Interferon, Week 1

I started my Interferon therapy Sunday night, and so far so good. I have to say, I knew that Interferon was a nasty drug. When I was still working (back in the early 90's) in the ICU at UCSF, they were doing some of the first Interferon trials, using it for stage 3 and 4 melanoma and the patients were in our unit for all the infusions. This was a far less refined drug at that time, and nearly every patient that I took care of had a really rough time with it. Back then we were using Interferon-alpha, which is what I am taking now. The biggest differences are that dosing has been figured out to maximize result and minimize problems, and it is now pegylated, which means that it is treated with polyethylene glycol. PEG attaches itself to a protein (Interferon is a protein molecule). This accomplishes 2 things: 1) it slows down the release of the drug, and as a result, 2) the drug has less of a spike after dosing and lasts longer, about a week at the start of therapy, and by the end of the therapy (usually 48 weeks) it takes about 4 weeks to completely clear the remaining drug in your body.

So it's still a nasty, toxic drug, but not as awful as it was back then. I have to say, with all the drugs I'm currently taking (or for that matter have ever taken), I have never gotten a patient information pamphlet that is as scary as the one I got for the Interferon. Under adverse reactions, nearly every major organ system has a life threatening possible complication. This is the best one though: in all these years, this is the first time that a possible adverse reaction to a drug I'm taking is "homocidal or suicidal behavior". I am as serious as a heart attack, which is also a possible adverse reaction.

But so far, the world is safe, and I'm doing fine with it. The caveat is that this is only day 3 of 336, but I'm happy right now. About all I can say for now is that it might be exacerbating my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but as I was telling Therese last night, in a way, my CFS has been a good preperatory experience for this. I know what it's like to have malaise that gets so bad at times, that it's all I can do to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. I know what it's like to be so fatigued that it's easier to keep watching the same thing on TV rather than looking for the remote, which is probably at most a few feet away. And I'm resigned to that, and for that matter, ok with it. You ask anybody that lives with a lifelong disability, and nearly every one of us will say that one calibrates themselves to a new sense of what is normal. You have to if you want to cope with the disease and still remain positive and see the good things in life. It's a really good life lesson in not sweating the small stuff and really getting clear on your priorities. The silly stuff is a lot easier to let go of. Actually, it sort of organically falls away without you even noticing most of the time.

So far, so good. If it stays like the for the next 11 months I'll be just fine. I'm fairly sure that there are going to be some big challenges and obstacles along the way, but I'm not at all worried about them. If I am concerning myself with anything, it is hoping with all my might that this is going to work, and I'm telling myslef that it will. I keep being asked by my friends "what can I do for you?". For right now, send out the positive energy to the universe that this treatment works. I need that more than anything.

Pride is now 11 days away. I can't wait. I'm going to have a fabulous time, and for that one day, everything in my life that is weighing me down will not make it out of the front door of my house. If I can keep that attitude up after that day, even better. Perhaps that should be my goal right now. Worries will only weigh me down if I am worrying, so maybe that is the one thing that I most need to let go of. More later. Happy Hump Day to all.


Doggydad's Life Now: The Viral Monologues by Parry Tallmadge is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at doggydad.blogspot.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.runnymedesilkys.com.

<>