“Like Madonna 😂🙊 “

  3/10/2021

Since making the decision to get clean this time I quit shooting heroin, smoking crack, and smoking cigarettes all on the same day. Fighting my addictions and Hepatitis C at the same time was daughnting when I found out last June. I did a report on hepatitis C back in high school health class because my mom had it and I wanted to learn more about it. Never thought I would get it. I was 14 and in high school, I hadn’t started having sex or using drugs at all, there was no was I would get Hep C in my lifetime, or so I thought. I dont remember everything from my Freshman Health Class report but I remember a lot of it and since being diagnosed I have been focused on the drug treatmeant part of my program and not the hep c treatmeant part as nuch.

    I know from learning about Hepatitis C that they recently found a cure and that cure is a pill that only takes 8 weeks. The antibodies lay in the body for ever but the virus is cured. You can get Hep C again after having and treating it. It happens a lot in prisons, the prisoner goes through 50,000$ treatmeant and then gets a jail house tattoo and they get it again. OR other jail house activities. I know someone who received treatment that was back in 2000 for 9 months using interferon which was the treatment they had back then, needless to say, I am glad I was getting treated 20 years later. Much different now days where the treatment is short and not as invasive so I was not as concerned about my hep treatment as I was my drug addiction treatment. I found out while I was biking through Grafton, WI on the bike path and while crossing the road I was hit by a car. I went to the ER and they said my liver was upset. After a few tests I was told that I had Hep C. Not really sure when or where I got it, if it was from the needles I found on the ground and used while I was in Florida and plenty of times in Milwaukee. Was it sharing needles with anyone I had to just so I didn’t have to snort it if I didn’t have a “rig”. It could of been from the unprotected sex with a girl who told me she had it after we had sex a few times, that was sweet. My fault no matter how I slice it or where I got it, it comes down to if I was obsessed with drugs and actually cared about my life, I would not have gotten it. Everything besides the girl was over 5 years ago though and from all the facts I read below, it seems like that getting it from her was the most likely source. Where it came from is not the point, there were many likely scenarios and maybe I got if from more than one place, all I knew is if I did not stop shooting heroin, getting rid of hep c would not be a priority. It doesn’t matter if I have Hep C if I am still using or dead so making sure I was covered from daily drug use and my body was physically ready for treatment. Although it is much less invasive than interferon, my liver still needed to be ready for the treatment. I had no symptoms and you could not tell I had it by looking at me, but if not treated it can lead to huge health issues. Only thing in my life that really was affected by it was me not being allowed to kiss my son out of fear of transmission. That was just being overly cautious, but it is what it is. “You are facing two life threatening diseases Steve,” is what my doctor told me, and I had never really thought of it like that but addiction and hep c both can and will likely kill you if untreated especially addiction. I had been with my doctor a few months on my treatment plan and a few weeks ago we did the blood work finally to see where I was at in my treatment plan. I called yesterday to see the results of the liver panel and blood work. The Doctor said “I must have a guardian angel”, and after 4 overdoses, 3 armed robberies, 2 high speed chases and 1 Hepatitis C diagnosis. He might be right. And without treatment I passed the Hepatitis C Virus like Madonna. Fun Fact. 25% of people that get Hepatitis C beat it by just passing it in the first 6 months. It makes sense that I may have had and passed Hep C more than one time in my life because of all the High Risk Behavior. But like the doctor said, I might have a guardian angel. Its super cool that I don’t have to undergo treatment at all and now I can focus on other things. Below is an easy and quick way to learn about Hepatitis C. But the most important part about all of this is that I get kiss my son again.