Start Day Shot #1

I went for my first shot today and to find out what arm I am in. I got Arm 6 of the Schering trial that I am in. This means that you take the Interferon once weekly, Ribavirin two tablets in the morning and three tablets at night 200 mg each, and the study drug SCH 503034 200 mg tablets four tablets every 8 hours. This arm contains the most amount of medication and it lasts for 48 weeks. Because my doctors office was chosen to add the additional arms I was told that I would get Arm 6 or 7 automatically. Arm 7 has less Ribavirin. The study will now pay for Procrit and the nurse told me today that I will most likely need it. They said that everyone in Arm 6 will most likely need the Procrit. Did you know that that stuff is $800 per shot and you need it once a week. That kind of robbery should not be allowed.

The first shot went OK I guess. I ended up with a fever of 102 for about 7-8 hours, severe headache, I was so cold that the temp in the house was 90 and I had 4 blankets on me and was still chilling. I haven't taken any pills yet I will do that about 10 p.m. I am a little scared to take the pills as I am just starting to feel a little better from the shot.

Well got to go for now still not feeling the greatest.

DOWN IN THE DUMPS

I don't know what the deal is but it seems that everyone is testing me this week. I have found that I am on edge right now. I am most always a really calm let things go kinda person and right now I am not. I got into it with a neighbor and even cursed at her. She did deserve it though she is trying to cause problems for me over my fence. When she found out that she couldn't get me in trouble for it she decided to come down and try to pursuade me and my husband to do what she wanted us to do. Well that didn't go so well and then she proceded to call the police on me for my fence the next day. When the police told her there was nothing that they could do about it she was not happy. They did come down to my house to let me know that she had a problem and had called them and they told her that there was nothing they could do. After hearing all this I cursed at her again and she called the police on me again. Of course there was nothing they could do about this either. I let them know that if she stepped foot on my property I wanted her arrested. They also relayed this information to her.

On top of this stress I set in the emergency room with my Uncle last night. He is having problems and I am the one that does most everything for him and my Grandmother. It is hard to come home at 6 am and go to bed and get up at 8 am.

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse I talked with my sister tonight and she is upset that my son wants to play at the water park part of Holiday World. She thinks that we should just tell the kids that they get to ride the rides and if that is not good enough then we will go home. I don't know that I want to spend approx 200 dollars to watch my son be sad about not getting to go to the water park part. She now says we can go to Holiday World if we want and they will just go to Kings Island instead.

I hate it when people can't just get along. You know everyone has made such a big deal about how they want to make sure that they help me if needed on treatments but all they show me on a constant basis they do things like this that they know kills me. I JUST LIKE TO GET ALONG WITH EVERYONE.

Sorry for venting on here but don't really have anyone else to vent to.

May 31st is the official Day

I spoke with my doctors office today. They called me to let me know that I will for sure be starting treatment on May 31st. Some things came up and we didn't get to go to the zoo last weekend. We ended up having a cookout with a couple of family members. We will be going to Holiday World this weekend. We haven't ever been there and it sounds like a lot of fun. Matthew doesn't know yet I want it to be a surprise. I can't wait. I am not as nervous this time about starting treatment for some reason. Maybe just because I have been through this 6 times. All will be well. I also think that it has helped reading about everyone else not having such bad times on the treatment.

FUN, FUN, FUN

We have made plans to go to the zoo tomorrow and then go to Holiday Word next Saturday or Sunday. I figure that we should get in a few fun things with my son before starting treatment seeing as how summer break is coming up. We haven't ever been to Holiday World and it sounds really exciting. We will be going with my sister her husband and son.

NEXT SCHEDULED START DATE

I went to my doctors office today to have my pre-labs re-drawn as it has been to long since the last time they drew them. They scheduled me to start on May 31st. They said that due to the revisions they were waiting for the protocol to be done being reviewed by an IRB. The IRB is a group of people that are in charge looking over the paperwork. The don't work for the drug company or the doctors office and they have to say that everything is in order and the doctors office and drug company are looking out for the best interest of the patients. They were to have a reading and discussion on this yesterday, so as long as they like it my start date will be a go. If they don't like it the start date could be postponed again. I see that Denise and Terri both got Arm 1. I wonder what is in store for me. Part of me thinks that because the study has additional arms in my doctors office I will be more likely to get one of them. ONLY TIME WILL TELL.

GOOD NEWS? BAD NEWS? CAN'T DECIDE

Well I called my doctors office today and asked if they knew if I would be for sure starting treatment on May 14th. They can't tell me for sure so the anticipation hangs, however they don't think that the date will stick. They are waiting for the addition to the study before they can start anyone. This means that if this start date doesn't stick then I will go through the entire sickness in my stomach when another one gets near. This will make 6 times that I have had to expect to start treatment and then didn't. I don't know if they understand how hard this is on people or maybe they do and just don't care.

Getting Nervous Again

Well here we go again I am back to 1 week to start date for the 5th time. I am still not convinced that it is really going to happen this time therefore I haven't requested any time off from work yet. I am going to call my doctors office to see if they are at all sure that I will be starting on May 14th or not before I request a couple days off work. I always seem to get myself worked up when start dates get close and I don't know how to stop doing that. As much as I would love to be put off again I hope that I am not so I don't have to anticipate another start date. I guess I'm ready to just get on with this so I can start getting it over with. I have been keeping busy with work but it really doesn't keep my mind off of it.

This wonderful little man is what keeps me going along with his dad. Isn't he precious! This is a picture from this school year. He wanted to dress up so bad (he really likes to dress up). He went to school hoping to impress a little girl that he likes and she wouldn't even talk to him. He didn't let it bother him and said that he would continue to dress up. By the way his name is Matthew.

Matthew is our only son, however we have a rather large family consisting of 3 dogs, 1 cat, 2 rabbits, 1 bird, and 2 fish.