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.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Long Term Side Effects: Everything is a little bit hotter.




My core temperature has changed.

I was out at the Beach Chalet restaurant this past Sunday with my wife and a few friends listening to one of our favorite bands, the Aqua Velvets. The restaurant itself is just across the Great Highway from the beach and a perfect setting for the Surf Jazz the band features. It was a typical San Francisco summer afternoon with a bit of fog and a very slight breeze that, thankfully was shielded by the of the restaurant building. The temperature was in the mid-60s. I was wearing a T-shirt and a long sleeve dress shirt that was unbuttoned over a pair of jeans and I was perfectly comfortable. I was thinking about it while sitting there and it reinforced the fact that one of the long-term side effects of the of the hepatitis C chemotherapy treatment process is that my temperature comfort level has moved a bit lower on the spectrum. In the old days on an afternoon like that I would've been wearing a sweatshirt at least and perhaps even a light jacket over a sweatshirt. The breeze would've chilled me, my hands would have been cold and while I would have stayed and listened to the band, I would not exactly have been comfortable.

Now however it seems I am much better suited to the San Francisco climate. Many days I wear an undershirt with a long sleeve shirt over it,  either a T-shirt or golf style shirt or a button-front dress shirt and that's all I wear (except for pants, I still wear pants even after chemo...).  I generally don't need to wear a jacket or I can carry a light fleece jacket with me to can put on only in the evening when the temperature drops into the very low 60s or the wind kicks up. In the old days, pre-treatment, I would always follow the San Francisco prescription of dressing in layers with a shirt, sweatshirt and jacket always with me and most often all worn at the same time. That is no longer the case.

 Many of the long-term side effects that have stayed with me since the hepatitis C chemo are not ones that I have enjoyed or have not been ones that have benefited me in the long term. This one however is definitely an advantage. While I am no longer is able to tolerate warm temperatures as well as I was in the past and truly hot weather really leaves me exhausted, that's not the sort of weather that we have very often in San Francisco. Now I appear to be better adapted to my environment and I can tolerate the city that before I always used to find much too cold for my taste.

If global warming really intensifies in the long run, this and may not be an advantage. But for right now and for the next few years it may very well end up being the best side effect of being treated for hepatitis C.