Looking Back at the Beginning of My Fight

Early-on in my diagnosis of hep C, I noticed some symptoms I was having. These symptoms, I learned later, were all normal and common ones for those fighting hep C.

Fatigue was the main symptom I was experiencing- I was so tired all of the time. I also noticed my coordination with opening up jars or containers was off. It was like I didn’t have the strength to open them.

Consumed by brain fog

I really noticed that something was amiss was when I would answer my company phone and forget what to say. It was as though a mental block was stamped in my brain. As my hep C progressed, the more and more incidents would happen, and I began to fear answering the shop phone because I didn’t want to sound strange. To deal with it, I hired someone to do that part of business and greet customers as they came in with work. I started limiting my time exposed to the public.

After hiring someone, I was left to sit at my computer doing all the quoting, invoicing, etc, but then that became an issue. I could not do simple math problems, such as adding a few numbers together. It was crazy. It was then that I was scared enough to reach back out to my doctor for help. That is when we learned that my liver had progressed from a stage 1 to a stage 4. This meant my liver was struggling badly, and all the symptoms like brain fog, muscle pain, and joint pain were because my liver was not performing its duties of filtering out the toxins of my body.

Then versus now

This all happened early-on in the hep C era. Not much information was out there discussing these topics, so I blew off my symptoms. If I had known sooner, I probably could have sought help sooner.

Nowadays, there are so many amazing treatments curing at very good odds of 98 percent or better. Therefore, there is no reason anyone should put off treating, if you can. Yes, we have heard the insurance issues, etc.  But, be proactive. Get involved in fighting for your treatment! If one door closes, you knock on the next.  You keep going. "No, I am sorry" was never in my vocabulary, and if I ever heard this, I would beat on the next opportunity, and finally, after several denials, I got my cure.

Today, my symptoms are still there, but in a mild form (Not because of Hep C, as I am cured, but because the damage hep C did to my liver, and it still being cirrhotic). I take medication for brain fog, and my muscle and joint pain is getting better since I began to workout more. However, I still have a hard time telling others how I feel or what is hurting (usually because I pushed myself too far and now it is beyond extreme pain that there is no starting point to describe to them).