Diagnosis

I am starting this treatment journey blog to document my journey into getting better, and hopefully to help others who are considering treatment along the way. 

In 2004, I was 23 years old, living in Northampton and was a single parent to my four-year-old son. I first decided to visit my GP when I had started feeling weak and tired all the time. My GP said he was not surprised, running after my little boy all day, but nevertheless, gave me some blood tests which was when I received the devastating news that I had Hepatitis C. It had been living inside me, undetected since I split with my son's father back in 1999. 

I was placed under the care of Dr Udi, a consultant at Northampton General Hospital. He gave me a liver biopsy and discovered that my liver was only mildly scarred.  Back then the only treatment was Interferon and Riboflavin which I was told had horrible side effects, and as I was a single mum, Dr Udi told me it wasn't worth starting the treatment, especially as the success rate at that time was only around 70%. He said that medical science was evolving all the time and he was certain a new treatment would become available in the coming years. 

Dr Udi said I would need to have another biopsy in three years time and I continued with check-ups every 6 months.  However as my liver function tests always came back stable, that was the first and last biopsy I ever had and this horrible virus has been living inside me ever since.

Thinking back now, I was never given any real information about the virus and the symptoms it would present.  I was only ever told about the way it attacks the liver. It's only been in recent years that I have actually read up about the other side effects and discovered that I was suffering from quite a few... Anxiety, depression, poor memory, but the main one for me is Chronic Fatigue. A side effect I didn't even know went hand in hand and I knew nothing about. 

In 2007 I visited my GP again because the tiredness had returned big time.  I was always feeling drained and my arms and legs would often feel like dead weights. I don't know if it had ever gone away or if I had just become used to feeling tired. But this time it felt worse. The doctor barely looked at me and after reading my notes, said it was chronic fatigue which was a side effect to my Hep C. This was the first time I had ever heard this term. He didn't suggest any ways of managing it and didn't explain anything to me. That was it. You have chronic fatigue... and on to the next patient. 

It was around that time that I met my now Husband, Paul at work. After 3-4 weeks of constants text and talking on the phone, I told him about the virus, half expecting him to run a mile, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  He's been nothing but supportive from the start. 

After we had been together for just 3 months, we moved in together (when you know, you know!) in a new build house in Corby, which is a 40-minute drive from Northampton. I finally had what I always wanted, a little family. I  started up my own business and 15 months later, we got married. I guess I got caught up in being in love, parenting and running a business that my health got put on the back burner. It wasn't until 2010 that I ran into problems again...