Mortality rate

[springsritz]

I am a newly diagnosed hep c geno 1 with a viral load of 700,000
i am going to get a liver biopsy soon. i am a newbie so my main concern is the mortality rate for hep c ? i have read anywhere from 5% tp 30%. also what is tx

Tia

[Forseegood]

Oh sorry I didn't make the name distinction there, on deadlines lately and I'm kinda punchy, sometimes I look at my posts the next day and wonder where my syntax and spelling went.

[Tallblonde]

No problem.  I just didn't want you-know-who pouncing on me for touting the health benefits of heroin and then having to defend my position!

Susan

[kespr]

I first found out I had hep c in 2000 and had stage 0, grade 1, did pegintron + rib for 48wk,relapsed and did 2nd biopsy in 2003 and I'm now stage 2 grade 3. I got hep in 1972 (33yrs ago)

[NYgirl]

LOL you crack me up.  I want some damn guarantees toooo!  ;-)

I can't think heroin could be good for your entire system. I often wonder just how much damage I might have done for the brief amount of time that I did it myself.  

Now I worry about even taking a Tylenol.  This from the girl who years ago didn't care WHAT she was putting in to her system at all!

I just never knew how precious the parts in my body were before...you know we all think we are invinsible...but apparently we are not.

[Tallblonde]

I know.....I sometimes have these tempting thoughts of throwing caution to the wind and giving the 24-week plan a try.  Certainly someone like me with a VL of only 714 IU/mL would achieve SVR in that amount of time.  Or would I?  Or would I?  Or would I?  

Argh!!! It's maddening!  I want guarantees, damn it!!

Susan

[Tallblonde]

I just want to make sure that anyone reading your post above doesn't get the impression that you were addressing me in the second paragraph.  It was someone else (definitely not me!) who made those comments about heroin not being harmful on the liver. I have no experience with heroin, but my common sense tells me that it's probably not a liver-friendly substance.

Susan

[Forseegood]

Tallblonde, this is only statistical evidence in some realms, but I've read that lower biopsy grade people like 0 and 1 tend to progress more slowly, sometimes much more slowly than higher biopsy grades. I happen to know more than few people in their 60's who still have grade 0 or 1 biopsies, I guess taking care of oneself and the genetic factor is working for these people, who can calibrate how much to attribute to one thing or the other.

As far as heroin use not being bad for the liver, that's an interesting observation, I for one don't agree with it. Heroin rots out the teeth among other things, like leaving you more susceptible to infection. If it does this stuff it doesn't wash to me that it could be completely benign to the liver. Just the constipation factor alone that comes with heroin use is pretty bad for the old system, not to mention your point about heroin users not being the most "health conscious" of individuals. If youre constantly introducing a substance that shouldnt be there to your blood stream, the liver is the main organ that filters it out - not a good idea to make it work overtime when it has so many other duties, unless you have some super constitution, and there are those out there.

[Tallblonde]

Actually, your stats fit perfect into the 20-30 years to cirrhosis numbers that I cited.  If you were a Stage 3 at age 27, you probably would have been at Stage 4 by age 30, if you hadn't treated.  Of course, by now you're probably a Stage 1, on the way to a Stage 0.  At least that's what I'm hoping for.

Susan

[GreatBird]

And by 160, I'm sure I'll be real cranky. ;)

If this stuff is linear I should be okay. But I'm not so sure that's true. I have been relatively unsymptomatic all this time, but recently my wrists and ankles have been getting achy. I don't know for sure it's the HCV. It could be a combination of that and how I'm dealing with the Fosamax I'm taking for my bones. And the osteoporosis could be HCV related too.

To be honest, I'm paying attention to that study about 1's with a low viral load being able to treat for 24 weeks. I'm not getting any younger. I know, nobody is. But I'm in my early fifties now and I can only think TX will get more difficult as I get older. And I do intend to live another 40 years or so.

Just thinking out loud...

[Tallblonde]

Although the blood transfusion is the most likely culprit, don't rule out the nalon salon or even your dentist's office as possibilities.  All it takes is an improperly sterilized instrument  with an active virus on it making contact with your blood -- one time.

I don't fit into any of the catagories that you listed either.  But in my case, I never had a blood transfusion, so that pretty much leaves me with the nail salon or the dentist....or aliens from another planet kidnapping me in my sleep and injecting the virus into me in some sore of weird experiment :)

Susan

[v eggie dip]

It will be interesting to see what my progression is...I know I have had this for 37 years, contracted HCV from a blood transfusion...I never shot dope, went to a nail salon, no tatto's, never been sexually permiscuous (SP)never shared a razor or toothbrush (ewww that's gross!)that transfusion is the only way I could of got it...I hope and pray that I am one of the few that did not progress quick and can wait another couple years to treat it...

