20th May 4 a.m.
Woke up an hour ago with a terrible nightmare and could not get back to sleep. I guess I am starting to worry about the trip home.

I am getting a lot of emails from folk with Hep C sharing their stories with me and their terrible frustration at not being able to access the medication that might cure them. Some people have gone through two or three Inferferon based treatments and still had the Hepatitis at the end of the treatment as well as suffering the debilitating side effects. Mothers who have Hep C and so desperately do not want to leave their children orphaned. So many sad stories... and all of these people saying “The medicine is out there but I can not afford to pay the $90,000 to get it.” They are hoping that this trip of mine is successful and that the India option will be viable. I hope so too.

A few people are asking the question: “How do you know you have not purchased fake tablets?”

The answer is that I do not know, and will not know until I get home and start taking them and get the results of the blood tests. India has a good reputation for manufacturing pharmaceuticals and there are now at least five manufacturers licensed by GILEAD and I seem to be buying from them and I did get a prescription from a highly reputable doctor and I am buying from the company that he recommended.

The tricky thing with India is that things are done very differently here. It is not simply a case of taking your script down to the local pharmacy, handing it over the counter, waiting ten minutes and walking out. It’s a different system, not a worse system or less reliable system, just different, and, like learning a new language, at first it is difficult but once understood and mastered its not a problem.

Well I think that nightmare is out of my system now, so I will have an other crack at some sleep before the sun comes up.

1 p.m.
Went back to sleep and dreamed that my cat had died.... What is that about?

Anyway the day has gone pretty smoothly. All the pressure is off and I’m backing my bags and getting ready to leave, relieved.

Just did odd jobs today, went to Madras University and donated one of my books to their library and also the History Department, also gave one to each of Chennai’s two big public libraries. For those reading this who do not know me I recently converted my Master’s thesis into an ’easy reading’ history book. A lot of the research was focused on Madras 1790 to 1820, which is the main reason I chose to come to Chennai rather than any of the other major cities of India. Knowing what I know now I would probably suggest Delhi as the place to go for generic Sofosbuvir.

So, hopefully I will have nothing to report until tomorrow. I am still a bit anxious about getting out of India but I think that it just paranoia.