Viral load

[Jimmygeee666]

Haven't started treatment yet it's all Greek to me I do know my vl is ten mill is that high gonna start the triple dose

[orphanedhawk]

Of course.

I'm geno 2 doing standard interferon/riba treatment. Its working and I'm glad.

Best of luck,
OH

[Jimmygeee666]

Yea counting my blessings my wife passed away 2 years ago and left me with 2 teenage daughters and my best friend died a year ago they had chronic hep c on his death certif I don't drink any more and just think it's time to treat

[orphanedhawk]

You're fortunate.
If you have no damage, stage 0, from a recent biopsy, you might consider other options to doing triple therapy.
Having no damage gives you time.

You could wait to do treatment for a few years for one of the oral treatments to be approved.
Or you may want to look for a good clinical trial with one of the new all oral meds.
Or of course, could do the triple treatment.

Whatever you decide to do, take the time to get lots of information before beginning.
Act from intelligence not from fear.

[slideman]

You are among the very fortunate to have drank a lot and had no damage. I too drank a lot before I knew I had hep. I quit right away (with the help of AA) and my biopsy got no worse in 10yrs. I  am absolutely convinced I would be in trouble by now had I not stopped. It was explained to me once that having hep strains you liver as will alcohol, if you have hep and drink, its a double hit to your liver. You really need to consider doing what ever it takes to give your liver a break. Also I was told that booze can make your viral load higher than it would be if you didnt drink. Not preaching, just telling you straight!!

[Jimmygeee666]

No liver damage as of now according to 2 biopsy drank like a fish too

[orphanedhawk]

I should have said viral load amounts are not relevant to how much or little liver damage you have.
Viral loads are very relevant when doing treatment.

[orphanedhawk]

Viral load amounts are not relevant.
The important thing when considering treatment is to know how much liver damage you might have.
You can have a high viral load and no liver damage or a low one and severe liver damage.

During treatment, viral load counts show how well the treatment is working.

[pooh55811]

What is your Genotype. Triple med treatment is used to treat people with Genotype 1 so it appears you have Genotype 1.

If it's any comfort, my viral load before treatment was 14,000,000. (Yep, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I read that.)  Anyway, after 4 weeks of treatment my viral load was detectable but less than 43. At 8 weeks I was Undetected, period. No virus could be detected. I am waiting for my 12 week results.

Several people on this forum with viral loads in the millions have become undetectable so hopefully you will be successful with treatment too.

[hrsepwrguy]

Follow this link, lots of good info on viral load

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/viral-load/show/1648778