I am a 57-year-old white American male infected with Hepatitis C. I am involved in a controlled medical research study by Roche Pharmaceuticals of an experimental Polymerase Inhibitor (RO5024048 also known as RG7128) drug therapy for the virus. This document is the story of my illness and the experience of treatment. My lovely and pretty damn wonderful wife will be contributing her take on the experience as well.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

HepC Nation: Dia de Los Muertos

HepRat (HR), the owner of this timely blog, revealed his HepC status to me, his wife, on a dreary day in early November 2008, outdoors, in a large city park. Maybe being outside made me feel less boxed in by the knowledge, but I still felt lightheaded and dazed by his revelation. It didn't seem real -- this bad news, the gray fog drifting through the trees, my scattered thoughts.

That first day, I could only think of our dear friend E., who died from HepC-caused liver damage some years ago. E. and HR have/had very different clinical backgrounds, so their responses to the disease might not be all that similar. Still, it was an agonizing decline to witness and I couldn't stop thinking about the only other experience I'd had with a HepC patient. I do not want that to be the outcome this time, especially with my beloved HepRat!

As with all medical issues brought to my attention, I resolved not to spiral downward into anxiety, negative thoughts, worst-case scenario-building, etc. Instead, I planned to read about HepC and educate myself and HepRat about recent developments in treating and managing humanity's latest scourge.

I found a few books at Borders that seemed pretty good and bought them all. Insights I gleaned from them and Internet research will come to light in subsequent blog entries.

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