ere it is Friday, Feb. 13th and boy, am I scared!! Ha! Not really. All of our attempts at trying to heal this Hep C are to God's glory.I'm now on about treatment week 13 or 14 for a research study involving a quicker, more efficient cure for Hepatitis C, Type 1 which I volunteered to be a "white rat" for last April. It is entitled "A Phase 3 Safety and Efficacy Study of Boceprevir in Previously Untreated Subjects With Chronic Hepatitis C Genotype 1." The Protocol No.. is P05216; WIRB Protocol #20081047. The sponsor, or branch of "Big Pharma" is Schering-Plough Research Institute in Kenilworth, N.J., USA. The investigator, or primary attending physician over the study is Joseph S. Galati, M.D., Suite 1990 at 6624 Fannin, Houston, Tx., 77030, USA. The site is Research Specialists of Texas at the same address as Dr. Galati's suite of offices.
My first day of treatment after going through 2 previous years of natural and holistic treatment to cure my "bugs" was interesting. I had changed my diet, avoiding every form of pharmaceutical possible including headache medicines and cold syrups. Which was easy to do since I haven't had a cold or headache since I started eating right. I've lost about 30 pounds and have felt really good since the doctor gave me 18 months to live if I didn't start the AMA recommended 'standard care treatment' for my disease. Well, we went to the specialist for liver disease at Hermann-Memorial NW Hospital, Dr. Victor Yang, who put us through the battery of blood tests, confirmed my disease and type and then told us to sign on to the treatment and my "drugs" would arrive soon at my home along with a nurse to show us how to self-administer them. He gave us lots of reading material which we took home and scared ourselves into backing out of that option due to all of the potential nasty side-effects that sounded a lot worse than the disease itself. We, primarily Windy, started researching the internet and found lots of info on curing Hep C by natural means. There were several on-line discussion groups that were in fierce debate over the various methods offered. We decided to try a few with prayer and a hope of success. Lloyd Wright's book on "Curing Hepatitis C" offered three or four different price ranges of his treatments. We chose a $300 package but evidently my genotype of the virus was resistant to the "economy" version. We found a very good holistic doctor in SW Houston by the name of Dr. Gilbert Manso at the Whole Health Center who worked with us on other methods. Over the next couple of years we tried vitamin C floods by IV, twice as well as alternating IVs of hydrogen peroxide and colloidal silver for ten days. These brought the viral load count down but I've since learned that these "bugs" are extremely good at replicating from very low numbers back up into the tens of millions at really fast paces. So we gained some good experience, a wonderful friend in the medical professional circle and met lots of wonderful people in the IV room at the Whole Health Center with who we shared lots of experiences, stories and knowledge of various subjects. However, in the end we didn't lose the virus.
By this time I would suspect that I had at least 500 punctures by needles in my arm for drawing blood to administering vitamins, chelation, minerals, HP, etc. And to think that's likely how I contracted the virus in the first place. By letting a person talk me into shooting up meth when I was 19 with a dirty needle. So I've had this disease for 40 years! God has kept me healthy as long as I've been doing HIS work of evangelizing.
So here we were back in April of 2008 without a clue of what to do next when the phone rang. It was one of the staff at Dr. Galati's office asking if I still wanted to be signed up for the research study. Windy and I shrugged and said, "Yes. Sign me up." So after being put off for several reasons, not the leaset of which was the devastation of Hurricane Ike hitting the Galveston-Houston area, we began in earnest on Nov. 7, 2008. Windy had gone down to visit her sister, Kathy and I was called to come in on that day for my first injection of Pygelated Interferon with a Redi-pen and first dose of Ribavirin which consisted of three of six capsules I would take every day for then next 4 weeks. After that they introduced either a placebo or the actual drug under study called Boceprevir which I would take three times a day, a total of 12 capsules in addition to the weekly injections and Ribavirin capsules. Making it a total of one injection and 18 pills a day for the next 48 weeks. That first injection they helped me with gave me the worst flu-like symtoms that night of headache, fever, chills, achiness, etc. All night. I was miserable. Ever since then I've only felt just really down and out for three days after the injection. I don't get much done on those days and since I left work back in October of 2007 on a 3 month disability leave followed by taking my 6 weeks of 2008 vacation and then finally retiring on April 1, 2008 I haven't gotten a whole lot done since then. I did take a 10 day trip with my brother, Clint Isbell, on his boat the "Dreamseeker" back in October which was a lot of fun.
My schedule has been pretty systematic since starting the program. It's an international study involving other patients around the world. My team members are very professional and courteous. Kim, Lacy, Herman, Dr. Erin Yates all under the direction of Dr. Galati.
Good news. After only the tenth week my lab report showed "NO DETECTABLE HCV RNA". This is a good sign according to the team. We must maintain the assault against the "bugs" in order to reach a successful conclusion which is a CURE. The drugs may kill me first but at least I can donate my new, healed liver to a recipient after I'm dead.
I'm really tired of typing right now so I'll come back later with more details.
I'll try to keep up with my blog a little better in the future.
Stan Isbell
No comments:
Post a Comment