Chapter 3 - My Hep C Symptoms
Much of the information out there on HCV refers to the virus as a silent killer. Mainly because it can go on for decades pretty much symptom-less until your liver starts feeling the effects of more severe damage. I believe that people do have symptoms, but they are so random and light that we write them off as something else, covertly disguised as reactions to stress.
I believe I have narrowed my guess of when I was exposed to HCV down to around 1995 - 1996, although I will probably never rule out my tattoo experience. My reasoning behind the years 1995 and 1996 was based upon an experience that I really care to leave in the past, but will share with you for the purposes of creating deeper insight.
Balancing my life during my college curriculum proved to be a very difficult time for me mainly because of the project workload required. It probably didn’t help that I tend to have the bad habits of procrastinating and perfectionism. During those two years, I fell into a deep depression and constantly battled anxiety attacks. This was more than likely due to the severe lack of sleep and steady stream of alcohol consumption not uncommon to most students attending college these days.
It’s no secret that little sleep and excessive alcohol can take its toll on your entire body, especially your immune system (not to mention your liver). I can say that I felt fine throughout most of my college years up until about my senior year. I played it off as burnout and was ready to start my real life in the outside world.
There was one semester that I remember in particular. I remember seeing at least 23 sunrises, either from staying up all night to finish my projects or partying a little too hard. On one particular day; I think it was during the winter because I remember it being a little chilly outside. I was up in the studio finishing some drawings and building one of my models for a presentation in the upcoming weeks.
I was working on my model and suddenly felt this extreme pain in my abdomen on the right side of my body. It felt like someone was taking a wrench, grabbing hold of my intestinal tract and twisting it into a kink that hurt so bad it made my knees buckle. It felt like I had gas, but more like the gas had gotten stuck and pressurized violently into a small area.
It subsided in about five minutes, but many of my friends looked on with horror. The next day I went to the campus medical center. They ran some tests and told me I had excessive gas and possibly that I may be experiencing IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). They never mentioned anything about liver problems and never thought to test for any.
After that point I never felt the same. At meals I felt ravenous, but would begin to feel nauseated about five minutes after I began eating the meal. Those same sharp intestinal pains would come and go over time, and it seemed the only thing that would make it go away was drinking alcohol. It was difficult for me to finish any meal. This constantly worried me to the point of yet another panic attack. On and on this vicious cycle would go until I was eventually put on Prozac and Axid for about nine months.
The Prozac was to calm the anxiety and the Axid was for what the doctor thought may have been a stomach ulcer. Once again, the sharp pains were diagnosed as excessive gas…I found this frustrating because the only thing they prescribe is to drink a laxative every morning. In my humble opinion drinking Citrucel every morning and night day after day gets very old within two or three months. I mean come on…I wanted to fix the problem, not baby sit it!
I could swear that my body was fighting something, but no doctor could help me figure it out. I ended up just dealing with the intestinal pains when they flared up over the next six years. It didn’t happen every day, but it would happen at least once a month. The pain was always the same… sharp, always on the right, and about two inches above my hip bone. I usually self medicated by pushing deeply on the spot with my hand, rubbing gently and then ended the day by drinking some alcohol to make sure that it would go away.
Nausea half way through most meals followed about the same pattern. Around 2001, I started having trouble sleeping. I would wake in the middle of the night around 3am feeling nauseated and sweaty. I truly thought all this bullshit was due to a reoccurring stomach ulcer. Despair about what my business was going to do after 9/11, and the stress I felt when dealing with client contracts probably didn’t help either.
From 1996 on, I had been to three other doctors about the intestinal pain and nausea. The panic attacks were much more spread out, but tended to leave me unsettled for days.
By 2002, I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I would be plagued by this problem for the rest of my life. That was until that fateful day in September when I saw my key man insurance test results. After finding out…I had no idea what Hepatitis C was…I didn’t know anyone with it, and never heard of anyone dying from it. So I set off on my mission for knowledge.
Go to Chapter 4 - What is Hepatitis C?
You are reading the FREE first six chapters from 48 Weeks To Freedom - A Successful Hepatitis C Treatment Story…please send any questions you have to needmoreinfo [ at ] healhepatitisc [dot] com
