breaking off.

My wife tells me she didn't notice ANY hair loss at all, I looked at a couple of pictures and I look exactly the same and no friends have joked "Hey Al, you sure lost alot of hair the past year" so I suspect its not bad at all if I really did lose hair.

As for Eyebrows, not at all and my eyebrows which are usually fairly thick didn't seem affected at all.

I did have cramps and constipation BUT I am taking prescription painkillers that caused me bad constipation before all of this happened so if it was happening more I wouldn't have really been able to tell.

When my stomach was not feeling well I would drink Ginger Ale, If I didn't drink it all I would just put it back in the fridge and drink the next day even if it was flat and the carbonation was gone and it would make me feel better. Make sure to drinks LOT'S of water...I can't stress this enough! I could tell when I wasn't drinking enough and you will be dehydrated and probably have dry mouth so its a good idea to have a exercise water bottle you can refill and drink all day long, when you go to bed I would keep on the end table beside me or I would just lay it in bed beside my pillow so when I woke up with my mouth so dry I thought I was having trouble breathing so I would just take a quick sip and swish it around and fall back asleep.


I don't mind you asking ANY questions and if you don't want to ask them publicly then feel free to send me a private message and I will try to answer if I can, we're all adults and though things are somewhat personal for some people I feel if someone has a questions and I can somehow answer it will make their journey just a bit easier.

Everything is gonna be fine Samantha, you'll get through this with no problems and realize the treatment is not that bad at all and mentally you will feel so much better knowing its eradicated from your system and after its over you will also feel better physically.

Take care...

Of all the people being treated I felt I complained the most(no joke) but my wife will tell you I tend to complain lots...haha. So whatever you do DON'T read my thread on my treatment and get scared about the side effects I mentioned because honestly I've been through way worse in my life and this treatment is NOT bad at all...I just complain alot .

Like I said if you have any questions feel free to ask us, I knew really nothing about all of this when I found out I was infected and was so thankful to come to these forums and everybody accepted me right away and helped make me feel comfortable and could answer most questions I needed answered...many times they knew more than my own doctor or specialist.

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Sovaldi + Ribavirin Treatment began February 6th 2014 - 12 weeks of treatment. After 4 weeks treatment VL has dropped from 4.7 Million to *79* - I've finished treatment April 30th 2014 .

VL level as of May 1 2014 is "<12 DETECTED" - Next VL test July 31 2014 and my results may change to undetected.

Thanks

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Sovaldi + Ribavirin Treatment began February 6th 2014 - 12 weeks of treatment. After 4 weeks treatment VL has dropped from 4.7 Million to *79* - I've finished treatment April 30th 2014 .

VL level as of May 1 2014 is "<12 DETECTED" - Next VL test July 31 2014 and my results may change to undetected.

Hi David, yes I do work from home so I was sorta "Lucky" in that sense however I believe I probably could have also worked daily outside of the home and toughed it out though some days any sort of hard labor may have been hard because I ran out of energy alot of days in the afternoon.

If you work from home already you will have absolutely no problems at all, some days you might need an hour or two nap BUT I am sure alot of people didn't and I seemed to be one of those that had worst side effects from what I read between all of us on this forum.

Good luck David, you're gonna be fine and this treatment once you start will mentally have you feeling better in no time and three months really is not that long at all for the end result. Physically some days I felt short on breath and was tired but I was OK and I made it and I am happy I went through with it right away.

www.bioscript.ca/alberta.html

Paid for by insurance, cost for both Sovaldi and Ribavirin treatment for three months was somewhere around 90k CDN though I would have to ask the wife for the exact number. I had to also pay $3000 out of pocket.

Hello Copenhagen, glad to hear you're going through with the treatment. I noticed throughout the treatment I did lose hair and it seemed to thin out a bit but now a about 50 or 60 days later I don't really noticed and I recently got a hair cut and look's the same as usual so its returning

Yes the water I was drinking lots, my wife kept telling me to drink lots and my doctor was constantly telling me it was *very* important to stay hydrated with these med's. As for coffee, I typically drink about three glasses a day...I make them in one of those Keurig machines for coffee on the *large* size and which is probably the size of a large cup when dispensed...I put it in one of those To-Go cups with the lid you screw on and can shake it etc and it won't leak.

I did not notice body pain from the coffee but I sorta craved it because I was tired alot of times and also found sometimes I might drink later in the afternoon around 3-4 p.m...I think to sorta wake myself up.

As for the comfort foods their is not much you can do, its better to be comfortable then being worried and your body usually even when you stop working out for a year can get back in shape and get its muscle back in 6-8 weeks even when you gain 10 pounds simply with more exercise and following a good diet.

