Attitude

When Hepatitis C Feels Heavy

May 13, 2013

When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute.  But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute – and it’s longer than any hour.  That’s relativity.  ~Albert Einstein There are days that having hepatitis C may feel like it weighs a ton; other days it [...]

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Moving Forward with Hepatitis C

April 25, 2013

Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward.  ~ Victor Kiam Living with hepatitis C can be an opportunity to record numbers and progress, an activity that some find satisfying. However, the pleasure may vanish when results arrive. Liver enzymes, viral loads, and biopsy numbers increase; platelets decrease. It can be like [...]

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Tools for Managing Hepatitis C

March 11, 2013

From the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web…We must pick out what is good for us where we can find it. ~ Pablo Picasso Before entering this clinical trial, I had days when it felt like hepatitis C sucked the good from the marrow [...]

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Being Happy with Hepatitis C

February 21, 2013

Living with HCV is a call to action. HCV reminds me that I can surrender to illness or pursue happiness and health. I have been through treatment twice, and since that didn’t work out the way I had hoped, I have explored other avenues to stay well. Cultivating happiness is like taking a daily vitamin [...]

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Hepatitis C, Cheese Doodles and Bliss

February 13, 2013

Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls. ~ Joseph Campbell In 2012, the Norwegian endurance adventurer, Alexander Gamme trekked to the South Pole. It took 89 days of incredible stamina. On day 86, starving and having lost 55 pounds from his already trim physique, Gamme arrived at his [...]

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Living with Hepatitis C and Purpose

February 10, 2013

Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause. ~ Voltaire Perhaps it may be that we have hepatitis C by chance. However, it is still possible to make sense out of having this virus, and to find meaning from the experience. For me, the irony of having hepatitis C is [...]

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Living Calmly with Hepatitis C

February 4, 2013

The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds.  ~Will Durant For the majority of my life, fear was my primary reaction. Hepatitis C added fuel to my anxiety level.  I dove into worry needlessly, because I reacted without getting all the facts.  [...]

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Twenty-Five Years of Living with Hepatitis C

February 1, 2013

You see a mousetrap; I see free cheese and a challenge! ~ Scroobius Pip On this date, twenty-five years ago, I received a life-saving blood transfusion, along with an unintended extra ingredient—hepatitis C. For twenty-five years, hepatitis C has been replicating in my liver every day. The miracle is that I am as healthy as [...]

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Hepatitis C in the Depth of Winter

January 26, 2013

There is no spot of ground, however arid, bare or ugly, that cannot be turned into such a state as may give an impression of beauty and delight.  ~ Gertrude Jekyll This month, nearly everything is brown around my home here in the Sierra Nevada foothills. I can look at the barrenness or I can [...]

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Patience

December 16, 2012

Sometimes the feeling of impatience weighs heavily in our lives. Waiting for results of medical tests can be like walking around with ankle weights. When we have a concern about a symptom, and we are waiting to hear back from the doctor, it can feel like standing on the edge of a cliff. Uncertainty makes [...]

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