My second shot.

I had my second once-a-week shot yesterday and there was no fever after it while I was sleeping so I think the fever thing was just at the beginning and it isn't a weekly phenomena. The blood sugars have mellowed a bit too, I think because the fever is gone. So,... if it continues like this, it's a piece of cake!!! I could almost say I feel better then normal. There is an ever so subtle spacey feeling but it's a comfortable one. The next big thing is week 4 when I see if I have responded and the virus critters are decreasing. There is some data about prognosis depending on where you are at week 4. So, I just keep my fingers crossed and hope things keep going as miraculously well as they have been with just about every other aspect of my life. It's a mystery that puts you at ease.

Sunday Morning

I was getting more and more spacey yesterday as the evening progressed, but it was more of a matter of having sat on my ass all day and letting the sugars rise. I upped the Lantus to 75 and got a resonable reading this morning , plus I feel just fine!!!!!!!!!

First Full Day on Meds

It was no big deal. I also was doing my big experiement so I had 5 different kinds of hand outs for different classes and was able to handle the complicatedness. My sugars were way way high and doc told me this would happen so while I was pumping more and more insulin to see when it would finally break, I got shaky in my last class and had to eat a candy bar after getting an 85 coming down from 455 sometime that day. So I gotta work out the new dosage of lantus that's all. No biggie. The morning was really easy. I hope the worst of the fever is over and its not a case of 1st day after shot is always hottest or something...

2nd Day I guess

Started the morning sweaty at 37.3 degrees C, but not miserable or anything. Rode the bike through the cold rain to get to my one class for the day since the 11th graders have some tests today. I felt a little spacey but not in an uncomfortable way. I get the idea that its gonna be like this, sweaty nights but smooth days. Tomorrow will be the first full day with the meds on board.

So far so good

Well, it's only been a few minutes since I got the shot as you can see in the picture, but I can't feel anything different yet. I'll keep updating this post tonight and tomorrow in a timeline fashion.

7:00 pm 1/22
Got there just in time to get the shot. Yukari came with.
They didn't mind the pictures.
It's a neighborhood thing.
OK let's get a Pizza!

6:05 am 1/23 Wed
I have been curled up in a fever position feeling good about my electric blanket but when I do get up and come downstairs it's not like I'm shivering and howling. It's a slight fever that seems manageable. I hope it drifts away in the daytime when I'm active.

11:28 am 1/23 Wed
Been in and out of bed this lazy slightly feverish morning just cause I got no other commitments. Meanwhile I'm peaking on the net and exchanging mails about how to get statistical software going. First of all I gotta figure out what statistics I need. D'uhh...

---By the way----
This is not one of those deals where if the treatment doesn't work things get grave all of the sudden. It's more like a high enough number of people with the virus have problems way way down the road so it's better to try this interferon while you are still young. The interferon also works better when you are young. No worries.


8:29 pm Wed
It ended up being an in-bed-all-dayer but I wasn't suffering or anything, it just seemed like the bed was a better option than tinkering with the computer. Yukari came home and we had dinner at the chinese place. Now we go to the sento. I figure that will make the medicine circulate more. I did get a little emotional about one of my students speeches but those are the best cries in life. Albeit pushed out a bit from the fever, a cry for beauty and a cry for hope. I'll show you the speech someday. Yukari says I look a little bug-eyed, but I don't feel any more spacey than usual. Now off to the bath. I feel a runny nose coming on but it's a good runny nose!

Next post will be a new one since I think I'm over the first stage.

Tomorrow evening start.

Boy oh boy, what a question! It had me thinking , asking, and searching for such a long time. The doctor asks for my preference of treatment. Both are basically the same combination of drugs, but different brand names. Well actually there is probably some sort of difference difference between Interferon alpha A and apha B, but actually A was approved after B. Almost every medical article studies A and I can find no articles supporting B over A. To make things complicated he says he has a slight preference for B just because he has experience using it before and has confidence on being able to counter side effects. Also A is used with the brand of ribavirin 'Copegus' which is new to Japan. This makes him nervous a bit since there hasn't been enough time for any evidence to emerge about post-treatment side effects or the like. Rod did a lot of research on the net and sent me links. Yochi gave us lots of talks on the phone and sent over info on the two drug therapies. I decided to go with Pegasys and Copegus for a couple of reasons, none of which are solid:

1) All the articles are written about them, implying nobody is researching Intron anymore.
2) Material from Yochi seems to imply its better for genotype 1.
3) I did find a BBS that had people saying the side-effects were more managable.
4) It's newer.

Ok I will update tomorrow after the shot!!!!

Diss aint no thang

Dissertation under way and launched. Will make progress just as soon as I watch these 7 episodes of CSI I rented because I have three days off in a row and nowhere to party (a thing of the past...) . At the video store they couldn't take my spiffy new credit card with the e-money function but I've been around town buying more diet cokes than usual just in order to see that sensor glow and hear that refreshing sound. Doc will have me starting the interferon meds and while asking my choice of therapy can't figure out if it's 5 grand a month or a mere 700 shmackarinoes. Thinking about how much stuff costs isn't his main concern .... I hope. It's 700 bucks but I only pay 2 hundred thanks to Momoyama, we find out since we got access to sister in law Yocchi who, being a pharmacist, has the books with the government set prices.
Laufer and Hulstijn have it whittled out to a manageable framework. It's a hop-step until I get my research question in the form of a hypothesis according to my main man, the researcher-supervisor David Field. Lots a folks in my corner. 22 days off the cigs.