I still have not totally gotten back into shape as I have a separated shoulder right now causing me pain, instead I have been doing P90-X workouts instead of weight lifting and any exercises that cause my shoulder pain I then switch to running on the spot or repeat another exercise I did recently to fill in that time space and I also have rubber band's and a small pulley that I connect to a door downstairs to keep working out and getting in shape and I also walk the dog every day for 30+ minutes....better than no exercise and eventually I will be working out 4 days a week lifting but for now I am just coasting along and trying to slowly get back in shape and not worrying myself too much about it.

It's well known that "muscle memory" is real and you'll be back in shape in no time when this is all over if that's what you really want, just need to put in the effort but you'll notice even one week after stopping treatment you will have alot more energy and you will want to exercise.

Take care and good luck!

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Sovaldi + Ribavirin Treatment began February 6th 2014 - 12 weeks of treatment. After 4 weeks treatment VL has dropped from 4.7 Million to *79* - I've finished treatment April 30th 2014 .

VL level as of May 1 2014 is "<12 DETECTED" - Next VL test July 31 2014 and my results may change to undetected.

Hi I have hepatitis C geno 03 type and an expected to start treatment sometime this week for 24 weeks with sovaldi and ribavirin I'm very scared and wondering if I'm going to have a hard time taking care of my 3 year old toddler also I'm worried about losing my hair I hear a lot of talk about people being very tired and falling asleep off and on and I worry that I will not be able to take care of my 3 year old on this treatment and I don't have anyone to help me with my child

Thank u so much for taking time to write me and help me to feel better about starting my treatment I am looking forward to hopefully being called cured from this and I'm so glad u so many others r doing great on this treatment god bless u and ur family :) ❤

Yes I do want to be around for her and I will definitely do the treatment

iamhmanley1973 said...
Thank u so much for taking time to write me and help me to feel better about starting my treatment I am looking forward to hopefully being called cured from this and I'm so glad u so many others r doing great on this treatment god bless u and ur family :) ❤

Your welcome and thank you!

As for losing and gaining weight, the ONLY reason I gained weight was because I choose to eat alot of comfort food, that was my excuse to make myself feel better and honestly it was a very poor excuse and the medication I do NOT think caused me to gain weight at all.

You need not worry about gaining weight and what you need to worry about is not being positive and keeping yourself in a *positive* mood to get through this, if you gain a couple of pound you will lose it just as easy as you did the last 4 months when you lost 40 lbs so honestly don't even worry about it and just do your best to eat healthy and try not to eat junk food like I did if you don't have too.

I'm not sure if these medications cause weight gain and I personally think if their is any weight gain its due to people sitting around more, instead just keep fricken walking daily and if you can do workouts then do that also and you will be fine and you won't gain weight and even if you did gain a couple of pounds it will be easily lost.

I am not sure if you will continue to *lose* weight while on the treatment and I think that should be the last of your worries, your quality of life is more important than a diet right now and you can resume when your finished treatment and in no way would I advocate severly cutting calories while on treatment and if anything you need to keep active and keep your body nourished while it fights this Hep C for good!

I probably could have attempted to diet while doing my treatment but honestly my FIRST concern was healing my liver, diet's come and go but you only have ONE liver!

Also make sure you drink LOTS of water, this is important!

Good luck!

New Member just beginning week 9; Age 55; location: NYC.
Genotype 2 since 1999; Pre-TX V/L 1 million
Rather compliant with Med regimen but only took 4 caps Ribavirin rather than 5 recommended (My weight is very low at 133 I'm usually 147-I have a rare MD-wasting disease-genetic);
At day 18 my V/L was 61 (no typo, 2 digit #); After that I began taking the full 5 caps Ribavirin.
No side effects for first 18-20 days but thereafter I got very weak, blurry vision w/ spots and felt like crud in early morning;
I always took my Sovaldi after dinner 6pm with 2 caps Ribavirin same time.
At week 4 I had begin staggering the morning dose of Ribavirin and began taking those caps throughout morning/early afternoon. Cannot wait to stop taking it.
At week 6 my V/L was undetectable. I had also become Anemic by a few points.
Has anyone seen reports on this Fall the 12 week Length of TX will drop to 8 weeks for some TX naïve, genotypes? neil

Post Edited (neil005) : 6/30/2014 4:49:06 PM (GMT-6)

Allen: This post has gone long. Now that your treatment is complete, lets start a new volume.

All: Here is the link to Allen's Volume II.

www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=25&m=3122413

Best to you today,

Mama Lama

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MamaLama, Forum moderator - Hepatitis
Partner received liver transplant (May 1, 2011) FL
Hep C 1a Treatment - Sovaldi/Olysio (March - May 2014)
Undetected since week 4.

Post Edited (MamaLama) : 7/3/2014 8:37:21 AM (GMT-6)