Barbara's Story
(by Barbara)
Hi!
My name is Barbara and I have probably been a victim of hepatitis C since 1978, if not before.
I have been ill all of my life and at the age of 15, in 1978 (yes, a woman confessing her real
age...LOL) I went into liver failure and stayed there for several months.
And for the rest of my life I have fought the dreaded physical pain that comes with severe
liver failure. I was severely ill in 1990 but docs and hospitals at the time would not touch me.
I was considered a street person. No one wanted to touch me. They thought I
had AIDS and turned me away.
My hep C diagnosis came in 1997 when
I went to donate blood. at first I thought it was a joke. I could find nothing of significance on it.
But I knew something was wrong. I had always had periods where life just seemed to
change. I am normally high strung so to speak and was raised with a work ethic of if the other guy is working twelve hours a day, you
work fourteen. You can always be replaced. The fact was it was getting to the point where
I didn't care if I was replaced or not. It was hard to bounce back whenI drove my body too hard.
Several hours of needed rest was becoming several days.
Fact is hep C took away my life. Yes, I did the interferon and from what
I know now...there is no way I will do it again. Not only did it destroy my health but it hurt my heart and soul.
How does one live when one isn't able to work? I am single. How does one date or get support?
I have recently started a support group that hopefully will help heppers.
If any reading this have any questions or input, please email me at babylonia1@juno.com
Let's fight the dragon together as a community....even more...let's get the community to help us fight the dragon!
(how quickly they forget that at any moment it could be them who are about to lose everything!)
Barbara
The opinions expressed on
this page are solely those of the author and none of the information included is to be
misconstrued as medical advise.
Any
issues concerning this website should be addressed to:
Be sure to
include the words "HEP C" in the subject line of your
correspondence. Otherwise, it may be deleted unopened
due to the extreme problem with spam.
Last Updated
March 31, 2008
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