Hepatitis C Treatment, Kangaroos, and Gold

Well a couple of days in the mountains is a good thing, I wish I could do that once every week! Spent the days wandering through the bush finding old mine shafts and scaring kangaroos who would have rarely, if ever, seen a human. Found a few specks of gold, nothing bigger than a grain of sand, the real gold was the peace and quite and the beauty of Tasmania’s wilderness.

But now I am back at the computer and things are moving along pretty well. I had a couple of emails from Western Union waiting for me. They were crazy because they called me by the wrong name, one email thought my name was Chad and the other thought my name was Enrique. Both were clearly dealing with a complaint unrelated to me but it was interesting to read the emails from their unhappy customers who, like me had been randomly blocked from sending money through Western Union.

Then at 6 p.m. last night I got a phone call from Western Union, someone who could actually speak perfect English and on a phone connection that did not require super hearing and a static filter to actually hear what was being said.

This gentleman was obviously higher up the chain of command than anyone I had previously spoken to and it seemed he had even taken the time to actually read my emails. He was very apologetic and assured me that my account was now no longer blocked and that it would not be blocked again. A minor miracle!

But we shall see. I will drive into town this morning and send money for an order and see what happens!

Fortunately the Western Union debacle has not created too many problems. Various people have volunteered to let me send the money in their name. Even total strangers who heard about the situation have offered to send the money through Western Union using their name, ID etc.

It just goes to show if something is good and being done for the right reasons nothing can stop it. I was much humbled by the show of support.

I get an email almost every day now from a Hep C sufferer in the UK who can not get a prescription for Indian generics from their doctor. It seems that English doctors in particular have a great aversion to this. I quote from today’s email:

Now I have to say I find this astounding as more than 40% of the prescribed medicines used in the UK come from India and more than 80% come from “abroad.” Seriously does this specialist know what is going on in the world of pharmaceutical manufacturing? What about patient care? Curing the patient? I am speechlessly annoyed.

Not to mention the fact that it is perfectly legal for a patient to import these meds into the UK for personal use.

Well I am not raging but I can see how the feelings I am getting could become that. As I am just about to finish week 9 the feeling of tension and anxiety is almost always in the background. I know that the wrong trigger could easily turn that into blazing anger and I am astounded how anyone ever got through the old treatment regime that required one to be on ribavirin for 9 or 10 months WITH the interferon as well. No wonder so many folk dropped out of that program and I have only admiration for people who make it through.

I really need to go and get my week 8 blood tests.