Saturday, November 1, 2008

The Purge

I have not mentioned the result of my 4 week test. My viral load has dropped from 4.6 million to 1.8 million. This is good news. The challenge now is to get it down to 0 by my 12 week test. This was one of the reasons why I was determined to up my treatment regime.


I have been wondering how the interferon actually eliminates the virus and actually gets it out of the body. I presume the virus is removed from the body either whole or broken up somehow. It makes me realise that this is a purge. Last week my nurse was saying that the virus is not just in the liver but everywhere in the body. This I suspected. This is why the treatment is so long, to ensure the interferon kills every last virus in every cell that it can, because if there is any left it will simply multiply and return. So it is clear to me that I have to help this killing and purging process. It seemed evident to me that my quest to feel “back to normal” while on the drugs was wrong thinking. The body is going into a particular “abnormal” mode, in order to eliminate the virus - as with flu. This process needs to be embraced. Also I need to aid the interferon getting to every cell of my body so it can do its stuff. This is why I must not put too much additional pressure on my liver by consuming too much crap. Keep relaxed. Do not overuse my precious energy. Exercise and massage to get the blood moving into the cells. Saunas and skin brushing to help the skin eliminate toxins. Well, that’s the idea. Lets see if my legendary procrastination will rear its ugly head.

2 comments:

Debi said...

This sounds like definite progress to me. Both in the result and in your decision not to expect too much of yourself while this is all going on. xxx

Chris Vacano said...

Looks like your numbers are headed the right direction. This seems an appropriate time to caution you not to get too caught up in the statistical models that are floating around out there: among doctors, on the net, and particularly in forums.

Keep in mind that these models provide a general snapshot, and not a very good one. It took me longer than normal to reach undetectable levels, but my treatment succeeded, regardless.

The point I'm trying to make is that these models are clumsy, at best, and far from predictive.

It does sound like you're adjusting to treatment, which is a good sign. Your insight that your entire body has been turned into something of a battlefield is spot on, and so of course you're going to feel somewhat different from normal... probably until a few weeks after you finish treatment and your body clears the meds.