Stressed and Scared, But Coping

I went back over to the Veteran's Administration Hospital for my six-months-off-treatment follow up appointment. The wonderfully fun activities planned for the day included such lovely things as blood and urine collection upon arrival, after which we took a brief break with cookies and Apple Juice provided, staring at the Hepatitis C posters on the walls, then going into a meeting with the new program coordinator, Marshall, who has just returned from the conference about the new Schering-Plough trial ... and a great time was had by all. *smile*

I have learned that the new drug I will be adding to my "cocktail" is called Boceprevir which is a protease inhibitor. (An anti-viral drug that blocks the action of the enzyme protease, which is needed for viral replication. In plain English, it attacks and kills the stuff that the virus needs to survive.) I have been doing a bit of research on this drug (my Google-Fu is strong, Grasshopper) and the side effects are about the same as the standard treatment protocol I have already completed ... except for the itchy skin rash. "They" say that won't be as bad, but the nausea and vomiting may be worse than before. Lovely. Just what I need, more nausea.

I have been stress-cleaning all day everyday lately, making a lot of progress in so much as I do not want to have "big" cleaning to do while I am back on treatment. The fatigue prevents me from even doing basic chores some days, so I have to make it as easy as I can both on myself and on my husband ... *sigh* ... who works 12 hours a day, 6 days a week then has to come home and take care of everything here. Bless his heart. I feel so guilty about that.