Tristan’s Story

Tristan explains that several important people in his life were worried about his diagnosis. His partner at the time ‘broke it off’ with him due to concerns about sexual transmission, and while he remembers trying to explain that this was very unlikely, ‘she didn’t want to hear it’. He recalls his parents also responding negatively, saying they wouldn’t share plates or cutlery, and asking him to wash his dishes ‘outside’.

His first treatment experience was in 2008, when he had the interferon-based treatment. As he explains, the treatment was offered through the service that prescribed his opioid pharmacotherapy. Even though there were ‘no guarantees’ that the treatment would work, he decided to try it. He says that the treatment was tough, especially because he started to experience ‘mental issues’ related to it. As he recalls, he was unable to get mental health support from the service managing his treatment: ‘I was stressing to them [that I need] to see a psych[ologist] and it was falling on deaf ears.’

When he learned the treatment was successful, he was ‘rapt’ to hear it. He describes how, after treatment, he was careful avoid acquiring hepatitis C again: ‘So, whenever I was [injecting drugs] after that, because I’ve [been cured of] it, [I made sure that] no-one’s sharing when I’m around. I’ve always got clean fits [injecting equipment] and everyone can have their own spoon and their swabs to clean it. No sharing on my watch.’

Tristan explains that he ‘certainly’ noticed some people in his life treated him differently after he was cured, ‘especially [his] parents’. He recalls they were ‘happy’ for him and now they share the same plates again.

After his first treatment experience, Tristan reports, he started having blood tests to check for hepatitis C every two years. In 2016 one of these tests indicated that he had acquired it again, suggesting he had ‘slipped’ and ‘made a mistake’ while injecting. He says he was ‘shattered’ by the news, because he had tried to be very careful to avoid getting the virus again. After his second diagnosis, he decided not to tell his parents this time, because, as he puts it, ‘what they don’t know won’t hurt them’. According to him, finding out about the diagnosis would have unnecessarily ‘upset’ them, when he wanted them to feel that he is ‘all good’.

Tristan recalls that on receiving the diagnosis, his doctor advised him to have the new treatment, emphasising that there would be no side effects compared with the interferon-based treatment he’d had in the past. Following this advice, Tristan had the treatment, and he says it ‘lived up to expectations, completely’. As he puts it, ‘It was exactly how [the doctor] said it was going to be. No side effects, nothing at all, whereas with the interferon, you’d get to the end of the week, you’d start feeling good because all the drugs are wearing off, and you’d have to stick [inject] yourself in the belly again [with the medication] and an hour later, you feel like dog shit for the next five days. He adds that ‘the new [treatment…] is unbelievable […] Just like taking an aspirin once a day and that was it.’ His treatment was successful, and he was again ‘rapt’ to hear this.

In the years since having treatment, Tristan has continued to have yearly blood tests for hepatitis C, as well as other health check-ups. Reflecting on his experiences with treatment, he says that, overall, he has ‘a bit of a better outlook on life now’.

*Services Australia Disability Support Pension.