Naomi Judd
I was first diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 1990. My daughter Wynonna and I were cruising through life with the top down, with sold-out coliseums, number-one singles, multi-platinum albums, and six Grammy Awards. Our life was beyond anybody’s wildest expectations of a fantasy.
Unfortunately, I knew something was wrong with me because I just didn’t feel like myself – and before this, I’d always been incredibly healthy. But when you have Hep C, you have this panoply of symptoms that are non-specific. You feel like you’ve got the flu. You get depressed, and maybe display a low-grade temperature. You just feel crummy, like you don’t want to get off the couch. You’re not really in pain, but you just want to give up because you can’t imagine living like this every day.
Hep C is a retrovirus, a blood-borne disease, so I think that I was infected from a needle-stick injury that I accidentally suffered when I was a nurse in the intensive-care unit. There are 85,000 health care workers every year that report needle-stick injuries. It’s a huge issue.
Once I was diagnosed, I started taking a drug called Interferon. Interferon is a naturally occurring substance in the human body that helps kill bacteria and viruses. I gave myself injections in my stomach a couple of times a week. The side effects were horrific, but it was the only treatment option at the time. And the doctors didn’t give me any hope. In fact, my doctor told me I had three years to live.
My disease progressed, and eventually I became terribly sick. I barely knew who I was or where I was. I felt as though I was in Antarctica; it was very monochromatic and cold and desolate. I knew somewhere there was a world out there, but I wasn’t in it, and I wasn’t going to be in it ever again.
But then, something so deep, so deeply rooted in my spirit – I have a very strong spirit – took over. And I said, “Nope, I’m not giving up. I’m going to live long enough that my daughters won’t blame me for all of their problems!”
I know this sounds wacky: I was in the fetal position in a dark room and I thought, “I can’t even brush my teeth right now, but I’m going to live to help research, so we find a vaccine, so we find a cure, and so that people can understand that when people have these experiences, it’s a chance to re-evaluate your whole life.”
One Response to “ Naomi Judd ”
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February 8th, 2009 at 9:57 am
I watched Meredith on tv today, and it sounded like she was reading my story.
The only difference was the type of cancer. I had a crusty, dry nipple and waited 6 months for my visit with my gyno. She felt it was dermatilogical, but sent me to a breast surgeon. He took
a biopsy and found that I had Paget’s Disease of the nipple. It is a rare, “minor” cancer, but I did have to have surgery. Just want to let women know that they must check the complete breast.