…by being sick. It’s the old cloud with a silver lining trick, get you every time. I am now practically at my ideal weight. Years ago I calculated it and wondered how I’d ever get there. The sickness was medicinally induced. It’s bizarre. Hepatitis C is life-threatening, but it gave me no symptoms except for chronic fatigue. The medication cured me, fortunately before it damn near killed me. The cure is atrociously worse than the disease while it’s going on–but in the past perfect tense, to have been cured, is fuckin’ excellent.
I was pronounced cleared — zero viral load — in January. Since then my health has returned, better than ever. I’d been caring for my liver all those years by eating organic vegan ultra-healthy food. Now that my liver is finally relieved of its slow agony, my health bounded back remarkably, boosted by a longtime habit of good nutrition. During the treatment, nausea kept me from eating too much. Now that I’m cured, I find I just need less food to maintain me. The feelings of robust health I’m now enjoying in this beautiful springtime I attribute to my liver now functioning with renewed efficiency as it was meant to.
I bought misses jeans in the middle of my weight loss, which fit perfectly a couple months ago, and now slip right off my hips. Fortunately, my dresses are much more forgiving than my pants when weight comes or goes.
I certainly can’t recommend anyone follow the weight loss program that worked so well for me, but if you follow my example of eating really really healthy, you may find that your body starts to regulate its own weight to where it needs to be.
Another good diet I have found in the same vein (and that I’m currently on, have lost about 10 lbs) is the poverty diet. Ain’t nothin’ quite like the poverty diet when you need to stay slim.
Geez, I don’t think I’ve had anything nearly as long as you.
Your diet sounds more intense than my 5 day bought with food poisoning - next time try diabetes. My brother must have dropped 30 pounds before he got on insulin (and he was probably only 180 to start with)
Sigh. I’m so jealous. I’m the only one I know who can catch the flu and gain weight. I always used to joke that if something good could come out of my getting sick so often, you’d think it would be a little weight loss. But noooooo…
Glad to hear you are healthy, though. That is always excellent news!
I assume you’re referring to Interferon. My friend took it and it damn near killed him, too. On the other hand, my BIL weathered the entire treatment without any of us even knowing he had hep C. weird how it affects some people so adversely.
Glad to hear you’re feeling better. And thin. At the same time.
It was combo: Interferon plus ribavirin. The former was very bad. The latter was hell. It temporarily made me a she-devil. <shudder> Then there were my two stays in the hospital, once with a hematocrit of 26, which is dangerously low; that was the day I vomited 12 times in one morning (after the third time it was nothing but bile; my liver was going crazy). The time I fainted and got stitches on my eyelid (the scar has now healed practically invisibly). My legs covered with skin ulcers which, though now healed, left tons of little spots, I could be a leopard. And my beautiful long hair falling out in clumps, fortunately I arrested that while I still had more than half of it left. The dermatologist told me sudden weight loss can precipitate hair loss. Not to mention the worst thing of all, being psychologically wrenched by that Ribavirin until I wasn’t myself. What a hell of a winter that was. Never been so glad to see spring in my whole life.
Dolores Reborn, hang in there, honey, you’re in for a wild ride. Which kind are you doing? Don’t let the doctor push you to take too much. Make sure you get your bloodwork done at 8 weeks! My idiot doctor forgot to tell me until it was too late. You need that for staging, to know how long the treatment needs to go. I was supposed to do 28 weeks, but was able to stop after 18. I had genotype 2a, supposed to be the best responder. Have a support network of people as you go through this. I hope I haven’t scared you.
My facial features once seemed kind of vague. Now my face has sharpened up, showing my nice bone structure better, and my eyes look clearer than ever. I look so different, and I like it. Please post and let us know how you’re doing, Dolores. When you get through it you really will feel reborn!
I am very happy for you to have been given such a good notice from the doctor’s.
Nothing nothing about Hep C, is it something that once gone is gone for good, or goes into remission?
Actually Johanna, I’m doing pretty good. Not too much nausea, I’m losing weight because I quit drinking alcohol. Although this weekend was not so great. I’m getting a lot of fatigue. And I’m bitchy - well, bitchier than normall!
Oh - I’m on pegalated interferon and ribavirin, too. It will be over with in less than eleven months, now!
I’m part of a group of ladies who email each other for support - from an online message board. It helps tremendously.