Beth

[Tallblonde]

Hmmmmm...37 years...that's 12-17 over the quota!  

No seriously, the "average" length of time to go from no damage to cirrhosis (not death) is about 20-25 years.  But certainly there are folks like you who defy those averages.

The thing that scares me is that I may actually be someone who progresses super fast.  I have no idea when I contracted this.  For all I know, it could have been a year before I was diagnosed in 2003.  If that's the case, I'm progressing rapidly (Stage 0-1). I would feel a lot better if I could pinpoint when this happened.

Susan

[hep62pj]

hey i dont think still using is going to increase your damage, heroin does not really do anything to your body except get ya hooked...it does not damage the liver, but while you are using you are more likely not to take care of yourself in other ways so...but if you are still using, hope you are not sharing works you can get re-infected ... hope ya can quit for good soon, have you tried methadone program, maybe maintenance or something??

good luck take care keep smilin'...

[cquest]

Everybody freaks out at first but don't worry about dying just yet...I don't know about the rest of you but I had to go thru a sort of 'grieving' process when I first found out I had this...like I had to say goodbye to life as I once knew it and it was sad...I have to look at things differently now, be more careful and I don't like it...It's definatly life changing no matter what you end up doing, tx or not, clearing or not, it will effect me for the rest of my life I know that...
Cin

[snook_man]

Hate to burst any bubbles, or any posted articles about younger persons progressing slower, but I'm 28 years old.. I was born with HCV, and I am a stage 3out of 4, and grade 2 inflamation. Age is not a determing factor at all as far as disease progression, as I remember a girl younger than myself,also infected at birth, and she was already chirrotic at age 16.
Age, lifestyles, diet, all might take a part, but I think genetics play the major role in determing who will progress, and who will not.

Mortality rate? What is the mortality rate for driving an automobile? What is the rate for obesity, heart disease, or fatty diets?

[Tallblonde]

cquest...I think you're right about "grieving" the loss of your old life.  That process took about a year and a half for me.  It's only recently that my thoughts aren't completely dominated by HCV.

Greatbird.....40 years to get to stage 1.  At that rate, you'll be 160 by the time you reach stage 4!  

Susan

[GreatBird]

I think I've had it 40+ years (needlestick from a nurse when I was a kid). It has been at least 30 years because when I was in college they were confused by some test results and were wondering if I had non-A non-B hep. Then they decided that I had <i>had</i> hep B, but later said no, I never had. It was at that point that I decided doctors were nuts and vowed to stay away from them and their drugs as much as possible and leave my body be.

When I had a biopsy in 2003 that was stage 1 grade 2. So, you never know.

[v eggie dip]

-- Pakistan earthquake toll reaches 18,000 dead and 41,000 injured, a spokesman for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf tells CNN.

[v eggie dip]

Individuals who became infected with HCV by transfusion and who were younger than 20 had a significantly lower risk for eventually developing cirrhosis than did those infected at an older age

* Age at infection and disease activity were the most important factors for predicting cirrhosis in patients with transfusion-associated HCV


That would be "ME". so maybe I will live forever!!!

*the ageless dip*

[GoofyDad]

OK, I've compelled myself to post something with a little more substance.

"The time necessary to have a 50% probability of developing cirrhosis in patients ages 21-30, 31-40, and more than 40 years was 33, 23, and 16 years, respectively."

From <a href="http://www.obgyn.net/newsheadlines/headline_medical_news-Cirrhosis-20020819-2.asp">here</a>. It's a little old.

[GoofyDad]

Hey veggie, I used to think your posts were a tad dry. But that was before I knew you were dead!

[v eggie dip]

I have had it for 37 years...using your rule of thumb I should be dead!  Yikes!

[painintheside]

Hello,
I am only 33 and have stage 4 out of 4 and grade 3 out of 4. I did drink a couple times a week (give or take some weeks) and did go through TB tx 14 years ago. The meds for TB are very bad for the liver. Not sure how long I have had this but I can roughly guess for about 16 years.

I know now that with the hep c meds, I could live a long life still. I worry sometimes about "what if the meds don't work?" but God and I will deal with that once and if it occurs. Just live for today and do whatever is necessary to get rid of the hep c (in my opinion). Because, nobody really knows how fast they will progress.

Best wishes for your bx!

Sincerely,
Dana

[bobbyullc]

http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/gi/HCVnew.html

please do not get all worried yet. medicine is making leaps and bounds in the treatment of hep c as 4 million have it now and that figuere is expected to increase drastically as more people are tested. the success rate for treatment was 7% 5 years ago and is now closer to 50%. the above link should give you some hope and insite into improved treatments. at any rate it takes many years to get severe so do not give up hope.
luck

bobby