Only Option??

[bigmomma1974]

My husband has Hep C, and we are going on week 3 of the pills and the shots. We found out about a month ago he is stage 4 Cirrhosis of the Liver also.  The dr put him on pills which he takes 2x a day, 3 @ a time. Come to find out the pills are a form of chemo. What are other treatments for Hep C or is watching him go through this our only option?

[Marc1955]

It really is your only serious option. You should be glad that your insurance and your doctor are making this available to you, even though it can be a challenging course of therapy.

Whether the treatment is a form of "chemo" is a topic of dispute on this board. It doesn't work like conventional chemotherapy since it doesn't target or kill cells. But then again, cancer patients these days are treated with a wide range of therapies, including hormone treatments and in some cases interferon. I just don't see how helpful it is to call this treatment chemo. What you need to know is that it is a challenging treatment with many, and possibly serious side effects. That adherence to the medications is critical to success. And that it is the only treatment to date that has proven effective against HCV. Good luck!

[eureka254]

Hang in there.  The shots and pills are the only approved and demonstrated effective treatment currently available for hepC.  My husband also has stage 4 cirrhosis, and he'll be doing shot # 15 this weekend along with his pills.  We certainly had the option to not do the chemo-like treatment, but the option of letting the liver get worse and progressing to end-stage didn't seem like much of an option at all.  

FlGuy said it right: try to make sure he stays on track, he can become cured.  I know it's what keeps my husband and me going:  the next stage beyond cirrhosis is either liver failure or liver cancer, both of which can only be treated by liver transplant, so difficult treatment seems to us better than no treatment at all.

Best of luck,
~eureka

[FlGuy]

Those six pills a day are ribavirin.  He probably takes shot of Interferon once a week too.  At his point it's basically the only game in town for him.  Since he has cirrhosis already, he needs to get the hepatitis resolved.  Make sure that he stay on track with the treatment, not taking any days off.  Even with cirrhosis, he can become cured.  You could probably call it chemo. Newer treatments are in drug trials now but will not be readily available for a year or two.