Being Cured
Being cured of hepatitis c does take a huge weight off your mind. Not only is your liver no longer under attack your mental state begins to lighten as well.
Fear when diagnosed
I know personally when I was diagnosed, I was extremely anxious and fearful.
Back in 2005, the only then cure was a statistic of a 50 percent chance of beating this disease. Those odds at the time were ones I was willing to take at any cost just to survive and live for my children.
In 2011, when I was pulled off that only treatment available to cure (even at that rate) I was terrified. I had watched this very disease take my mother's life in 2006, and now they are pulling me off Interferon.
I begged, and I pleaded to keep me on this treatment. Even though the side effects were and possibly continue to damage my body even worse than hepatitis C itself.
I tell this story not to scare you who are reading this but to share that the positive side to my story is I was eventually cured on a clinical trial drug, Solvaldi, and Ribavirin.
In 2014, this was a true miracle drug in the world of hepatitis patients. Not only was it curing at a 98 percent ratio the side effects were so much less than that old regime.
The improvements in treatment
Fast forward to 2023.
Today newer, even better treatments are available. We have several now, not just one that are curing hepatitis c patients at a 98 percent ratio.
These newer even better drug treatments are curing with low to no side effects on patients, and to top off this exciting news, Patients treatment times are now only 8 -12 weeks. That is a far cry from the interferon days of 48 weeks.
Those days are now gone of harsh treatments for hepatitis c and with the cure rates ratio and length of time to cure, this should be the exact time for those who have not been tested for hepatitis c, to be tested.
I encourage anyone reading this who has just been diagnosed to know that those of us before you do understand and are here to guide you through what has become a difficult period in your life.
Hold fast to the knowledge that these newer treatments are nothing like the older ones and are so far advanced in curing your hepatitis c.
Stay strong in your fight. Ask questions and keep moving towards your cure.
Not without a Fight!
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