New or not sure what I have

[tcmgpt13]

It is a such hard decision all of us have to make when we consider using Western medicine drugs. I certainly can see why you chose to use interferon when you were so sick and had a high viral load. It is sad that in Western medicine the medicine the cure is often worse or as bad as the disease. They so often use a cannon to kill a gnat, but if that is all there is what else can one do? While I am a firm believer in using herbs and other alternative therapies there can be times when they are not enough. I am now off an antiviral medication (acylovir) for reactivated herpes infections triggered when I became ill with morgellons. It finally got too much for my digestive system after some months of use. I feel using this drug has gotten a handle on the viral infections which herbal use alone could not control (I had a lot of very strong Chinese herbal formulas before resorting to Western medicine's drug of choice). Now I am back to herbs and they seem to be working to improve my symptoms even more. Perhaps getting rid of most of the infection has allowed gentler methods to take care of the rest. At any rate we must all find what works for us. It is a very personal decision.

I, too, find it weird that your doctors would have never seen itching in patients with hepatitis C as both the disease itself and the use of interferon itself could cause that symptom. The sores perhaps have only been seen recently in some patients (the bulbous lesions), but common sense should tell doctors that any symptom can be caused by a drug (allergies to a drug for one can cause skin symptoms) or if something on the skin itself becomes infected because the immune system itself is lowered by the use of interferon then it would be easy for a lesion to form. It makes sense to me, but then I am not a doctor and use common sense more than I do medical jargon I learned as gospel fact in medical school. LOL.

I hope you can find some answers soon.

best, tcm

[-----------]

Hi Nancy,

Maybe we need a thread for people with Hep C, which I also have? I was in full blown Morgellons and the only treatment the Infectious Disease doctors would give me was for the Hep C - my viral load was 5 million or so.

I asked them if they knew how Pegasus Interferon interacted with Morgellons... and of course, they didn't but wanted to give me the Interferon anyway.

I have had Hep C since my 20's more than likely, and haven't been affected by it, I can't even tell I have the disease - I tried to explain to them that Morgellons was my number one pathogen causing my liver to go whacky, not the Hep C. That Hep C was secondary.

I can tell you - there was no way in hell that I was about to take Interferon with Morgellons with them not knowing diddly-squat about how the two interact.

The way I understood the explaination of how Interferon works is that they can now tell within the first few weeks of therapy if it is killing the Hep C virus and allow the therapy to continue. That in the past, people would do the whole year and it still not work - that they can now better gauge if it would be successful or not. So, by you being on it for a year - you are likely to clear the virus.

Most people get very sick near the end of the Interferon treatment but you only have one more shot to be done. If you think you can stand it, my advice to you is - do it. You have put up with this hell for a year and you only have less than a month to go. Hang in there, if you can stand it! Clearing the Hep C virus from your body will be a wonderful thing to your future health.

A thread for people with Morgellons, who can not get treated for it, but can get the Interferon treatment might be helpful to those of us that have this option?

Still, you're not sure that you have Morgellons, is this correct? I know you're going through hell with the Interferon treatment alone... I cannot image how this might affect someone with Morgellons also? You need loving and supportive people around you, I hope you have this and you can always talk to us out here.

[nancyjo]

Thank you all so much for the concern and replies.I thought I posted yesterday but guess i did not do it right.I went to Hepatitis Central and apparently lots of people suffer from the itching.I was told the Bile Salts caused by treatment are pushed out the the skin.Sounds like it is the toxins that the liver cant process.I still have concerns when i see lint or fiber on the end of my lesions.Before I develop a lesion it starts as a black speck on my skin.I saw one pic on here that sures looks like my skin so I just want to find a way to get some answers.If it is the interferon rx I wonder why my drs never saw this before when they mainly treat Hep c and Aids patients. Nancy

[Sadsack]

There're a lot of things that doctors don't see. It is really unbelievable.

SS