December 05, 2013
……. So the night before I'd been up all night with a friend, snortin, drinkin' smoking and then taking valium to level out. All was well until my friend who I'd known for years started getting very negative and was saying he may as well be dead and got into suicidal mode….it was extremely distressing to me: I loved hi m and was so messed up my self, just the thought of death was painful in my mind. Recently my boyfriend and band mate left me me due to the escalating drug and booze problem I knew I was in bad shape… I could see a tree with my name on it.
AS i mentioned when I awoke the next morning, I was soooooo hung over and sick but I had to work cleaning a house so I went.
The lady I worked for came home for lunch and told me she was going to AA so I asked could i go along.That was IT the turning point.
June 18th 1991. I have never looked back.
The hang over lasted for 6months and by then I decided I's best get a check-up. That's when I found out I had non-A/non-B hep, aka Hep C. At that time there was not treatment per-se and they told me to go home and get a check up every year. So there I went.
Meanwhile, so grateful that I had stopped my bad ways and was on my new path. It likely saved my life. I did not have insurance or a lot of family
so I muddled thru for the next years until 2002, when I started looming into options again. At that time I started wondering about how to get cured.
I was a lucky one, and was not real sick from the virus but I could tell it was affecting me.
In 2004 at a gig I met someone who had just been thru a free treatment in Texas so I followed up and got some help thru a liver program and was
approved for tx. I had no idea what was in store. I had not been in AMA mode for yeas, being a musician who was poor. The good news was I cleared the virus super fast- the bad news? I started getting sick and sicker unto incapacitated. I ended up on the couch barely being able
to move.
Since I lived alone and was miles from town it was pretty rough- but I kept at it because I had cleared and I was gonna get thru!
I lost my ability to work and was really scared. Some how I made it thru the year and all the way was virus free-
After 6 months I went back for SVR test and was relapsed. The next day I started again: interferon + riba. It was pretty awful. sick sick sick lost 30 lbs. - couldn't eat. couldn't sleep couldn't just couldn't. it was at the time i got the idea to start a charity to help others in my condition get help.
(When ya can't work, something's gotta give). I again, had swift clearance- only to fail again. Round 2. Luckily on this round some friends took me and watched out for me.
So it I am one of the ones who is still waiting; but not to take SOC again- I must be allergic- and relish every day right now that I can function!
TO be cont'd.
JA
I'm a musician too so I know the problems of not being able to see a doctor...hadn't seen one since my son was born back in 1994. Hoping I didn't pass anything to my darling son, as I was sure to have had it then... Thanks to Pres. Obama, 2014 was my year to figure out what exactly had been causing my very depressing and painful situation for the past decade...I originally went in for RA but my RA was so off the charts that they tested me for hep c and I'm 1a genotype...haven't started treatment and am hoping for an interferon ribaviron free treatment...sovaldi/ ledipasvir...fingers crossed and prayers up.
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