Day 8

Well, I've survived the first week, but just barely. BARELY. I took a sharp turn for the worse over the past couple days, developing just about every side effect listed in the warnings.

It started with the rash Tuesday morning, which I think I mentioned. The injection site got a little red and spread a heat-like rash all over my forearms/underarms, thighs and belly. Not particularly itchy, but I wouldn't consider it comfortable either. I went to the Dr on Tuesday morning to have them look at the rash. They considered it mild, gave me some topical stuff and I was on my way. I had labs taken that day.

Rash on my arm on Tuesday

Rash around my 1st injection site on Saturday

On Wednesday, I was battling nausea hardcore -- to the point that I was crying every time I had to eat. I'm not a small person, and I've certainly never had trouble eating, so this was an experience I can safely say, I never imagined. I mean, the thought of ice cream made me gag ...and I thought I could eat ice cream forever...I was wrong. So I went the route of smoothies and that seemed to be helping. Even though, I'm eating 60+ grams of fat per day, that's pretty much all I'm eating, so I'm dropping weight like it's my job.

My mom and I were actually concerned because I was losing weight too quickly, another concept I would have never imagined. So I've been eating smoothies for most every meal consisting of: 1/3c + 1/3 of 1/3c of coconut milk 20g, frozen fruit, orange juice and protein powder. It's actually quite delicious and rather stomachable in the wee hours of the morning accompanied by a delicate array of pills.

Wednesday was also the day the Dr called to inform me that my counts had dropped so low that I was nutropenic. Nutropenic is when you have so few white blood cells, your body can't even combat bacteria on food. My parents said I was nutropenic when I was on chemo, so they were pretty familiar with it, but they needed to brush up on their skills. In case my life wasn't already a mess, here's what nutropenic involves:

- No tampons, no shaving with a razor. (good thing I'm not also trying to pick up boys on this new fad diet, I'm trying..hah!)
- No fresh anything -- flowers, house plants, fruit, vegetables
- No touching pet feces, or any other feces for that matter (not really a problem)
- No crowded places - malls, movies, concerts, etc.
   - Not listed, but I've been wearing a very fashionable surgical mask if I decide to tread into germ-y territory
- No douching, rectal thermometers or anything up your butt (also, not a problem)
- Plus or minus a plethora of ridiculous other things that all lead back to wash your hands, stay clean, don't get anything infected and don't hang around sick people.

So anyways, I leapt off the cliff and steadily free-fell down a pit of misery for a couple days, but I'm back. I'm now taking a LOT more pills than I started with, but I'm feeling better again, and I don't burst into tears every 6 or so minutes.

Here's my pill regimen.

6am - smoothie
615am - incivek (20g of fat pill), zofran (nausea), excedrin migraine (depending on the day)
955am - eat something
10am - ribavirin, fiber pill, claritin, some sort of pain reliever
2:00pm - eat 20g
2:15pm - incivek, zofran
9:30pm - eat 20g
10pm - incivek, ribavirin, zofran, remaining pill I'm probably forgetting


At some point when I was like a sophomore in college, I had a chiropractor tell me I had the body of an 80yr old man. If I didn't believe her then, I'm certainly getting all my 'elderly' person practice in. I feel like I'm aging overnight and I literally have every elderly ailment you can think of being imposed on my body. Nevertheless, if you need some advice on getting old, I've got you, just ask. I'll be a pro here soon.

Side note: Beanie is making me one of those countdown construction paper ring chains that we used to have in elementary school. She's going to make it for 47 weeks left, and then if I'm done early we can rip the whole thing down at once. She's dedicated and knows each day is a battle so she's making a ring for every day -- and mainly we just want it to be obnoxiously long and cover my whole kitchen. (that's 329 rings, if you were wondering. -- I'll post a picture when it's done....get working bean, the people are waiting!)

That's all for now, I'm still alive with all my aches and ailments running amuck. Feel free to send me some sort of "are you alive" message every now and then if you are curious. Odds are, yes.

47 weeks left. maybe only 27.

Shot 2 is done and not making me feel quite as shitty as last week. Stay tuned.