It is an awesome drug. I’m almost half way through a 24 week therapy. My liver panel test from last month showed after 60 days of treatment, my liver panel test shows my liver back to mid-normal range. Prior to treatment, they were 4-5 times higher.
I tried the standard interferon treatment twice and the infection came back as soon as I stopped taking the medicine. The side effects of the interferon was terrible. It changes you emotionally, physically and I believe it changes you for life. Terrible stuff. When you hear the phrase “the cure is worse than the disease”, they were talking about interferon.
The Sovaldi treatment has none of those nasty side effects and as I progress, instead of feeling worse, I have more energy than I have had in 15 years and I am cautiously optimistic, we will kill the virus this time.
I contracted the disease the best we can tell, either from a blood transfusion in 1968 or a tattoo I got in a seedier part of Seattle back in 1978. Either way, that was a long time ago and now even with the treatment, my liver is functioning on 11% due to the non-alcoholic cirrhosis my liver has developed.
The doctors believe I will gain more use after we kill the virus due to the fact the liver can replicate itself.
I am thankful to Gilead and their awesome research staff located at Stanford University!
Great news! Hope and pray for more!
Gilead paid $11 billion to acquire a young company called Pharmasset to get this drug. Their stock price dropped 10% on the announcement. But now we know it was a great risk and acquisition. Their stock price is way up over the past three years. I'm happy that it's working out for you.
Been waiting for a drug like this to come along... unfortunately I probably won't be able to afford it any time soon. I gave up alcohol (much to my dismay) the day I got my diagnoses and have been fine as a result, so I can afford to wait longer if need be.
Congratulation! Here’s to Science and the progress of medicine. May 0bamacare never stamp it out!