I was a 30 year old hard working father of 4 just trying to make ends meet. In 1987 one day I was kneeling down alot working and for some reason I had the worst swelling and pain in my knees. I felt fine the next morning. About a month later I was out with friends celebrating an anniversary and my feet were so swollen I could hardly get my boot off. I went to the hospital and they took blood and x-rays and kept me overnight. I was able to walk out the next day. They didn't have a clue as to why this was happening. Over the course of the next few years my condition worsened to the point that I could no longer stay on my feet for more than a few hours a day without crippling pain in my lower extremities and swelling in all of my joints. I went to specialists and they couldn't tell me what was wrong. I couldn't work and earn a living. I lost my wife and children and my home. Despondent and homeless, I went to the University of Washington and they did every test known to them and still they couldn't tell me what was the cause or how to cure it. I told the professor of medicine that I could control the symptoms by just staying off my feet and lying down. I also told him that I was getting desperate and had already lost everything I owned either to pawn shops, stolen from me, or sold to get by. I was at the end of my rope and needed some financial help or I would take the only other route, suicide. He was very understanding and told me to fill out the paperwork for SSI and that he would make sure that it went through. Thank God it did. I was at least able to get by with the assistance. It wasn't much but it was enough. One day in 1991 My girlfriend and I went to sell plasma and the doctor pulled me into his office and informed me that I tested positive for Hep C. I was actually happy to finally know what it was. My life is nothing like I had hoped it would be. I have had to adjust my entire life around my limitations. I now live with my daughter and her husband and help them with their two young boys so my daughter can work. It is all I can do to take care of things and get enough rest. I'll never be the same again and I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. I think that I contracted this through a transfusion that I got during back surgery in 1978. It doesn't really matter but I know my time is short and there's no sense in dwelling on it. I have had so much time to think about dying from this that the thought of dying doesn't bother me any more. We all gotta go sometime. I try to live right and be good to people. If I eat right, get plenty of rest, and don't over exert myself, I feel comfortable. I'm 52 now so it's not like I didn't live a good life. My daughter has been a great asset to me and understands my limits so I'm lucky that way. I plan on some more visits to the liver guys to see about some kind of treatment. They wouldn't help me before because I was so depressed and a chronic alcoholic. Now I've been completely sober for 2 years and not taking anti-depressents. That's what they wanted me to do so maybe they can help me now. I know that some people will think I'm totally stupid for not doing more for myself but they're not me and I don't live for them. I know better than to get my hopes up too much. I've tried to fight this for 18 years now and I'm tired. If you have this disease then you know how tired I am. If not, I hope you never get it, and if you do, at least it can diagnosed and treated early. It won't just go away so get with the program.