hospital and results

Hospital visit yesterday went as usual. Was feeling a bit dizzy and tired with a really bad headache (from my neck) that wasn't responding to paracetomol. Nonetheless my appointment was fine, had a chat with the nurse - I expressed my concern that treatment may not work, and she said then we'll just wait for the next thing. She didn't seem too concerned about it herself, and this is reassuring I guess. Apparently I don't get a viral load check until 3 months after finishing treatment - so another 6 months to go. Which actually is quite nice as it delays 'd-day' for a while (altho this means Christmas will be even more stressful than it usually is anyway!). Got another 4 week supply of interferon and ribavirin. Won't need any more ribavirin prescribing after this as I have nearly 3 boxes of 168 as it is!

Blood results - Haemoglobin 10.6 (down from 11.1), Iron 8, ALT 19. As my Hb is likely to continue to drop on my current dose, I have spoken to the haematologist and think I'm going to go ahead with Epo. It takes a while to work, so best to get it started sooner before my Hb drops more and I feel really rotten. At this rate it would be down below 9 by the time I finished if I didn't intervene (and then some after treatment I guess). So I plan to use it for 6 weeks, and hopefully this will see me through. I'll talk to him tomorrow and get an actual price - it will be expensive but I have been talked round by my sister who put things into perspective for me when I was trying to think what else I could spend my savings on...! Hey, who knows, I may even get to have some energy! And that's priceless isn't it??

SO that's it really. Have learned how to put photos on the blog so will be posting more pictures
Lu