HELP Need advice treatment stopped

I am new to this forum, and any words of encouragement would be great.  Have Hep c 1A started the 3 cocktail treatment with a viral load of 2.8 mil. Had my viral load checked at day 22, (which was after the 4th shot, and what my doctors considered week #4).  My viral load went down to 18,215.   I was then told that the treatment wasn't working for me and was told to stop taking the meds. I am a bit confused by this, and all I was told by the doctors was to make an appointment for Dec. for a check up to see how I am doing.  I am confused by this....after reading others posting about their viral loads.........Any advice out there!!!!!

[can-do-man]

Sounds like you were doing the incivek, not sure why your doctor did a pcr when he did, should have done one at day 28 the day of your 5th shot instead of a 3 week pcr........ That said you still would have needed more then a one log drop to go on, 1000 or above at week 4 is the stopping point.

I take it you have stopped, if so one cannot restart the PI, the good news is you wasn't on it longer then is suggested....... Not knowing how much liver damage you have but guessing time is on your side, there are new meds in trials right now that are looking very good. Might be time to get a second opinion on whats best for you..... While i know this is discouraging things keeps looking brighter every year, even retreating in the future with a PI is also possible. One more thing, was you able to take all your doses while you were treating?

Hang in there, wishing you the best.

[can-do-man]

One more thing, welcome to the forum

[niknak67]

Thanks for the welcome.   to answer your questions....yes took all my doses at the specified times, didn't miss any.   They only answer they gave for why they tested when they did, was they wanted to have the viral load before I had to take my 5th shot.

So to be exact I started treatment on Sept. 22......4 week viral load was taken on Oct 15.   Stopped all treatment on Oct 21

Was told after biopsy, my liver is functioning well,  even though am in stage 3.

Also not sure on alot of the abbreviations: what does PI stand for?  

[hrsepwrguy]

PI = protease inhibitor = incivek

Sorry to hear you had to stop, and welcome to the forum

[hrsepwrguy]

http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Hepatitis/Hepatitis-C-Acronyms-Abbreviations/show/3?cid=65


here is a link to commonly used acronyms

[JasmineT]

Looks like you must be on incivek.  My understanding is the rules for futility are RNA > 1000 at 4 weeks. Sept 22nd is only 3 weeks.  I would be showing my doc a calendars and helping him/her count days and insisting I finish week 4 before giving up.  My doctor counted shot days initially to count weeks and realized she had goofed after I insisted I was finishing week 4 about to start week 5.  Shot day is the start of the week, not the completion.  My prayers are with you.

[halbev]

I think DOC is goofed all my viral load were done, week 4 between final dose of Incevik ,and 5th shot, All mine were done like that?
Which is the end of 4th week and start of 5th week.
Hell I call my Doc and tell then when it is time for a lab sheet, to get labs done.

[hrsepwrguy]

She has alreadyy stopped the PI on OCT 21 once you have stopped the incivek you cannot just start again

[willbb]

Sorry to hear of your less than stellar response to treatment. It certainly wasn't ideal your doctor doing the 4 week test early.however having said that ,having a 2 log drop in the first 23 days ,as Can-do -man mentioned it was unlikely you would have had the needed additional 1.7 log drop you would have needed  to continue(<1000) in the next 5 days,

Going forward you may want to talk to your doctor about having the IL28B gene test ,which can help predict what your treatment response to  intereferon is,as this may assist in future treatment  desicions
.
AccuType® IL28B test now available to physicians and for clinical trials research.

http://hepatitiscnewdrugs.blogspot.com/2011/04/hepatitis-c-il28b-test-launced-by.html

Also you may want to inquire about any current trials that are currently recruiting or will be in the future for "prev. treated " patients "on any of the new medications.

http://clinicaltrials.gov/

Best to you and welcome to the group........
Will

[willbb]

LOL... having a slow day   and thought I would bone up a little on my typing skills :)

[flcyclist]

is there an echo in here??? :o))

niknak - sorry to hear about the poor response, but good you didn't continue needlessly, which might have created other issues.  Hope you have some options in the near future to try again.  

[dointime]

Hello and sorry to hear that the triple therapy did not work for you.  There's only one reason for this tx to fail and that is your interferon response was not good enough.  There are many here in the same boat, including myself.

It is not unusual to be confused because there is a lot to know about hepC and what the tx world is all about, but keep reading here and you'll pick up on what's happening,

Good luck
dointime