Day 1778

I got the long awaited message from the liver center today, telling me that they considered me officially "cured" of Hepatitis C. My final viral load test showed that after six months, there was still no trace of the virus in my body. There will be no more tests. I'm done.

I'm relieved and happy to put all this behind me. It's ironic in a way that it took a deadly disease to get me healthy. Before Sovaldi came along, there really wasn't an effective cure for the disease. The previous interferon and ribavirin treatment only had a 50% success rate and many people experienced terrible side effects. I decided to wait until Sovaldi was approved and changed my entire diet and lifestyle to decrease the load on my liver. I quit drinking. I lost weight. And I exchanged my steady diet of cheeseburgers and beer for broccoli, kale salads, and other healthy fare. Healthy living kept my liver going while I was waiting and I ended up being one of the first people in the country to receive the new drug. It has been a long journey, but it definitely ended well.

I thought I'd watch a few YouTube videos and see if it were possible for me to install a new battery in my MacBook Pro laptop without going to the Apple Store. The process seemed simple enough. You just unscrew the bottom of the computer, unscrew a few more things inside, and them remove and replace the battery. Piece of cake. By doing this myself, I could cut the cost of a battery replacement in half. I gave the matter some serious thought and then decided I ought to make an appointment at the Genius Bar instead. I've had experience dealing with tiny little screws that have been tightened by machines before. It's incredibly easy to strip the threads, making it impossible to put everything back together again. I've ruined enough watches with tiny little screws that I proceed very cautiously when I see these things now. Just because you've got a small Philips screwdriver doesn't necessarily mean you can get the screws out. The Apple Store technicians are just as likely to destroy the computer as I am, but if they break it, they'll give me a new one. That's what happened when I had to get a new battery for my iPhone. The Apple folks ended up destroying the phone, but they were real nice about giving me a brand new one.

I watched a rocket explode carrying supplies to the space station when I was eating dinner tonight. I bet the astronauts on board the station are a little nervous right now. The 5,000 pounds of supplies included most of their food for the next six months. It's not exactly easy to get up to the space station anymore, with all our space shuttles sitting in museums. I did a little channel surfing to see if I could learn more about the story and was surprised to see how selective news coverage has become. All MSNBC was talking about were the upcoming mid-term elections, and Fox was still talking about Ebola. Apparently the only folks that initially thought this story was news was CNN.

Dot and Dash have their costumes ready for the Halloween party tomorrow. Once or twice we've won the costume contest, but typically the class don't even know what our costumes are. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Abi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1500

My visit with the hepatologist today was very encouraging. The new treatment for Hepatitis-C is far superior to the old interferon and ribavirin treatment. The new treatment only takes 12 weeks. It is almost always successful. And there are no horrible side effects. The old treatment could take up to a year, involved injecting yourself with very expensive interferon every week, and it almost always made you feel like you had a bad case of the flu. You also had to worry that the medicine would destroy your white blood cells.

Sovaldi, the major component of the new treatment, appears to be an amazing new drug. I'm glad someone finally invented it. The only downside is that I have to get approved before the pharmaceutical company will start sending it to me. The first part of the approval process involved getting new baseline blood work done. That part was a piece of cake. The next part involves getting insurance approval.  Lets see. A brand new advanced drug and an antiquated approval system that doesn't even understand some of the regular medication I take. What could possibly go wrong?

The best part of this new treatment is that my reluctance to inject myself with interferon has actually worked in my favor. Apparently Sovaldi works best if you have never had the interferon and ribavirin combo before.  We'll see what happens. My medical team wants to see me again in March. They say that I should be halfway through my treatment by then.

It was so cold today that the dogs and I were both reluctant to go outside. Nature calls though, so we had to bundle up and make the best of it. I found some new dog coats that are much easier to get on and off and the dogs seem to tolerate them pretty well. Getting them to wear their old sweaters was often an exercise in futility. Luckily, we didn't have to stay outside as long as we used to. Dash has finally learned to poop in the yard on cold days. Thank god! I don't know why it took him five years to learn this simple trick, but I'm glad he's finally acting sensible.

The tree service is supposed to come out and remove the tree from my roof tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the tree trimmers never show up. The tree has been sitting up there on the roof since well before Christmas, despite several promises of a speedy removal.  When the tree is finally gone, I'll move on to my next big project: doing my taxes.

Chloe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1480

My biological clock finally seems to have reset itself. It's a Friday and is actually feels like a Friday. The guys at my favorite restaurant know me so well now that I don't have to say a word when I arrive for my Friday breakfast. The barista has my coffee waiting for me and my order is on it's way to the kitchen before I even arrive at the register to pay for it. Consistency can be boring, but it does have its benefits. I like consistency.

My liver doctor called today and told me that the newly FDA approved medication for Hepatitis C is available now and they want to get my treatment started this month. Finally! I've been waiting several years to hear this news. The new treatment is supposedly much more effective than the traditional Interferon and Ribavirin combo, with far fewer serious side effects. I've really been trying to avoid the Interferon and Ribavirin treatment because it is horrendously expensive, makes you feel like you've got the flu for a year, and can cause serious problems with anemia. I was also never wild about injecting myself with the Interferon. Hopefully, this new medication is a pill.

I made it back to the gym this afternoon, but I didn't have time to complete my entire workout. Several tight deadlines really chopped up my day. I'm having increasing difficulty completing all my assignments. Either the work I'm getting now is more difficult, or I'm getting slower. Maybe it's a little bit of both, but I certainly don't have much free time anymore. Free time is good. If I had more free time, I'd probably be a lot more interesting person.

It's getting to be an effort to maintain my healthy diet. When I started eating healthy six or eight months ago, I scoffed at people who didn't have the willpower to maintain their diets. Dieting is easy, I thought. I did really well for a long time, but now I'm starting to have a little more sympathy for friends who find it difficult to diet. My enemy is boredom. I was eating all the right foods, but now I'm bored with them. I'm tired of Kale, and those evil twins, sugar and wheat are tempting me again. I'd love to have French Toast for breakfast tomorrow, but I won't. I think I can keep fighting the good fight, but it does leave me wondering why the fun things in life are almost universally bad for you.

Janet tells me that there are some new rescue Dalmatians to photograph, so maybe we'll do that in the morning. It might be a good day to go to the dog park too, especially since it is supposed to get up to 65 degrees tomorrow, before dipping below freezing again on Sunday. Did I mention I like consistency?  This inconsistent weather is driving me crazy.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day