Diagnosed with Hep C three days ago...

Im just in a mild state of shock. I guess the virus comes with the territory, just never though it would happen to me.
I will be nineteen this year...I keep thinking will I make it to 19? I dont know much about it. All I know is im scared, as far as treatment is considered...I need some advice from someone whos been in my shoes. Please.

[vik97]

Welcome to the Forum Spinnintch!

First of all, things are not as bad as you think. I have been in your shoes and I know it's a shock.  I have had hep c for 38 years now, although I didn't find out about it until 4 years ago.  Many people who have hep c can go decades without any symptoms or treatment necessary.  It's not the hep c per se  but the damage that it does to your liver that is the problem.  If you do not have cirrhosis or advanced fibrosis, then your in good shape. Even so, there are treatments available to get rid of the virus,  The Standard of Care (SOC), or most common treatment is 48 weeks of interferon injections taken once a week and ribavirin pills taken twice a day.  Right now, I am in my 18th week of the 48 week treatment. Your treatment might only be 24 weeks, depending on your genotype.

In order to give you more information, we need to know you genotype and other bloodwork such as your viral load, alt, ast, platelets and anything else you have.

Vik

[lmclayton]

19 here you come. This disease can be beat and I do not know what your situation is but some people live with it for many many years before they find out. Treat as soon as you can recovery rate is higher.
good luck and just hold on better days are coming.

[WriteItDown]

You're young, you will have a much better chance of the treatment working. It's completely natural to be scared, I think everyone feels scared and freaked out when they first get this diagnosis, but this disease is curable and slow-moving. So don't let your fear turn you away from seeing a hepatologist and taking care of yourself!

"I guess the virus comes with the territory" -- not sure what this means, but if you're using IV drugs or something like that, hope maybe this will give you the incentive to quit. Many here have also been there, so there's no judgment -- just concern for your health.

Hope you keep posting and wishing you good luck with it!

[copyman]

like the others said this is a slow moving disease. sometimes taking as long as 20 years before damaging the liver or feeling symptoms. Better to treat before any of this happens. Being as young as you are you can wait for the new drugs coming out in about a year.  Look at the positive, you are lucky to have found out now so you can treat and move on with your life.Best of luck

[nygirl7]

At 19 unless you contracted it at birth (it doesn't sound like it) you probably have not had this disease very long. As the others have said in most cases this is a very slowly progressing disease and most people will die of something else before this.

That said, it's very important that you do take care of your liver as best as you can. Drugs and alcohol will really help kill off your liver cells and that causes the fibrosis we all fear which eventually can become cirrhosis.

Many of us made lots of mistakes when we were younger and are paying for it now. I probably contracted it about 20/25 years ago from partying and by the time I was diagnosed I was already stage 3 out of 4. Of course......I'd been partying for all those years so I had vast damage to my liver. My own fault for not ever thinking something like this could happen to me.

I don't know your details but the best advice I can give you is to try your best to live a liver healthy lifestyle.  I wish I had done so. The good news is this disease can be beat and new drugs  are on the horizon that will make the treatment duration shorter and have better odds of success.  You probably have time to wait for them but you should be seen by a specialist (a heptologist or a GI at least) and find out where you stand right now. Then you can follow up every other year or so and find out if you 'have' to treat yet.

Of course (and huge assumption here) if you are shooting drugs you can be reinfected even if you should treat successfully. There is no vaccination or anything against it so you could beat it to only get it once more if you are not careful. Also, if you shoot drugs with other people that have hepc it's possible to get ANOTHER strain or subtype of the disease.  Personally I had two - my exhusband always wasn't worried about using with other people that had hep because he had hep. Big mistake - you can get more than one version of the disease.

So be careful.  Seriously.  You are so young and have so much life ahead.

Good luck.

