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Why Staying on
Treatment Is Important
Taking Hep C therapy requires your
active participation and a strong commitment to finish
what you’ve started. By following your doctor's
instructions and taking your medication as directed, you
are giving yourself the best chance of reducing the
virus to a level where it cannot be seen in your blood
(a
virologic response).
You may also be able to help improve the condition of
your liver (a
histologic response) by
decreasing inflammation.
Of course, treatment may not always be
easy. People will experience varying degrees of
side effects that make
taking medication difficult. Should you have any
questions or concerns about side effects or your
medication, be sure to talk with your doctor
immediately—and don’t make any changes to your
therapy without talking to your healthcare team first.
Your doctor or nurse may tell you that
the way you feel during treatment is “normal” or that
the benefit of taking the medication should outweigh the
side effects you are experiencing. But you are the one
who will make the choice and commitment to continue your
treatment. Make sure you have all the facts to help you
get through it.
Read
Patient Stories for
more about the variety of experiences people have
with hep C diagnosis and treatment.
Remember that
interferon is similar
to a substance that your body routinely makes—and your
body makes more of it when you have an illness such as
the flu. One of the reasons that you feel bad when you
have the flu is that higher levels of interferon cause
you to have certain symptoms, including fever, chills,
headaches, and muscle and joint aches. But your body’s
interferon is fighting the influenza virus—so you “put
up” with these symptoms to get rid of the virus.
In the case of the flu, you don’t have
any choice about “using” interferon—it is a natural part
of your
immune system. But your
body’s interferon is not as effective against the hep C
virus, so you have to take active treatment steps. As
you might expect from this information about interferon,
treatment with pegylated interferon may cause many
flu-like symptoms. For some people, these symptoms may
occur early in treatment but lessen as the weeks of
therapy go on.
Here is the part that takes courage: you
have to choose to continue on a course of treatment that
may be causing you to feel “sick” in order to fight a
virus that may not have been making you feel sick. In a
sense, your treatment plan is like an investment in your
health. Short-term costs can be unpleasant but may lead
to long-term gains. There are no guarantees or easy
answers, but hep C can cause serious complications,
especially if left untreated. Remember that the most
serious effect of hep C is on your
liver—and damage to the
liver can take time (even decades) to emerge.
Other common, but often manageable, side
effects associated with pegylated interferon plus
ribavirin therapy include:
Flu-like symptoms, including fever,
chills, and muscle aches
Upset stomach, nausea/vomiting
Loss of appetite
Difficulty in controlling blood
sugar levels (which may lead to diabetes)
Skin reactions, such as rash, dry or
itchy skin
Redness and swelling at the site of
injection
Temporary hair loss
Temporary hair thinning
Trouble sleeping
Possible serious side effects, which
your doctor or nurse can talk to you about, include
mental health problems, blood problems, infections,
and problems with your lungs, eyes,
immune system, and
heart. Your healthcare team may treat these side
effects, change the amount of medication you take,
or stop your treatment.
Do you need to
start drug therapy? Not necessarily. Your doctor may
recommend........
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