I'm writing this story in April of `96. I was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 1992, after MANY long years of seeing doctor after doctor; I think I have seen every type of doctor there is, well maybe not a vet (grin). I am now 36 years old. At 16, I left home, and lived a pretty risky lifestyle. By the time I was 17 (1977), I had my first child. I had to have a C-section, and a blood transfusion during the process. In 1982, I began to get sick, and stayed sick. Thus began my long journey to the HCV diagnosis. I had right upper quadrant pain, nausea, extreme fatigue, low-grade fever. My MD couldn't determine a cause for any of this, so he referred me to a heart specialist. He ran lots of tests, I was put in the hospital and told I had an infection around the sac of my heart, and would have to be bed-ridden for at least a year. The doctor did say that none of the tests he performed on me confirmed this diagnosis, but that was the only logical explanation he had for my symptoms. I checked myself out of the hospital and changed doctors. Went to see an internist. He ran test after test, finding nothing. He told me I was depressed and was imagining all of it, and put me on Valium. I saw him for a few months, took nerve pills, muscle relaxers, and whatever else he prescribed for me, and only got worse. He gave up and referred me to a psychologist, who put me on anti-depressants. I told the doctor I wasn't depressed, I was sick! He said that if all the tests that had been ran on me couldn't confirm a diagnosis, then it was most likely all in my head. I stopped seeing him, and went back to my original MD. He ran more tests, found nothing, then referred me to a gastroenterologist, who said I had gallstones, and so I had my gallbladder removed at the end of 1982. My URQ pain only got worse, and I had a low-grade fever all the time. I pretty much got shuffled back and forth between doctors until late 1984, when my gynecologist discovered I had cancer. Aha! I thought...this was the reason I had felt so bad for so long! I now had the answer! The doctor performed a complete hysterectomy. I had to have 2 pints of blood during this surgery. I felt better after the surgery, and pretty much stayed away from doctors until late 1991. During this time, I concentrated on my life. Got married, had kids, got divorced, went to college at night, worked toward building a career during the day, and even squeezed in time to sing in a band on the weekends. Life was good, I was happy, fit, and thought I was healthy. In late 1991, I started feeling bad again, the URQ pain comes back, the fatigue kicks in, short term memory loss, nausea, low-grade fever. I went into panic mode, thinking the cancer was back. I went through the same doctor-hopping, tests, no results, mis-diagnosis game again until mid-1992. That is when I got my Hepatitis C diagnosis. Good news: the cancer wasn't back. Bad news: I have an incurable liver disease. The doctor who made the HCV diagnosis told me not to worry about it. He said I probably have a mild case, and there is nothing that can be done about it anyway, so just go home and live my life. I said okay, and did for a while. Stuck my head right into the sand and did nothing for a year. But somewhere in the back of my mind, a nagging little voice told me to wake up and do some digging into this mysterious virus that was eating my liver. By this time in my life, I was re-married, had 4 kids, a well established career, and was not prepared to go quietly into that good night. I started seeing a chiropractor, who got me into taking all sorts of alternative herbal therapy. This helped appease my need for some kind of active role in fighting the HCV for a while, but I still felt I should be doing more. I got on the internet, did a search on Hepatitis, and viola! I found the PlanetMaggie web page, the HEPV-L mailing list, and got myself a new doctor. I am now being screened for participation in an Inteferon/Ribavirin trial drug therapy program. The hepatologist (hepatitis liver-god) I see now doesn't recommend treatment for me because he too says I have a mild disease, but he did refer me to the study group I'm participating in now, because of my insistence on doing something...he went on to say that I will *probably* not advance to serious liver problems, but only time will tell. I don't want to wait and see what happens. I want to fight back at the dragon!! That is what I'm doing daily....fighting, hoping, praying. I go to work, take care of my kids, and learn all I can about HCV. There is a cure out there somewhere, and I want to take care of myself as best as I can so I'll be around to take advantage of that cure.
