Week 33 – Interferon experience update
The interferon process continues, with some ups and downs. I thought it may be useful to describe how it is affecting me, now that I am about 8 months through the year. I get the feeling that my view is very much how I am feeling at present, and I cannot remember what happened even a month back, never mind to the earlier days of this experience. May be interesting to look back on this sometime in the future…
I am still doing the injections three times a week, usually on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening. Some times I move the Friday injection to Saturday, so that I can do a business meeting on Saturday morning.
I have the injection process down to a routine. I use a self-injection pen which contains 6 doses. Each pen comes with 6 one-time needles. I take 1000 mg of paracetamol at about 6 pm and do the injection about an hour after that. I warm up the pen by holding in my hand for a few minutes. I am very careful to wash my hands beforehand, and use the pre-injection swabs to clean the skin. So far I have not introduced any skin infections. However, the skin around the injection sites does sometimes get red for a couple of days.
The actual injection is usually painless. The single-use needles are extremely fine and very sharp. Sometimes I feel a little pain towards the end of the injection. This may be from pinching the skin rather than the injection itself.
There is very little reaction to the injection at first. Within about an hour I start feeling tense and irritable, and have some difficulty in concentrating. Good to watch something mindless on TV at this stage! I generally have a bath or shower, and get to bed by 10pm. Although I don’t have much other reaction at this stage, I have found it is best to take another 1000 mg paracetamol when going to sleep. This gives me something like 4 hours sleep before I wake up with sore muscles. I generally try to take as little medication as possible, but this is a trap: If I only take 500mg then I sleep badly and wake up feeling worse.
By the morning all my muscles are a little sore. When I stand up I find my feet and ankles are sore, but moving around improves this. As long as I have had a reasonable number of hours sleep I prefer to have breakfast, shave and get dressed relatively early. Then I generally get some work done in my home office.
The interferon definitely affects my mental processes. I think I am almost back to normal, but every now and then something reminds me that I am not operating at my normal level. (Maybe this is partly getting older, but I hope not!) I find that I cannot concentrate on work if I have the radio playing in the background. When an interruption occurs I find it difficult to get back to where I was.
I find it difficult to decide what to do next… I have always been a fairly disciplined person, and I have lists of work and tasks of all sorts. But some days I find I am wasting time trying to decide what to do next, rather than just getting on with the next task.
When trying to work at my desk I sometimes find it difficult to concentrate. I have found that I can make good progress if I just press on, and try to ignore the interruptions to my thought process. I still seem to be able to sit down and concentrate on big tasks for a couple of hours, and I think the quality of my work is still fairly good – Just somewhat slower!
I try to get some exercise every day. This could be walking the dogs, or some work in the garden, or some physical work in my garage or workshop. I have to be careful not to overdo this, as it comes back and bites me the next day. But regular exercise seems to be good for me.
Feeling dizzy and light-headed continues. I notice this particularly if I have been sitting for a while, and then suddenly get up and walk somewhere. For example, if I drive to the shops, and then get out of the car and march around… I have to take it easy and let the oxygen build up in my system slowly, and then I’m generally OK. I find it difficult walking around with (younger!) people – For example, I went on a short flight with my nephew, who is a pilot, a couple of weeks back. To get to the plane was a long walk past all the hangars, out to where the plane was parked. Even with all the walking I have been doing, I found I just could not keep up with the youngsters!
My vegetable garden is doing very nicely – We have been eating carrots, radish and spring onions already, and the tomatoes and corn are coming on nicely. I am a bit late with planting beans and more carrots, but will catch up with that this weekend. When you work it out, it costs more to grow your own veges than to buy them in the supermarket, but there is something special about eating your own produce. And think of the good exercise!
Since starting on interferon I have developed a post-nasal drip, and find that I need to clear my throat often. It does not seem to be getting worse, but has not improved either. It has not been bad enough to see the doctor – Perhaps I will discuss with my GP in January when I go for my annual checkup. That should be interesting this year!
I am still doing the injections three times a week, usually on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening. Some times I move the Friday injection to Saturday, so that I can do a business meeting on Saturday morning.
I have the injection process down to a routine. I use a self-injection pen which contains 6 doses. Each pen comes with 6 one-time needles. I take 1000 mg of paracetamol at about 6 pm and do the injection about an hour after that. I warm up the pen by holding in my hand for a few minutes. I am very careful to wash my hands beforehand, and use the pre-injection swabs to clean the skin. So far I have not introduced any skin infections. However, the skin around the injection sites does sometimes get red for a couple of days.
The actual injection is usually painless. The single-use needles are extremely fine and very sharp. Sometimes I feel a little pain towards the end of the injection. This may be from pinching the skin rather than the injection itself.
There is very little reaction to the injection at first. Within about an hour I start feeling tense and irritable, and have some difficulty in concentrating. Good to watch something mindless on TV at this stage! I generally have a bath or shower, and get to bed by 10pm. Although I don’t have much other reaction at this stage, I have found it is best to take another 1000 mg paracetamol when going to sleep. This gives me something like 4 hours sleep before I wake up with sore muscles. I generally try to take as little medication as possible, but this is a trap: If I only take 500mg then I sleep badly and wake up feeling worse.
By the morning all my muscles are a little sore. When I stand up I find my feet and ankles are sore, but moving around improves this. As long as I have had a reasonable number of hours sleep I prefer to have breakfast, shave and get dressed relatively early. Then I generally get some work done in my home office.
The interferon definitely affects my mental processes. I think I am almost back to normal, but every now and then something reminds me that I am not operating at my normal level. (Maybe this is partly getting older, but I hope not!) I find that I cannot concentrate on work if I have the radio playing in the background. When an interruption occurs I find it difficult to get back to where I was.
I find it difficult to decide what to do next… I have always been a fairly disciplined person, and I have lists of work and tasks of all sorts. But some days I find I am wasting time trying to decide what to do next, rather than just getting on with the next task.
When trying to work at my desk I sometimes find it difficult to concentrate. I have found that I can make good progress if I just press on, and try to ignore the interruptions to my thought process. I still seem to be able to sit down and concentrate on big tasks for a couple of hours, and I think the quality of my work is still fairly good – Just somewhat slower!
I try to get some exercise every day. This could be walking the dogs, or some work in the garden, or some physical work in my garage or workshop. I have to be careful not to overdo this, as it comes back and bites me the next day. But regular exercise seems to be good for me.
Feeling dizzy and light-headed continues. I notice this particularly if I have been sitting for a while, and then suddenly get up and walk somewhere. For example, if I drive to the shops, and then get out of the car and march around… I have to take it easy and let the oxygen build up in my system slowly, and then I’m generally OK. I find it difficult walking around with (younger!) people – For example, I went on a short flight with my nephew, who is a pilot, a couple of weeks back. To get to the plane was a long walk past all the hangars, out to where the plane was parked. Even with all the walking I have been doing, I found I just could not keep up with the youngsters!
My vegetable garden is doing very nicely – We have been eating carrots, radish and spring onions already, and the tomatoes and corn are coming on nicely. I am a bit late with planting beans and more carrots, but will catch up with that this weekend. When you work it out, it costs more to grow your own veges than to buy them in the supermarket, but there is something special about eating your own produce. And think of the good exercise!
Since starting on interferon I have developed a post-nasal drip, and find that I need to clear my throat often. It does not seem to be getting worse, but has not improved either. It has not been bad enough to see the doctor – Perhaps I will discuss with my GP in January when I go for my annual checkup. That should be interesting this year!
posted by Peter | 1:08 PM
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