About blood tests.

[Hellchild]

This is in relation to my last question. Last summer, doctors found a tumor in my back (a type of non-hodgkins B-cell lymphoma). I have went through the chemo treatments, and they tell me that the tumor is gone and I am currently in remission. But while I was recieving chemo, I had to have my blood tested before each treatment (which was every 3 weeks). So my question is this: If I had contracted Hep C, would they have noticed something wrong with my blood and known that I had it then, or is Hep C the type of thing they need to be speifically looking for to find? The reason I'm asking is because my last treatment was Dec. 20th and since then, not only have I not had sex with my girfriend very often (maybe 3 or 4 times because we split up for a couple weeks), but we haven't had anything but normal, vaginal sex since then. So I was  thinking that if they didn't notice anything unusual with my blood during the treatment, and was clean then, then I probably have a pretty good chance of being clean now. Would that be a false assumption?

Thanks for your time,
Hellchild

[GoofyDad]

The tests that will tell you whether treatment is working are the Viral Load (often called PCR). That measures how much virus you still have floating around. To a lesser degree, the liver funxction tests (ALT/AST) can indicate progress against the virus.

Your hemoglobin would be more meaningful if compared to baseline before tx. In the States the number would normally be stated as 12.2 (grams). About a 2-3 gram drop from baseline seems to be  expected, though many patients seem to go much lower.

[NYgirl]

I'm sorry that people like you have to bear the stigma of what others of us have done while you treat this disease.

I'm sorry that we have to as well.  It's such a misunderstood disease that the prejudices drive me crazy.  There just seems to be so LITTLE public knowledge of hepC that they want to put us all down as tunnel dwellers living under the subway in New York City.

They don't realize what viable good people we are.

I agree that this doctor may have been slanting her opinions to convince Veg to treat. That makes sense in a way to also help her to want to lose weight. But to make such broad statements that could easily be repeated to someone for any reason just makes absolutely no sense to me. (But then neither does her 24 week treatment plan for a Geno1 either honestly.)

Still if the doctor said those things with that intention it was good hearted in spirit but you would think a doc would know better.  Why not say all the AIDS patients are gay.  Same difference.

[Hellchild]

About the whole stigma issue of judging people with Hep C, I just wanted to say that my girlfriend has been rather promiscuous in the past, but she is faithful once she settles on a guy. And, assuming she does testpositive, she has had other possible exposure risks. She had a baby almost 20 years ago and almost bled to death and had to get an emergency blood transfusion. Whether or not she could have gotten exposed way back then and not known it til now, I don't know. She also got a tatoo about a year ago, and I don't think she got it from an actual, licensed tattoo place. I'm not sure exactly where she got the tattoo, but I've heard her refer to "the guy who did her tattoo", and that leads me to believe she just got it from an amature artist. I have been meaning to ask.

I know that she is really beating herself up about the whole thing because she has already convinced herself that a) she has the contracted the disease, b) she got it from sleeping around too much, and c) that because of her reckless past, she has infected me. I have been more worried about her and have been trying to let her know that its not her fault and not to get to ahead of herself and start making assumptions just yet.

[can-do-man]

You sound like your a ok type of guy, keep telling her not to be so hard on herself. None of us went out looking to get this, all of us here have it or has had it. Don't much matter how we got it, just got to fiqure out the best way to deal with it. The to treat or not to treat question. BTW i have been married 20 something years and glad to say neither my wife or kids have. Good luck to the both of you.

[Forseegood]

Sounds to me that your girlfriend has to get over this huge national pasttime of beating herself up (to my way of thinking the basis of most neurosis in the human condition) and just get herself some education as to the facts of this disease and react accordingly...5 will get you 10 it is not half as bad as what she's been trippin about...I say this because I can relate....

[NYgirl]

Promiscuous in the past or not - a tattoo even from a reliable place is an easy enough way to get hepC. My doctor REFUSED to believe I did not have one.

The only way you will know is to be tested - MANY people on here don't even know how they got it and never will know.

Some people don't have any of the classic ways AT ALL but they have it.

Blood test is simple, inexpensive and clear. Either you do or you don't.

None of us were angels...nobody I know ever has been.