More Tips for Managing HCV Treatment

Here are some more tips for managing HCV treatment, all spun with a bit of reality and some amusement:

• Establish priorities. If beauty is more important than treatment, then interferon and ribavirin may not be for you. Dry skin, injection site redness, and a little hair loss are not very attractive. However, neither is liver disease.
• Do not expect to lose weight while on treatment. Combination treatment with interferon and ribavirin is not a reliable diet plan. For those who want to lose weight, if you are lucky enough to shed some pounds, it will very likely return quickly when you are celebrating your completion of therapy.
• Do not plan on using your accumulated sick leave for catching up on your television shows. Many patients report that the new pegylated interferons are easier to tolerate. Some patients never miss a day of work. 
• When all else fails, laugh.
• And finally, for other writers-Do not publish anything while receiving treatment for chronic hepatitis C. Inevitably, someone will take you seriously or worse, not think you are very funny. Now that can be irritating.

Tips for Managing Hepatitis C Treatment

 Here are some tongue-in-cheek suggestions to help you through hepatitis C treatment:

• Do not attempt more than one task at a time. For instance, do not drive while talking on a mobile phone, walk and chew gum, or carry on a conversation while dicing vegetables.
• Don't dice vegetables. Buy them already cut up at your grocery store. 
• Practice saying, “I meant to do that.” This offsets embarrassment when performing mindless acts, such as getting in to a strange car in a parking lot.
• Avoid reality T.V. and the news. Some patients report feeling irritable during treatment. The news and prime time television can be especially irritating. Confine television to classic comedy shows such as Seinfeld, Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore, and Dick Van Dyke.
• Do not store tubes of ointments in the vicinity of toothpaste. It only takes a minor lapse in concentration before you might find yourself brushing your teeth with anti-itch ointment. Additionally, toothpaste does not relieve skin rash.
• If you drink the recommended amount of water, always know where the closest restroom is at all times.

Liver Songs

Did you know that if you look on the Web for liver songs, the search turns up more than a million sites! You can find hits, such as:  Take Me to the Liver http://faculty.washington.edu/crowther/Misc/Songs/liver.shtml or The Liver Song http://www.amiright.com/parody/90s/billyjoel15.shtml Some of these links have nothing to do with the anatomical liver, such as the website of shock rock sensation Liver Sucks. However, they do claim 30 liver songs. They also have Liver Twitter, a label I wish I had thought of first.
There is even a cod liver oil song. Who knew?

Lily-livered

I have talked about the expression "lily-livered" before, but when it was featured this week by Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day, I thought it worth mentioning again. Here is what Merriam-Webster has to say about lily-livered:

"lily-livered  \LILL-ee-LIV-erd\  adjective
: lacking courage : cowardly

Example sentence:
"I regret not hurling myself into university life because I was too...lily-livered to live a little." (Laura Barton, The Guardian [London], August 16, 2001)

Did you know?
The basis of the word "lily-livered" lies in an old belief. Years ago, people thought that health and temperament were the products of a balance or imbalance of four bodily fluids, or humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. It was believed that a deficiency of yellow bile, or choler, the humor that governed anger, spirit, and courage, would leave a person's liver colorless or white. Someone with this deficiency, and so white-livered, would be spiritless and a coward. "Lily-livered" and "white-livered" have been used synonymously since the 16th century, but "lily-livered" is now the more common expression, probably because of its alliteration."

What's so funny about this? Bile is a bodily humor. (I can hear the groans already.)

Laughter as an Act of Communion

The average child laughs around 400 times every day. Contrast this with the average adult who laughs approximately 25 times a day. This fact makes me want to either cry, read Dave Barry or watch Carol Burnett reruns.  For me, laughter is the backbone of physical, emotional and spiritual health. Humor is the thread that keeps me from unraveling. I find ways to inject appropriate humor into nearly everything.

I think that humor helps me cope with all of life’s challenges, particularly hepatitis C (HCV). HCV was not a laughing matter when I was first diagnosed, but over time, it has provided some amusing moments. This is particularly true when I am in an HCV group with others who live with this virus. Laughing with others is a communal act. It is like sharing an intimate moment or a fine meal. Laughter lifts the spirits and for a brief time suspends the hard edge of reality. It reminds us that we are all in the same boat.

Laughter Yoga

For those of you who appreciate laughter, you may be delighted to learn that there is a practice called Laughter Yoga. Originating in India, Laughter Yoga is the practice of laughing as a discipline rather than merely for pleasure. Dr. Madan and Madhuri Kataria developed Laughter Yoga about ten years ago and now there are laughter clubs worldwide. Training is available for anyone interested in becoming a certified Laughter Yoga instructor.

The Laughter Yoga website takes laughter very seriously. So much so, that the following warning is given: “Too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. You cannot laugh too little, but you can laugh too much and put your body into destress (sic).” I assume that this is a typo or translation error and the author meant distress rather than destress. Heck, to de-stress is the main reason why I laugh. Also, I have a hard time believing the statement that one can laugh too much.

The Laughter Yoga caution goes on to say that, too much laughter can actually be dangerous, especially for older people (geezers like me). Well, this may seem closed-minded, but I cannot imagine getting through the geezer years without laughing a lot. Between the loss of eyesight, hearing, brain, keys, stamina, waistline, and sex, I am hanging onto laughter as if it is a life preserver. Besides, death by laughter sounds like a great way to go.


Laughter Yoga International

Insult to the Liver

In medicine, if there is a blow or other injury to the liver, physicians will often say that the patient suffered an insult to the liver. I am sure you know where I am going with this. Who can resist imagining insults to the liver? Here are a few:

• Your liver is ugly
• Your mother's liver is ugly
• Your liver can't hold a candle to mine
• Your liver is stupid
• Your liver can't tell the difference between hepatitis A and hepatitis B
• You have a puny liver
• Your liver is so small, it won't show up on an MRI
• Your liver is so tiny it looks like a kidney

Feel free to add your liver insults.