Alisha's story

My husband learned he had HCV quite a few years ago in Rehab. He was an IV drug user and was told that Hep C wasn't anything to be concerned about now, but later in life he could develop problems.

He and I met in October 2000 and began having sex right away. He told me that he was HEP C Positive and I was shocked. I knew nothing of the disease and I research EVERYTHING. So I began on my mission.First, I went to the doctor and got tested. I have been negative throughout our relationship/marriage.

Then he went to the doctor and told them he was diagnosed with HEP C and would like to look into treatment. His blood levels came back in the millions. He had the worst genotype curable ( I can't remember which it was.) but it wan't hopeful. Needless to say we went to a gastroentrologist in Boston and he made us feel like everything was going to be ok.

Chris started on the combined treatment, shots of Interferon weekly and Riboviran twice a day. He was a walking zombie. Throwing up for the first few weeks and just feeling miserable. He had NO energy and was in a lot of mucular pain. It was like he was shooting poison into him every week. After about 6 months, he came to me and said he just couldn't do it anymore. He needed to stop the treatment and get to a place in his life when he could try again. At this time we had a small child and I was tired all the time as well.

He went to his doctor who wasn't very happy about stopping but asked that he get checked every 6 months so if his numbers just back up they would be on top of it. He ended his treatment in the Fall of 2002 and his levels have been NORMAL ever since. Everytime he takes the blood test, he worries it is back, but so far he has a normal fuctioning liver and we are blessed that this treatment worked for him in the short period of time he could tolerate it. Our health insurance covered EVERYTHING. We had great insurance, our copays were minimal and the drugs were easy to obtain and pay for.