VIRAL LOAD??

[skyler411]

I'm wondering how fast does a viral load grow? is there anything you can do to about it while waiting for treatment?If I had a viral load check ,a month or so later would these numbers still be accurate to show a g.i. doc ? has anyone here tried herbals like milkthistle,not as a cure obviously!!..just as disease managment does anything work or is it all BS!1

[Diane12855]

Getting ducks in a row now... great advice! Anything that you can get done ahead of time... especially if it takes energy... you'll be glad you did.

Waiting to start tx... hardest thing I ever did in my life! Or I THOUGHT it was... now I'm waiting for my 12 week labs... it's still hard, but you get used to it.

Learn all you can about the virus... get a doctor that has treated lots of people with hep c. Take good care of yourself.

Ask us anything you want to know... we're here for each other.

Diane

[Bill1954]

Julie, try not to concern yourself with viral load, unless you’re on treatment. Off treatment the only thing to concern yourself with is whether you have or don’t have the virus; it really makes little difference whether your viral load is 500,000, 5,000,000 or 50,000,000.

Viral load doesn’t necessarily correlate with disease progression; and interferon and other antiviral drugs are capable of bringing even the highest load down to size in weeks.

There isn’t very much credible scientific evidence to support the use of herbal remedies; milk thistle is frequently in Europe for OTC maintenance purposes, but I’m not so sure many doctors recommend it. I fit were me, I’d discuss any herbal/alternative meds with my doctor prior to use. My doc said I was welcome to try MT, but wouldn’t go so far as to recommend it.

I imagine your doctor would order new viral load results prior to initiating therapy, but it’s doubtful you’d experience any meaningful changes over a month’s time.

The best use of your time now is probably dealing with anything that might be stressful later; basically get your ducks in row now, so that when Tx begins, you don’t have lots of stuff hanging in the wind. HCV is a disease that is generally measured in decades, not months or even years; a couple of more months without treatment isn’t going to make or break the situation.

Hang in there,

Bill