With a new ID I have had to leave my almost 400 blog entries as "Rachamim" and start anew. As luck would have it I have achieved "Bluelighter Status" on my day of departure and so I will be able to keep myself occupied blogging both on my long haul and in my new kind of/sort of home, both of which I will discuss in my second entry.
I returned to America at the end of 2013 in hopes of getting a slot in a trial for what was then an experimental medication for Hep-C. For those who used to read my "Rachamim" blog entries, in 2008 I had come to America from my home in Mindanao in the Southern Philippines in order to obtain Interferon which at that time was the treatment with the most sucess with combatting Hep-C. I suceeded in getting that treatment and received injections of pegylated Interferon and Ribavarin, a Protease Inhibitor in the form of a capsule.
Going into treatment I had a viral load of 110,000. My first blood work at 4 weeks was a viral load of only 10,000, a huge decrease obviously and I foolishly allowed myself to get excited. Then my personal life crumbled. My wife (at that time), Rizza, was back home in Mindanao taking care of our businesses. In short, I discovered that she had run away with some kid she had met in university. I never loved her but the fact that I was in business (rice mills, cattle, sugar cane, tree farming and land speculation) and relied upon her serving as my eyes and ears while I was abroad made her actions very stressful. Moreover, her actions made her family lose a huge amount of "face," making my relations with her family troubled as well.
The stress apparently manifested itself in my overall health. My next bloodwork at 8 weeks showed that I had rebounded to a viral load of 70,000. Such a massive increase meant that my treatment had failed. I had contracted Hep-C in 1984 (diagnosed 1991) so that my virus had progressed to Stage 4. It was literally a life and death issue for me.
I consigned myself to an early death in the not too distant future. In fact, I would have been on the verge of liver failure right now had I not been extremely lucky with the aforementioned experimental treatment. In 2013 a friend of mine with Albert Einstein Hospital here in New York City emailed me and told me that there was a promising trial taking shape and she asked me to participate knowing how my first attempt had failed so miserably. Now FDA Approved, "Solvadi" costs $1,400 per day, imagine??? I not only received it for free but was paid a stipend for participating.
My first bloodwoork at 4 weeks came back undetectable!!! I was declared Cured five weeks ago, after a 6 month regimen and so my time in the US was coming to an end...
I returned to America at the end of 2013 in hopes of getting a slot in a trial for what was then an experimental medication for Hep-C. For those who used to read my "Rachamim" blog entries, in 2008 I had come to America from my home in Mindanao in the Southern Philippines in order to obtain Interferon which at that time was the treatment with the most sucess with combatting Hep-C. I suceeded in getting that treatment and received injections of pegylated Interferon and Ribavarin, a Protease Inhibitor in the form of a capsule.
Going into treatment I had a viral load of 110,000. My first blood work at 4 weeks was a viral load of only 10,000, a huge decrease obviously and I foolishly allowed myself to get excited. Then my personal life crumbled. My wife (at that time), Rizza, was back home in Mindanao taking care of our businesses. In short, I discovered that she had run away with some kid she had met in university. I never loved her but the fact that I was in business (rice mills, cattle, sugar cane, tree farming and land speculation) and relied upon her serving as my eyes and ears while I was abroad made her actions very stressful. Moreover, her actions made her family lose a huge amount of "face," making my relations with her family troubled as well.
The stress apparently manifested itself in my overall health. My next bloodwork at 8 weeks showed that I had rebounded to a viral load of 70,000. Such a massive increase meant that my treatment had failed. I had contracted Hep-C in 1984 (diagnosed 1991) so that my virus had progressed to Stage 4. It was literally a life and death issue for me.
I consigned myself to an early death in the not too distant future. In fact, I would have been on the verge of liver failure right now had I not been extremely lucky with the aforementioned experimental treatment. In 2013 a friend of mine with Albert Einstein Hospital here in New York City emailed me and told me that there was a promising trial taking shape and she asked me to participate knowing how my first attempt had failed so miserably. Now FDA Approved, "Solvadi" costs $1,400 per day, imagine??? I not only received it for free but was paid a stipend for participating.
My first bloodwoork at 4 weeks came back undetectable!!! I was declared Cured five weeks ago, after a 6 month regimen and so my time in the US was coming to an end...