Week 1-4 - Starting Interferon treatment
I started on Interferon therapy at the beginning of April. This involves injecting a small amount of Interferon under the skin, three times week.
The first injection produced a substantial flu-like reaction. Within 3 hours I felt shivery, and cold. Within another few hours my temperature went up to 38.7 °C. The temperature lasted for about 20 hours, and then settled back to normal. I felt general aches and pains, and some tiredness.
From the second injection I no longer had any temperature increase, but there are other definite effects. I can feel the effect of the injection within about an hour or so. The first effect is to make me feel generally sleepy. After this I develop general aches and pains. The general idea is to inject in late afternoon or early evening, so as to allow you to sleep through the worst of the effects.
I was advised to take Panado (Paracetamol; Acetaminophen) to counter the effects. Aspirin is not recommended. I experimented with various different plans. By the end of April I have settled on 1gm Paracetamol just before the injection, and then the same at some time during the night.
The day following the injection can be quite variable. Generally I feel tired and indecisive. Some days are better than others. I have reduced my workload so that I don’t have to go anywhere on the days after injections. If I feel better and am able to do more then that is a bonus.
I do the injections myself. The process is quite simple and painless. Obviously care should be taken with this process, so as not to introduce any further problems: Follow the instructions carefully!
After the first two weeks I had a couple of days where I felt extremely low – Major depression. I discussed this with my GP and she recommended an anti-depressant. I started taking Cipralex, but found it really made me more sleepy than ever – I came to the conclusion that the depression was temporary and did not justify taking another drug. We will see how this works out!
The first injection produced a substantial flu-like reaction. Within 3 hours I felt shivery, and cold. Within another few hours my temperature went up to 38.7 °C. The temperature lasted for about 20 hours, and then settled back to normal. I felt general aches and pains, and some tiredness.
From the second injection I no longer had any temperature increase, but there are other definite effects. I can feel the effect of the injection within about an hour or so. The first effect is to make me feel generally sleepy. After this I develop general aches and pains. The general idea is to inject in late afternoon or early evening, so as to allow you to sleep through the worst of the effects.
I was advised to take Panado (Paracetamol; Acetaminophen) to counter the effects. Aspirin is not recommended. I experimented with various different plans. By the end of April I have settled on 1gm Paracetamol just before the injection, and then the same at some time during the night.
The day following the injection can be quite variable. Generally I feel tired and indecisive. Some days are better than others. I have reduced my workload so that I don’t have to go anywhere on the days after injections. If I feel better and am able to do more then that is a bonus.
I do the injections myself. The process is quite simple and painless. Obviously care should be taken with this process, so as not to introduce any further problems: Follow the instructions carefully!
After the first two weeks I had a couple of days where I felt extremely low – Major depression. I discussed this with my GP and she recommended an anti-depressant. I started taking Cipralex, but found it really made me more sleepy than ever – I came to the conclusion that the depression was temporary and did not justify taking another drug. We will see how this works out!
posted by Peter | 8:51 PM
1 Comments:
Actually I know other people who've had side effects from anti-depressants, the most remarkable being depression....!
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