One pill left to take

[Fischnet]

Tomorrow I will take my last pill of Harvoni.
I thought when I started this day would never come.
12 weeks of aches and pains and just not feeling myself.
Viral load has not been checked since before treatment.(insurance will not pay for test during treatment) all other blood work looks great.
Don’t know what to expect when coming off the Harvoni. Time will tell.
Next count down will begin. I hope this is the end of The Hep nightmare.
Tom

[gnatcatcher]

Tom, sorry you had such a rough ride. The odds for a cure are greatly in your favor, and the fact that all other blood work looks great is a good sign.

Interesting that your insurance company won't pay for a VL during tx. In Harvoni's early days on the market, the insurance companies were eager to check it 4 weeks in, perhaps because they wanted to be sure all that money wasn't being wasted on someone either noncompliant or unlikely to succeed. They were thinking of the low cure rates with the old pegint/riba torture regimen and didn't yet comprehend that nearly everyone is cured with the new drugs.

Fingers crossed for you.

Gnatty

[Fischnet]

Thanks for the response.
It will be worth it I am sure.
If you ever figure out why insurance companies do what they do you let me know.

How does the body react when you are finished with Harvoni?
Our bodies must have some reaction to not having this drug suddenly.
Any thoughts?
Tom

[gnatcatcher]

People here have had different reactions, both on and after Harvoni. I got the "Harvoni High" (extra energy: a "jazzed" or "wired" feeling), so I missed no longer having so much extra energy after treatment ended. Our bodies do seem to need an adjustment period when the ally that packs such a powerful punch is no longer there. AFAIK, there's no way to predict whether it will take days, weeks, or months to feel yourself again. Two-and-a-half years out, I feel better than before treatment, but not hugely so. (Another forum member, Mugwump, is vastly better.)  But I'm thrilled that my fibrosis score has dropped from 19.5 to 7.6 and my ALT and AST are less than a 10th as high as they had gotten, proof that my liver is much healthier.

[Lynn K]

I was taking Harvoni for 24 weeks along with ribavirin. I developed anemia because of the ribavirin so I felt slightly out of breath on minor exertion.

Two weeks after I finished treatment my anemia had resolved and my HGB had nearly returned to pre treatment levels. But other than the effects of the ribavirin I felt ok on treatment and much better every day after 2 weeks I was pretty much back to normal.

Sorry you have had a difficult treatment I hope you rebound quickly