Saturday, April 11, 2009

first month starting out with valcyte

*week 1*
so i am starting out on 1 pill a day (450 mg). so far i'm not feeling any difference. with valcyte you are supposed to feel a die-off effect, taking form in increased fatigue, nausea, achiness, headache, weakness, ect.
so hopefully i will be feeling something later on. (funny how i'm hoping to feel worse? haha)

*week 2*
still not feeling much different, although i am sleeping a bit more. on average i would sleep about 12 hours, and now i'm up to about 13 on a daily basis. i still manage to get my daily exercise in. i play frisbee with my parents for about 30 minutes a day. it's such a perfect exercise because it's not too active, but it involves stretching and a bit of cardiac. plus you get constant breaks when you don't have the frisbee.

*week 3*
oh wow. i sleep SO MUCH now. i usually fall asleep about 12-1 am, and then sleep until about 4:30. i don't feel much worse, no nausea, no achiness, but i'd say increased fatigue, brain fog, weakness. not too much worse though. i am having bit of a "bowel change" though. haha.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Background

So i'm not much of a blogger, but i figured it might help others if i shared my experience with this debilitating condition.
So i'm 18 now, but i got sick when i was 17. it's hard to think one so young could become chronically fatigued. I became sick Sept. of 2007, but i brushed it off as a simple case of mono. unfortunatly for me, it just never went away! sure, the mono itself left, but the fatigue sure didn't! I've tried everything from over the counter pills, hydrogen peroxide I.V's, and those stupid, "miracle cures" (hello, ViraBlock!) but to no avail.

I finally had to drop out of school, i slept all day, and when i was up, it was a foggy zombie blur.

so i've taken the plunge, and i'm going on valcyte. for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a potent antiviral, often used for AIDs patients. Although it seems to be effective, it has some pretty scarey side effects. It's also been known to have a pretty severe "die off-effect" aka viral die-off. sometimes called "herxing". So i'll be documenting my progress trying to anhiliate this fatigue!!