Confirmed Stage 3 Live Disease

[Trinity4]

Hi All,

Got the bad news today.  Biopsy showed Stage 3 Liver Disease-Blood test confirmed Genotype 1a.  Viral Load was was a million plus-I asked for my test results and they said they would mail them so I can't give you all the stats yet.  Anyway,  GI says I have a 30-40 percent cure rate given my age and genotype.  I asked how long before I would progress to cirrhosis and he stated no guage to tell that at this point.  Not sure if I want to treat given the fact I have no RX coverage and mid fifties with a low cure rate.  And if I do treat I may be a non responder.  I feel really sad right now.  Can't really describe my emotions-only that my life expectency has probably been shortened considerably.  Doc is looking into contacting drug rep he deals with to see if they offer drug (interferon) at greatly reduced rate if I tell him I want to do that.  Life can deal you some ****, can't it.  Anyway, just venting as I know many of you are experiencing this as well.  Not having a pity party, just down in the dumps.  Take good care
Trinity

[Sun_shine_texas2006]

I live in Texas and was just diagnosised with hep-b.  I just started my meds Nov 7, 2007.  MD told me there was no cure for me.  I have the mutant hep b virus.

[sldb]

51yr.old geno 1a stage 4 liver cirrhosis. tx.d 72wks svr b/w weeks 12&16. continue neg. 1yr post tx. all labs have returned to normal and liver size has also returned to normal.  treated with pegasys and riba.  feel great

[GoofyDad]

I keep threatening to get a fibroscan - but haven't yet. I see no reason to get poked, except for morbid curiosity - but why am I talking about sexual preferences here anyway.... :)

My platelets and WBCs are pretty steadily where they were before tx - just under normal range. One very knowledgable hepo cautioned me that I shouldn't worry too much if they don't bounce back - sometimes they transplant perfect livers and the patient still runs low blood counts. I guess that should offer some comfort - but I also figure something's buggered up somewhere - and just cause it may not be in the liver doesn't make it any more benign. But whatever....  

[orleans]

Hey dude, That has to be an old joke but I had never heard it, funny:). Question, do you have any intension to ck your liver w/ bx? Maybe fibroscan? If so how long. thanks, jerry

[nygirl7]

Shoot I just typed a whole thing and it went away!

Trinity - I got the same news as you and it blew me away.  Fortunately, I had decided to treat no matter what it turned out to be so I was ready to go as aggressively as possible (I did 72 weeks) and let me tell you, it wasn't always easy or fun but 99% of the time it was DOABLE.

Now I am 9 months post and SVR.

I wanted to let you know, Becky is 100% correct, C2Care seemed to be very relaxed and they were really truly GREAT and got me the meds asap.  The financial cap seems to be pretty high from what I can tell and they made sure I got thru my whole extension without any problems at all. They were kind and nice and couldn't have made it easier..  As long as you don't have insurance you should give them a holler.

There are other drugs that you might find you need but most of them have a patient assistance plan too.

If you can find a doctor or clinic that would take a sliding scale or something for the doctor cost...you should have no problems at all.

Good luck!~

[kittychaos]

Where do you live?