What
is Hepatitis?
Hepatitis C Treatment Side Effects
The most common treatment for Hepatitis C patients are either
with antiviral drugs such as Interferon or
a mix of Interferon and Ribavirin. These
drug
therapies
are known to have positive results in wiping out the infection
of at least diminishing its effects.
The problem is that
they also have side effects, some of which can be difficult
to deal with. Some people suffer very badly during treatments
with symptoms that will usually begin shortly after the
injection, while others sail through barely noticing anything
different.
There are some patients who find the treatments give them
the same symptoms that they suffer because of the Hepatitis
C virus
only amplified.
Though Interferon is
a drug that we ourselves produce in our bodies, the injection
of this drug is very hard
to
take. One
of the usual symptoms in patients is not unlike how you
would feel if you were to have a bad flu. That means
fever, nausea,
and headaches, with an overall feeling of being
tired and rundown. It happens to some people after only
the first injection, but
to others
it is after
each one. The symptoms can last a couple of hours to a
couple of days.
Headaches are such a
common problem during treatment that as many as sixty percent
of patients complain
of this
side effect.
If you have a headache after treatment that lasts continuously
for more than twenty-four hours, see your health care provider
as soon as
possible. This may be a sign of other problems.
Tiredness is another symptom.
One of the difficult side effects of these treatments
is how to deal with feeling tired all the time but
being unable
to
sleep. Insomnia is another of the common side
effects of Interferon injections. Feeling anxious, depressed
or having mood changes can occur during treatments as well.
When you think about
it this
should not be
a big surprise. There are so many things your body
is going through in a physical sense, but at the same
time,
you
are being put
through a major medical treatment plan to attempt to
eradicate a potentially life threatening disease. That
will pray
on your mind all the time until treatment results are
in.
Changes in appetite are still another
issue you’ll have
to deal with. The treatments will likely make the
patient feel nauseous. This makes eating difficult, though
your eating can
also be affected by depression. The problem is that
you must keep up your strength to successfully fight this infection.
If
you do not eat well, you will suffer weight loss
and potentially become weakened. That’s no way to fight
the Hepatitis C virus. So, you must do your best to keep eating
even if it means
smaller meals spread throughout the day.
Other less common symptoms you may suffer
include diarrhea,
dehydration, mouth sores and other mouth related
problems like
gum disease. There may be skin
problems including rashes,
itching and
injection region reactions. There is a lot to
deal with but you must
remember that this treatment is trying to rid
you of Hepatitis C.
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Hepatitis guide
