9 weeks and counting anxiously

With 22 days of incivek left (riba/interferon will continue for 12 more weeks), here is a breakdown of my average 24-hour period. Conclusions first: it is the general distraction and inability to think and concentrate that bug me perhaps the most. I have never been able to use a basic astronomy text as a sleep-aid; today I can barely comprehend a paragraph after reading it three times. Pulpy fantasy is about the only thing I can read, and even that gets a bit blurry. THESE EFFECTS HAD BETTER STOP QUICKLY ONCE THE TREATMENT IS OVER!!!

Anyway, this is how a day goes:


0900 750 mg incivek
0900-1230 or so; flushed skin, mildly dyspeptic, burning thirst, general fatigue
1230-1330 symptoms subside; feeling almost normal
1330 drowsiness sets in
1600 or so drowsiness dissipates; almost normal again, just in time for...

1700 750 mg incivek + 600 mg ribavirin. 1st riba of the day!!!!
1715 side effects begin
1715-2030 or so: like being beaten about the head and the torso with a baseball bat, in slow motion. The pain is tolerable only because it is stretched ove ra period of 3.5 hours. Nausea as well, but mild. (At its worst early in the week, after interferon shot, and gets better throughout, to become almost tolerable by Friday...in time for the next shot).

2030-2200 almost normal
2200-0030 a bit manic--and drowsy at the same time. Cognitive impairment, massive itching.

0100 750 mg incivek + 600 mg ribavirin

0115 hopefully, get to sleep by then because the beatings begin again althought they are not quite as nasty the second time around.

0600 wake up, feeling almost human and aware, but soon after that a paradoxical 'drowsy insomnia" settles in. Brain too sluggish to get anything complex done, but unable to sleep most of the time. And so it comes to...

0900 and the cycle begins anew.

Note: Saturday night, adding insult to injury, I get 180 mcg of interferon stuck into my belly. So far, with a couple of exceptions, direct side-effects of this one have been minor compared to the other two, but a week-long cycle aggravating the others' effects is emerging--see above.

I am not complaining; in fact I am endlessly fascinated by the interactions of the cycles of the three poisons that I am consuming, and their effects. The rashes on my elbows (primarily) hold infinite wonder. It is a challenge to my powers of reasoning to separate the "incivek pain" component from a "ribavirin" one; and to distinguish between three different kinds of nausea. von Masoch would be proud of me!