Well, I am adjusting to not having any drugs in my system pretty well. It's been over a month since my last shot and Ribavirin pills and my headaches have all but disappeared, thankfully. My appetite hasn't gotten any better, and the diarrhea is still a bother, but I've not lost any weight so far. (which is too bad because I'm a bit chunky now!) I've noticed that my sinus problems have seemed to get a lot better and I'm breathing a lot easier too. No more shortness of breath. My sense of smell is not very good, but my sense of taste is improving.  I'm having no pain in my liver area at all. This is good because every other time I stopped treatment, that pain would come right back.

I've noticed that my memory (short term) is not getting any better and my ability to concentrate on any one thing for very long isn't working too well. This is especially irritating when someone is trying to explain something to me. I just seem to get lost in the explaination. I'm hoping that will improve with time.

One thing I've noticed this treatment round is that my fingernails grew like gangbusters. I have always bitten my nails but they are now long and strong. I'm having to learn how to type all over again because I'm not used to these things on the tips of my fingers! I make many more mistakes and get the nails stuck between the keys alot.

I've been having some terrible problems with my teeth since stopping treatment. I've never had really bad teeth but now the problem is my bone loss. Apparently, I am beginning to suffer a lot of bone degeneration in my teeth. I had to have oral surgery the middle of this month and had 2 molars removed on the upper left side. I've also got some real tooth pain on the upper and lower right side now. There is nothing in the world worse than tooth ache pain. I've lost 7 pounds in the last week due to the oral surgery and the pain on the right side of my mouth. I can't eat much of anything without the pain getting so bad it makes me cry. I've been taking Darvocet for the pain, like crazy, but it only works for a couple of hours at a time. The dentist did give me Tylenol with Codeine but I hate that Codeine stuff. It just knocks me out and I can't sleep all day - I'm too busy!!

We are getting ready to move soon. Our house is almost done being built. We have decided to hire someone to come in and pack and move us. I packed most of the household items, the china, my penguin collection, glasses and the like, but I think it will be easier having someone else do the big stuff. Larry and I both are real excited about this move, and it's been great to watch the entire building process. I've been taking pictures of the progress and it is just amazing to see first the empty lot, then a house, trees, flowers, grass and fencing around it. I'm looking forward to decorating the house. I'm planning to sponge paint at least one room, and try my hand at wallpapering too. The only bad thing is that my daughter Erika and her daughter Arianna are not moving up north with us. I'm going to miss them both alot. I've already arranged 2 weekends a month for visitation visits!! I'll go down and get the baby then Erika can come up to get her. We are only going to be about 2 hours from here so it won't really affect my drive down to USC too awful much.

I'm going to contact my study nurse about my teeth troubles. I think I remember other people saying they have had the same problems after treatment. Maybe the powers that be need to look into what these drugs do to other parts of our bodies a lot closer than they have to date. I got back in for a check up in July and will keep posting updates while I continue through the study.