After that last pill

[Francis60]

Hi all

I have 7 days to go on Riba/Sol its been a long 23 weeks but manageable. After i take that last pill I am thinking of going on a detox and start taking various supplements again to build up my immune and speed the clearing of these drugs from my body. Is it better to let the riba. linger around for as long as possible post treatment or if it hasn't done its job by now leaving it in my system longer is not going to make any difference?

Just wondering what members thoughts are on this, my body feels so toxic I just want to flush this poison out as quickly as possible.
cheers

[KimInTheForest]

Hi Francis. Congratulations on being in the home stretch!

When my time comes (I hope to start 12-wk Harvoni+Riba treatment next month), I plan to start detoxing the day after last pill. I truly think the drugs will have done what they were intended to do at that point, and the best thing to do is start clearing them from the body - especially the Riba, which can apparently take up to 6 months to clear since it lingers in interstitial fluid/spaces. And some people continue to experience the Riba side effects (to a lesser degree) during that time.

Exercise, saunas, drinking lots of water, lymphatic system stimulation, and other stuff are all part of my plan.

How are your numbers looking? Undetected?

May we all be cured,
Kim

[lporterrn]

The short answer is, no one knows. There isn’t any research on this. However, it is pretty unlikely that you can flush ribavirin out of your system any faster, since the metabolic path is fairly complex.

I pondered this question quite a bit, particularly since I was on ribavirin twice (once for a year), and here are my thoughts:

1)I rarely use supplements because the potential burden supplement place on the liver didn’t seem worth it. My thinking was the after finally getting off of everything, why would I give my liver more work to do? It is like cleaning out a storage shed and then buying more stuff and filling it back up.  Also, if I failed treatment I didn’t want to always wonder if it was from supplements. The exception was vitamins, esp B12. I was quite anemic and research supports the use of B12 and ribavirin and good treatment outcomes.

2)Not content to sit back, instead I focused on rebuilding health.  This included keeping track of water intake, eating well, sleeping a lot, not jumping back in to a high stress life, increasing my activity (walking, aerobics class, etc), and building back my muscle strength. I started slowly, but chipped away at it, and was surprised at how quickly I noticed improvement.

So, hope to be celebrating good news with you. It would be great to hear how you are doing every week or so. We tend to just drop off the Forum and only post results, but it is helpful to hear what people are doing and at when they start to notice changes.

[Bituman]

I pondered this question quite a bit, particularly since I was on ribavirin twice (once for a year), and here are my thoughts:

1)I rarely use supplements because the potential burden supplement place on the liver didn’t seem worth it. My thinking was the after finally getting off of everything, why would I give my liver more work to do? It is like cleaning out a storage shed and then buying more stuff and filling it back up.  Also, if I failed treatment I didn’t want to always wonder if it was from supplements. The exception was vitamins, esp B12. I was quite anemic and research supports the use of B12 and ribavirin and good treatment outcomes.

2)Not content to sit back, instead I focused on rebuilding health.  This included keeping track of water intake, eating well, sleeping a lot, not jumping back in to a high stress life, increasing my activity (walking, aerobics class, etc), and building back my muscle strength. I started slowly, but chipped away at it, and was surprised at how quickly I noticed improvement.

This might just be the best advice I have ever seen on this board.

Bob

[lporterrn]

Thanks Bob

[Ledoc01]

@Francis60, congrats on making it through the minefield

@Lucinda, I gotta agree...that's some great advice; I'm printing that one.

...37 days to go...

[lporterrn]

Ledoc01 - I don't know about you, but it felt like time slowed down the closer I got to the finish line. Hope to be celebrating your good news.

[BubbaT]

Hi Lucinda, I agree, good advice...

What Fibrosis level were you when started the Harvoni riba trial?

And how did you keep up with your water intake?



Thanks

[lporterrn]

BubbaT - I was at stage 2 - water intake wasn't a big issue for me because I tend to drink a lot anyway. I just used the gauge that as long as my urine was pale yellow or clear I was getting enough fluids. However, many years ago when I was on interferon too, I used a system where I put 7 rubber bands on my water bottle and took one off every time I refilled it, and when I had no more rubber bands, I was on my 8th bottle. Plus I drank tea too. Are you having issues with water intake?

[Ledoc01]

@Lucinda

Indeed, the clock has slowed to a crawl. I think I have 31 days left

[BubbaT]

BubbaT - I was at stage 2 - water intake wasn't a big issue for me because I tend to drink a lot anyway. I just used the gauge that as long as my urine was pale yellow or clear I was getting enough fluids. However, many years ago when I was on interferon too, I used a system where I put 7 rubber bands on my water bottle and took one off every time I refilled it, and when I had no more rubber bands, I was on my 8th bottle. Plus I drank tea too. Are you having issues with water intake?

That sounds like a good idea the rubber bands thing, I was a coffee drinker, but I stopped and now I'm drinking lemon water, maybe 4 -16oz a day, with tea for dinner,

I still have pain in my left side sometimes, it comes and goes, so I don't know if my water intake has anything to do with that, but yesterday I didn't have no pain and today it's back.

since you were in a clinical trial, does that mean your were kept under medical supervision while being treated?