Managing the Achievable Get the hepatitis C cure today
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f you haven’t achieved some great new thing while in isolation, there is something wrong with you. At least that’s what some social media influencers would have us believe. Motivational posts—urging you to learn a new language, start a new business or become a walking encyclopaedia—label you as lacking discipline if you achieved none of those grand goals. Truth is, if you are anything like me, you’d have been struggling to bother to even get dressed each day. Isolation at home has not been “free time” in any normal sense. There is a deadly global pandemic and it is OK not to be OK with this. People are dealing with job losses, reduced incomes and fears about the illness for self or loved ones. Even if we are among the lucky ones to retain our jobs, we may find difficulty focusing, with additional demands at home such as a houseful of children to keep occupied. These are strange and uncertain times.
It is also time for selfcompassion. Kindness to oneself is not practised enough, in my opinion. We are our own worst critic; cruel and unforgiving to ourselves. We often fail to understand that we need to put ourselves first, particularly during this time of uncertainty, so that we are there for others who need us. The oft-cited example to support the rationale of self-care is oxygen masks on airplanes. The flight attendant instructs you to “put your oxygen mask on first,” before helping others. Why is this an important rule for ensuring survival? Because if you run out of oxygen yourself, you can’t help anyone else with their oxygen mask. We are in a challenging situation right now. For most of us, all sense of normality has been turned upside-down and there seem to be very few things within our control— unless you are living with chronic hepatitis C. Really? Yes, really. Getting cured of hepatitis C is one of the easy things you can do to improve your
The sort of Tweet you can safely ignore
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HEPATITIS SA COMMUNITY NEWS 86 • July 2020
health and make your life less stressful. It is one thing you can control during this time. With hepatitis C your health is compromised, and you may be fearful that symptoms of COVID-19 may be worse for you. While this novel coronavirus is still proving a challenge for medical researchers, they have got that other virus— the hepatitis C virus—in hand. New treatments are available that cure hepatitis C quickly and with few side effects, and with more than a 95% success rate. Curing your hep C will reduce fatigue, brain fog and feelings of depression, and help you be the best version of yourself for others, or even just for you. For most people, this cure can be achieved with pills, taken over 8 or 12 weeks. In South Australia, we are so lucky; with very little effort you can contact your local viral hepatitis nurse and, with their support, rid yourself of your hep C. So, be kind to yourself. Just pick up that phone and give one of those friendly viral hepatitis nurses a call (see inside back page for contact numbers). With so much done by telephone these days, you might only need one face-to-face appointment, and there’s a chance you may only need to get dressed once… v Lisa Carter
