Liver pain for a few hours after Ribavirin administration

Has anyone experienced acute liver pain ( due to inflammation I assume) for 3- 5 hours after taking their ribavirin? If so, has it affected you clearing the virus?  Also, does anyones asthma flair up after taking their Ribavirin?


                        Thank You

[St. George]

Also, In general can you still have an inflammed and tender liver but still be undetectable?  My fear is that the inflamtion and pain I'm feeling is from the virus and not the drugs?

[FlGuy]

Any discomfort from riba seemed to come when taken on an empty stomach.  I learned early on to take riba at 8am and 8pm to ensure it wasn't alone down there and that it was accompanied by some fat content. Sounds appetizing.  Not sure about the enlarged liver angle though.
I have read that both hcv and the combo meds can exacerbate asthma.  Although not asthmatic, I did have an irritating dry wimpy cough through much of tx.  You might try to google 'HCV and asthma', you get a few hits that will lead you on to more reading.
Drinking enough water?. BTW there is a poster here who comes by once in a while named 'dragon slayer'

[woodbeegood]

my asthma acted up terribly while on tx-had to keep rescue inhaler with me at all times (pre tx only needed it when certain pollen counts were high)-on tx there was no rhyme or reason-i figured it was the way the riba dries out the respitory system-off tx now & seems to be back to normal triggers-hang in there

[NYgirl]

Actually as far as I understand your "liver" doesn't have any feeling in it as it has no nerves (for example why a biopsy doesn't hurt at all).  What you are feeling is not in the "liver" from the Riba I don't think.

While we can have pain in that area it wouldn't be the Ribavirin hurting the "liver".

If you are having stomach upset from it = try it with some food with FAT in it.  This is a fat soluable binding type med and taking it with fat is the BEST thing you can do.  I've NEVER taken it on an empty stomach --- at least I always take it with a yogurt so I get SOME fat content with it.

I also take it with my dinner = try that and I believe it will help you out quite a bit.  I hope!

[NYgirl]

PS You can still be undetected and have inflammation of course - the inflammation isn't going to go away over night just because we are treating.  You have to remember just because the virus is not DETECTIBLE in the bloodstream does NOT necessarily mean it is GONE...so it can still be doing it's dirty work to some degree.

Also...your Grade (Inflammation scale) is still what it was when you had your biopsy - for example I am grade 2 stage 3.  Just because I am clear does not mean I am grade 0 - I am STILL going to be a grade 2 so I still have the inflammation.

[OnAPrettyPoison]

This was strictly in the treatment context.  When I was told this, the NP were talking about was as I was treating, my enzymes declined steadily as I treated.  When I hit about 12 weeks (and was "Undetectible" but my results weren't in yet) my enzymes were in low/normal range.  That is when they made the comment that the drugs had reversed the inflamation (inflammation) out of my liver, and the HCV was doing no further damage.

[returntosender]

Interesting comment about inflamation (inflammation). I guess I never really thought of it that way - about the fact that the stage and grade stay the same.  Not really logical to me however.  I always thought of this liver disease as sort of an infected cut or something.  I assumed that getting rid of virus gets rid of infection - otherwise why are you feeling better in SVR?  If damage stays and inflamation (inflammation) stays - what is it that has changed?  Why doesnt my liver hurt anymore - it stopped hurting about halfway through tx.  Why am I stronger, less sore, more optimistic, more flexible?  Is that something other than the liver healing?  Why do many SVRs feel so good?  Is it simply the relaxing of the immune system that makes them feel better?  Or does getting rid of virus simply keep us from progressing into more problems?  Liver still damaged but damage arrested.  That implies that I can only get so far back after suffering this liver damage.  Pretty scary thought but less scary I guess than getting worse.  Really good argument to treat this thing as soon as possible.

[OnAPrettyPoison]

According to my doc, as the inflamation (inflammation) goes down, your ALT and AST goes down.  When my ALT/AST got in normal range on treatment, they told me my inflamation (inflammation) had reversed and the HCV was doing no current damage.  The fibrosis takes longer to reverse of course.  My friend who has been SVR for 2 years was told her liver was now a 0/0 and she was stage 2 when she started treatment.  That is just my understanding based on what my docs and NP said, but it does stand to reason the inflamation (inflammation) decreases on treatment.  Jim may can add more to this so I am putting his name up here.

[jmjm530]

What I've read is that at a given point in time, there's no correlation between elevated enzymes and liver damage. In other words, some with raised enzymes may have little or no liver damage, and some with cirrhosis (stage 4) may have normal liver enzymes. This may or may not be in contradiction to what your doctor is saying, not sure. Maybe others can chime in.  

-- Jim

[Pdilly]

DOesn't the liver replenish itself?  Does it take a long time of eating and exercising after tx to start reversing the damage?

[NYgirl]

The reason your enzymes go UP is when your liver is being killed and the dying cells release the enzymes.  It's still DAMAGED...already. Cells are still dead in there. Inflammation causes fibrosis which leads to cirhhosis.  

If your enzymes go down it would mean it's not being as actively killed at the time but why would it make the damage that has already been DONE just a moot point? If that was the case...everyone would do treatment and end up with a shiny new liver whether or not they had SVR.

They'd do treatment just because they would KNOW they would be a Grade Zero...

You know?

[OnAPrettyPoison]

My liver very will may be clear - I only had level 1 inflamation (inflammation), 0 fibrosis....She could have been talking about me specifically?  Not sure, but will ask at my next appointment.