Hello everyone.  I am committed to trying harder to post regularly on here.  It is an important forum to tell your story to the whole world and I want to take advantage of it.

I would first like to say that the concert for Hepatitis C that I wrote about in my last post is going ahead on Sunday, October 2nd.  Linda and her organizing group have put in an amazing amount of work and created a fantastic event to raise awareness and funds for Hepatitis C.  You can find out more by searching on Facebook for the group HepFest -- Presented by the AHCS.  Even if you can't attend the concert in Adelaide, Australia, you can support it by buying tickets online.

And now to my news.  I am hoping to go on treatment with Boceprevir within the next couple of months.  The drug has not been approved by our Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) here in Australia yet but it is being offered on an individual access program.  My medical team will be applying on my behalf and, fingers crossed, I will be approved.  I suppose this is jumping the gun a little because we haven't even applied yet but I have made the decision to proceed, which is a huge step for me.

I relapsed after my treatment with Pegylated Interferon and Ribavirin in 2005.  It took me a year or two to recover from that, physically and psychologically, and I have been watching the development of new treatment drugs with great interest.  But that interest has been on a more academic level.  Until now.  The moment I became aware the access program might be available to me the reality was upon me.  I was looking at going on treatment again!

My first treatment was long and unpleasant, and ultimately unsuccessful.  To be honest it left me scarred and now I am facing that again.  I do want to rid myself of this virus though so I will go ahead with treatment if I am approved.  But I don't hesitate to admit I am nervous about it.

I will write more about my feelings as I prepare and, if I get approved, about my treatment.  This new treatment regime is even more demanding than the one I did before, the one most people are now familiar with.  There are more tablets and more side effects.  I hope to be able to share my experiences and help others learn what to expect from these new drugs.