[snadge]

take it easy, its not a bad as you think... although its a serious condition many people go all there life without any complications , ive had it 10 years and scan shows F2 , which on a scale of 0-6 where 0 is no scarring and 6 is cirrhosis iam 2 which is mild scarring - thats after 10 years of infection AND constant drinking for forst 5 of those years which is like pouring petrol on the fire...

what you should do is tell you parents/family but dont tell everyone as some people dont know anything about it and take the wrong view on it... but its important your family know - i didnt tell mine for years and the worry from it caused me to have panics... so tell them..

ASAP get referred to your local infectious diseases clinic at hospital for app with Dr to get tested for:-
1. Genotype (which strain determines treatment succes rate , G1,G4 are 50% , G2 is about 90% and G3 is about 70%) ,
2. Viral Load (lower Viral loads under 800,000 have further more chance)
3. Liver Function Tests (determines ongoing damage and function of liver)
4. Fibroscan (scan of liver determins how much damage there is)
5. Ultrasound (scan of liver checks for any lumps. swelling etc)
after you have those and a discussion with GP then they will ***** you for treatment.

Treatment is usually 48 weeks (for G1,4) and 24 weeks (for G2,3) - it does have side effects but for most its OK and manageable, 20% get no sides at all...

stay away from alchohol and dont wait around and avoid it all....longer you leave the less chance you have of success

good luck

[FlGuy]

What diagnostic test, in particular, did you have that confirmed a diagnosis of hepatitis C?  You can't get it from someone else wearing your shoes.

[jusjames]

are you trying to be funny ?

[FlGuy]

Not at all.  Spinnitch did not reference how he/she knew of the diagnosis.  As you know, for example, people get pretty alarmed at antibody results.

[Spinnintch]

Thanks for the support. It means an awful lot<3

[Trish77]

To echo part of what FlGuy said (not the part about the shoes) - wondering what test you had that gave you your diagnosis of Hep C?  There is an antibody test that usually finds Hep C antibodies first but that doesn't mean you HAVE Hep C, it only means that you had it at one time, MIGHT have cleared and may not have it anymore.  In about 15% of the cases, it clears on it's own but antibodies remain permanent, similar to Tuberculosis, etc.  Always TB antibodies but the person doesn't have TB anymore.  So if you're only going on an antibody test as a diagnosis, you don't have the whole picture yet.

If you've had a PCR after an antibody test that actually confirms presence of the Hep C virus, then yes, you have Hep C.

No, it's not a death sentence, particularly when you find out early.  You have time to look into your options.  If you were diagnosed with Hep C and you actually have it and it's a RECENT infection, then you want to learn more about Acute Hep C and what your treatment options for it are as you'll have a better chance with an acute Hep C infection if you treat it in the earlier stages.

Hep C is not a fast-moving disease.  Many of us here on the forum have had it for 20+ years and still have only minimal liver damage.  However, it doesn't move at the same rate for everyone so if you DO have Hep C and it's been there awhile, then take your time and breathe...get educated and find out what your options are for treatment, for living right so that you don't make your situation worse, etc.

Good luck.

Trish

[portann]

First take a deep breath and tell yourself this is far from the worst thing you could find out about yourself.

And like the others said, find out if you even have the virus, not just antibodies to the virus. People have antibodies to loads of different stuff and they're harmless. Harmless.

I got HCV when I was your age but there was no test for it back then, so I didn't know. And life went on just fine until I was diagnosed in 1995, when I felt like you do now, scared and mildly shocked.

So I did the wrong thing and pretty much pretended nothing was different. I should have been more on the ball and learned something about it.

I was lucky the doc at the time just sent me home with a warning to live healthy, no alcohol, no drugs, no oil painting!  Boy, was I was lucky to get that advice.

And I was lucky that the virus didn't get a stranglehold on me, ever.  Forty years after I got HCV, I was in pretty much the same liver shape as a healthy person walking around without hepatitis.

I finally treated last year and now don't have it anymore, after four decades of living with it.

So if you do have this, there's a ton you can do about it and lots to learn along the way.

This is a great starting place, along with:

http://www.janis7hepc.com/

and

http://www.hcvadvocate.org/

Hope to hear from you some more,

Susan