Day 5-6

It's been a pretty good last two days... I didn't feel that bad at all. It seems like I recover from the injections pretty quick now. Well, either it's either that or I'm not doing the shots right. I guess I'll always be a little unsure about the shots until I meet up with the doctor next week.

Day 4

I felt good enough to go to work today. The only side effects I had today were some muscle aches. After work, I decided go for a short and easy bike ride just to keep my body active. I'm going to try to keep exercising on my good days so that my body doesn't wither away. Maybe the exercise will help me recover from the side effects faster too.

I just gave myself another shot. This time I decided to try my abdomen as the injection site. The difference with my abdomen is that I actually felt the needle go in unlike when going through the thighs. I didn't hurt, but it did surprise me a little. I guess this spot is a little more sensitive since it also seemed like I could feel the medicine spread through the area. Oh well, we'll see how I do tonight.

Mental: 9 Physical: 8

Day 3

I think I might have messed up a little on my shot last night. After the injection, some of the medicine started coming back out. There really wasn't that much that came back out, but I didn't inject that much fluid in to begin with. The side effects weren't quite as bad as the first night. I only got slight chills and fever this time. I was stiff as a board when I woke up in the morning. I could barely move and my muscles still hurt. I still have a lingering headache which seems to cause dizziness too. The weird thing is that my eyes hurt when I move them around too much. So far it seems that I'm at my worst the 16 hours or so after the shot. Things seem to get better after that.

Mental: 9
Physical: 7

Day 2: I'm better now?

I woke up today with minor muscle aches and that's it! I actually felt pretty normal today. I was able to bike and do regular stuff without feeling too tired. I wonder if the rest of my treatment will be like that? One day bad, one day good...

Well, I guess there's not much else to report on. I'm giving myself another shot tonight, so we'll see if I react the same way. If I do react the same way, I'm not sure if I'll be able to go to work tomorrow.

Mental: 9
Physical: 8

Day 1: It's kicking my butt

I finally started feeling my first side effects last night around 10:00pm. In a time span of about 15 minutes, I started shaking uncontrollably, started looking pale, and my eyes turned red. Okay, okay... the injection worked and it was time to go to bed.

I woke up around 2:30am thinking I had slept a really long time. Boy was I surprised. This thing is kicking my butt right now, but I'm still in good spirits.

Side effects I feel so far:

• Chillls - I felt really cold about 3 or 4 times during the first part of my sleep. I had to put on a beanie for warmth.
  
• Hot flash/fever - I got really hot two or three times after the chills.
• Muscle pain - My lower back, arms and legs are sore. Hehehe... almost everywhere.
• Headache - Ouch - I almost never get headaches.
• Breathing issues - I noticed while walking to the bathroom that I was taking much longer and bigger breaths than usual. It didn't feel like it does when you're out of shape because the breaths were easy, but for some reason I had to breath deeper.
• dizziness - I went to get some water, but couldn't walk in a straight line. Hehe... it was kind of funny.

Well, I guess that's it for now. Maybe I'll try to going to sleep again.

Oh yeah, I think I'll go with the 10 point scale instead of 5:

Mental: 9
Physical: 6


Update for the rest of day 1:

The rest of my day turned out not so bad. The chills and fever were gone by the time morning rolled by. I woke up with the muscle aches and lingering headache. As the day progressed, I started feeling much better. Right now, my body is achy and I'm a little fatigued, but it's manageable. Hopefully the worst has passed until I take my next shot Sunday night.

My first injection

It's just a little after 7:15pm and I finished my first injection. Before I did it, I read the instructions about 10 times so I wouldn't mess up. The syringe is pretty neat. It looks like a pen and holds about 6 injections. You just change the needle tip for every new injection. The actual needle is pretty short and thin... almost like a thumb tack.

When I was finally ready to give myself the shot, I was a little nervous. I just kept imagining the pain of it. I finally got enough courage to stick myself and bam! I can't believe that the shot did not hurt at all! The needle just slid in like it was going through jello. Injecting the stuff was pretty easy. I hope I did it right. After looking at the syringe, it didn't look like I used any of the medicine. Wow, my led is kinda itchy now. I wonder when I'm going to start feeling some of the side effects? I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Oh yeah, I'll be using a rating system while I'm going through this treatment. I'll use two categories - mental and physical on a scale of 1 to 5. I'll try to give a rating every day if possible.

Hmmm.... should I go to sleep early or stay up a little longer?

The class

This afternoon I went to my shot injection class. I was worried that the class wasn't going to take place, but thankfully the instructor was there when I showed up. It turned out that I was the only one who showed up. There were settings for two other people, but they never came.

The class was geared towards hepatitis C people. (I have Hep B). That meant that the syringes and medicine that the instructor was demonstrating weren’t going to be the same type of syringes I would be using. It didn’t really matter anyway since I was just there to learn how to poke myself.

There was a spongy orange thing that I put around my leg to practice giving shots. Giving shots was pretty simple. Just inject yourself with a “dart-like” motion. Yep, just a little poke and the needle slides all the way in. Then push on the plunger to inject the medication. We’ll see how I do in real life.

The class was pretty helpful today. I got most of my questions answered and got to play with some needles. Plus free stuff is always nice - a tote bag, bandages, pamphlets, needle disposal box...

Got the goods

I got my medicine in the mail yesterday. It came with two ice packs to keep the stuff cool. I didn't open the medicine yet to check out the syringes. Yep, the goods are just sitting in the fridge. It says that I'm supposed to give myself three shots a week instead of every day. I guess that's good since I'll have to poke myself less.

Welcome!

Here I go...

I'm going to try to keep a journal of my days while on the Intron A treatment. I'm not sure if I'm dedicated enough to write here every day, but I'll do my best to update. Writing here will probably help me gauge how I'm doing on this treatment... maybe it'll help me see if I'm going insane or not. Plus, it lets anyone who is interested in me find out how I'm doing.

I'm going to start the treatment on June 24th before I go to sleep. I'd rather start earlier, but I'm waiting to take this class on how to give yourself shots. The treatment will consist of a daily shot before I go to sleep. I'll probably get flu like symptoms or worse while I'm on this treatment.