The 9th interferon shot seems to have gone without a hitch and no unpleasant side effects. Could I have accidentally hit a muscle last week? Weird. Also, I seem to feel better in general--as long as I get plenty of rest. Did bloodwork on Friday to test for platelets/blood cell counts and since I did not receive a panicked call from any of my doctors, I assume that their levels are not in the immediately deadly range, and that they have stabilized--or perhaps even gotten better. Which is good, considering that I will be making the appointment for my minor nasal surgery on Monday--I really do NOT want to get a platelet transfusion on top of everything else.
And everything else includes at least one minor but uncomfortable development: my immune system is becoming more compromised and almost every cut, minor abrasion or pimple on my body becomes rapidly infected and difficult to take care of (with low platelets, it takes them forever and a day to heal, thereby increasing the chance of infection even further). Have to be more careful. I get paper cuts every day and used to not pay any attention to them--but now they are as likely as not to stay open for a week and turn all red and nasty. Lots of hydrogen peroxide and mupirocin ointment on everything!
The rashes are not getting much worse. In the two weeks since they first appeared, I have developed quite a few little patches that seem to come and go, with several major ones. The two biggest ones are, weirdly, on my elbows. These are not going away--at least not until the incivek treatment is over, in four more weeks. Smaller ones on my shoulders and lower back, but those are just small collections of skin-coloured bumps as opposed to the elbows, which are red and blistery.
Finally, I have not said it before, but I am developing a total hatred of most "alternative" medicine pushers--for this particular disease, specifically. It is mildly despicable to attempt to cash in on people's suffering by offering them "complementary" treatments and playing on their fears and ignorance--and those treatments are often quite expensive. It is thoroughly an asshole thing to imply, as many sites I have seen do, that the virus does not have anything to do with the disease itself (similar to HIV denial) and that mainstream medical approach does not work at all, exhorting people to reject it and instead use some ill-defined Chinese or some such treatment as not even a SUPPLEMENT but a SUBSTITUTE. I would lock those fuckers up and literally throw away the key. They claim that the pharmaceutical establishment is only making money off us poor peons; leaving the dubious scientific reasoning of their claims aside, I must note that their "treatments" are quite expensive (herbal supplements are not cheap, even!) and, for comparison's sake, my incivek (about $4000 dollars a month in real cost) does not cost me ANYTHING. As in $0: my insurance and financial aid from the drug company are covering ALL of it. (In some later post I really SHOULD rant at the scumbag charlatans who are pushing alterna-garbage on people--and I will!)
Oh, and a general note on insurance. If I may be so bold as to complain...:) In a real society, where my insurance was not tied to my job, I would certainly consider taking a medical leave of absence: the side-effects are gnarly enough to qualify me for being "sick" for the next 4 months, anyway (and I hope they don't get any worse). Of course, I cannot do that because I would lose my insurance--and be unable to pay for my treatments then, even with 70% discount that I have secured in case of such a happening. 30% of $6000 a month is still $1800--hard to do when one is not working...
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