48 Weeks: Week by Week

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Week by Week
48 weeks of Rebetron, started Monday, January 11, 1999

Renee started writing a line on the kitchen calendar every Sunday night, the first week, because she said the doctor would want to know. By the second week she was handing me the pen. Here they all are, typed up. Shot nights are Monday, Wednesday and Friday unless it says different. "Felt" is my word for the week overall. Renee wanted a scale of one to ten. I said I'm not a pain chart.

Key: Good · Fair · Poor · Rough · Lousy. There have been two Good weeks and two Lousy ones. Most of it's Fair. Fair you can work with.

This is how it went for me. Everybody's different on this stuff. Talk to your doctor.

Wk	Dates / shots	Felt	The week
1	Jan 11–17 M W F	Rough	First shot Monday at Dr. Peters's office with Lori watching. Fine for three hours. Then I shook so hard at 2 a.m. the headboard rattled. Renee piled every blanket in the house on me.
2	Jan 18–24 M W F	Rough	First full week doing the shots myself at home. Monday's took me ten minutes of staring at it. Still shaking at night, a little less.
3	Jan 25–31 M W F	Fair	Broncos won the Super Bowl Sunday. Watched it from the recliner under two blankets. Worth every ache.
4	Feb 1–7 M W F	Poor	Blood counts dropping some, which they expected. Lori says that's why they check every week. Tired like I've never been tired.
5	Feb 8–14 M W F	Poor	Fell asleep at the supper table Thursday. Renee says I was still holding my fork.
6	Feb 15–21 M W F	Fair	Shot nights getting a little easier. Or I'm getting used to them. Same thing, I guess.
7	Feb 22–28 M W F	Fair	Hair in the comb. Not much to begin with, so I'm keeping an eye on it.
8	Mar 1–7 M W F	Poor	Red count down. Dr. Peters cut back my capsules some. Said that happens a lot and that's what the blood tests are for.
9	Mar 8–14 M W F	Lousy	Short fuse all week. Snapped at John over nothing at the shop. Went back and apologized. He said he hadn't noticed. He'd noticed.
10	Mar 15–21 M W F	Lousy	Low. Didn't want to get out of the truck at night. Renee made me call Dr. Peters. Glad she did.
11	Mar 22–28 M W F	Fair	Started on something for the low mood. Doctor says give it a few weeks.
12	Mar 29–Apr 4 M W F	Fair	Better. Laughed at something on TV and Renee looked at me like I'd grown a second head.
13	Apr 5–11 M W F	Fair	Season starting up. Back on the job full days. Let Daniel and Omar do the heavy carrying.
14	Apr 12–18 M W F	Fair	First pour of the year, a garage slab. Felt good to have my hands in it. Sat in the cab after. Ten minutes.
15	Apr 19–25 M W F	Fair	Bad news on TV all week from down in Colorado. Didn't sleep much. Nothing to do with my liver. Just putting it here.
16	Apr 26–May 2 M W F	Fair	Elway retired Sunday. Renee says I took it harder than my diagnosis.
17	May 3–9 M W F	Good	Best week yet. Even the shot nights were only half bad. Don't know why. Not asking.
18	May 10–16 M W F	Fair	Blood test fine. Tired in the afternoons. Started bringing a gallon jug of water to the job every day like the doctor keeps saying.
19	May 17–23 M W F	Fair	Our 25th anniversary Saturday. Renee wanted to go dancing. We went to supper instead. I made it to dessert.
20	May 24–30 M W F	Fair	Long week. Two foundations. Home and in bed by 8:30 every night.
21	May 31–Jun 6 M W F	Fair	Memorial Day Monday. Shot that night same as always. The shots don't take holidays.
22	Jun 7–13 M W F	Poor	Bad sleep all week. Itchy skin. Lori says lotion and patience. I'm short on one of those.
23	Jun 14–20 M W F	Fair	Starting pours at first light to beat the heat. Done by two. Done-done.
24	Jun 21–27 M W F	Fair	Halfway. Drew blood for the virus test. Renee marked a big X on the kitchen calendar.
25	Jun 28–Jul 4 M W Sat	Good	Test came back: NO VIRUS FOUND. Not cured, Dr. Peters says, but working. Bill got married Saturday, so with the nurse's okay I moved Friday's shot to Saturday night after the reception. Danced twice.
26	Jul 5–11 M W F	Fair	Hot. Drank the whole jug by noon. Tired, but I can see the far end of this now.
27	Jul 12–18 M W F	Fair	Same as last week. That's a good week, on this stuff.
28	Jul 19–25 M W F	Poor	Frontier Days. Skipped the rodeo for the first time in years. Renee brought me home a funnel cake. Ate it in the recliner.
29	Jul 26–Aug 1 M W F	Fair	Monthly blood test. Counts holding.
30	Aug 2–8 M W F	Fair	Took Shanna's two boys fishing Saturday. They fished. I sat on the bucket.
31	Aug 9–15 M W F	Poor	Lost my temper at a supplier who shorted us on rebar. Would've done that anyway, to be fair.
32	Aug 16–22 M W F	Fair	Talked to a fellow at the support group who finished his 48 weeks last spring. He says it ends. Holding him to it.
33	Aug 23–29 M W F	Fair	Big pour Thursday, a church parking lot. Proud of that one.
34	Aug 30–Sep 5 M W F	Fair	Cool mornings again. Shot nights still rough, but I know exactly what to expect, and that helps.
35	Sep 6–12 M W F	Fair	Labor Day Monday. Grilled for the family and went to bed at seven.
36	Sep 13–19 M W F	Fair	First Broncos season without Elway. Rough on everybody, not just me.
37	Sep 20–26 M W F	Fair	Week 37. Eleven to go. Last shot falls the second week of December. Renee says that's my Christmas present, and not to expect another one.
38	Starts tomorrow. Eleven to go.

[Renee: I'll make him keep typing these up through week 48. And then I'll make him put up the one six months after that, the one that counts.]

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Last updated Sunday, September 26, 1999