Tuesday, June 08, 2010

New Day

Well today is a much brighter day for me. Now that I don't have to worry about treatment etc I can just get on with things. I need to find a job for starters. I am signed up for a week long cruise in the fall so any job I get will have to be aware of that and agree or I won't be working there.

One thing that came up yesterday was that my spleen is quite enlarged at 17cm he said. I don't know what the norm is so not sure how big that is but nothing I can do about that anyway.

Last blood work taken about two weeks ago:

ALT - 122
AST - 107
Platelets - 79

Monday, June 07, 2010

Back to the doc

June 7, 2010 - Appointment today withe the HepC doc. I need to find out if my low platelet count has taken away any chance of treatment. If it has then I need to know what next? If not, then I need to remind him I am still here and see if any drug trials are coming up any time soon.

I hate going there and it stresses me out for days before hand. Being alone with this is a lot harder than having a partner to share it with. I have family and friends and they are concerned and helpful but it's not the same as having a partner that loves you and stresses along with you. Besides who wants to go and get a bad report from the doc and not have anyone to lean on. It sucks. :) and I'm being a big baby. :(

My platelets had fallen to 68 and then last blood work that was done they were back up to 79. Supposedly the cutoff for treatment is 90 so that is a concern. If I am not able to do treatment then what? I guess I wait till I get bad enough for a transplant.

Update:

I saw the doctor and as I suspected the low platelet count pushes me out of any drug trials. He said it didn't mean I couldn't have treatment just that I couldn't do drug trials but also for me right now there is no treatment. He said if he did have a treatment my platelet count wouldn't stop me being treated. So all I can do is live as healthy as possible and hang in there. He said treatment is probably about 5 years away. I asked if I would still be here in 5 years when treatment was available he said that was the plan! Maintain and eat right, exercise, don't drink which I don't anyway so no hardship there.

All my other counts were ok. My glucose and thyroid are both good. My lft's are elevated but not excessively so. In a way it was a relief to not have to worry about treatment right now. I felt torn and stressed about it all but now I can just relax, do what I can do and hope to hang in there for now.