Any Help is Appreciated

[Fighting-this-Together]

First, I would like to say our prayers are with all of you, and your Family. I(the wife) have been reading this forum for a few weeks. I finally need to post.

My Husband has recently tested Hep C positive. So here is our long story so far.......
He was reffered to the GI and given an Appt. for Feb 28. They were able to get him in on the 19th instead. He shows up, and was turned away! The reason for this? The referral was not sent by the Dr. on our Ins. card. The sad part is we have never used that Dr.. We have been seeing our same NP that we have seen for 2 years. Come to find out they can not be our PCP as they do not accept our HMO as of now. It is going to take 2 weeks for them to get that situated. At least they are doing all they can from their end. So we change the PCP to an Urgent Care Dr. that we have both seen on occasion. He goes in shows the Dr. his lab work that we requested copies of(thank you to this forum), and gets treated like a freak :(, and told "you know how you get this. Right?" In a matter of 5 minutes has a refferal to the GI and is heading home. It is Friday and now all offices are closed. The stress is getting to him.  

[Fighting-this-Together]

Any help with these labs would be great. I will just post ALT/AST and Dates and then Hep C test
There has been no Biopsy. We do not know Genotype,or Viral Load.
1/15/07 Routine Lab Work
ALT 127 IU/L
AST 60 IU/L
NP has them run Hep tests
A Neg
B Neg
Hep C Antibody Result [H] 72.41
Hep C Ab Interpretation  Positive

NP has more blood work done
1/30/07
HCV Ab w/Rflx to RIBA 70.5 High

Positive indicates past or present HCV infection; Immunobolt testing not preformed. Samples with high S/CO ratios (>9.9) confirm positive (95%), but <5 out of 100 might represent false positives. PCR testing can be requested if indicated. Qualitive HCV RNA testing will differentiate active from resolved infection.

How should this be viewed? It looks like we will not be able to see the GI until the end of March. I am worried about him, as he has lost 15lbs in 3 weeks and is vomiting several times daily.

Thanks in Advance, and sorry for rambling :)

[jmjm530]

Sorry about the problems you're having.

Not much to say/do regarding the hep c until you have follow-up blood work, including viral load and genotype. After that, possibly a biopsy, depending on factors such as genotype and your doctor's assessment.

A positive antibody combined with an elevated ALT is suggestive of hep c, but it's still possible he doesn't have the virus although it does seem probable.

As to waiting until the end of March, Hep C (HCV)is a relatively slow moving disease, so that alone should not concern you. But as to the vomitting and weight loss, this could very well be caused by something else and therefore your husband should be looked at by a GI right away on an emergency or semi-emergency basis, for this reason alone.

Meanwhile, if you can work with your original NP a bit, see if you can find a liver specialist (hepatologist) who takes your medical insurance. In general, they are more knowledgeable about HCV and its treatment. Sometimes I find it easier to work backwards -- first get a list of good doctors, then call their office and narrow the list down to who takes your plan. Then present those names to your PCP's nurse and ask for a referral.

You're new here, so you should no that this is a patient-to-patient forum that is not being monitored by doctors although we do have one MD researcher who shows up from time to time.

All the best,

-- Jim

[Fighting-this-Together]

Thank You for your reply.
I do realize that it is a patient to patient forum and replys are not given by an MD.
I figured I would post and possibly get others opinions.
To be honest, some patients know much more than some of the Drs.(Not all, but some).

I do realize that this is a slow disease, and things have come a long way as far as treatment goes. As for the wait to see the GI. Is this a common amount of time? I do not think our network has any Hepatologists, as I would be much more comfortable with a Liver Specialist.

Thank You again. Guess I just needed to vent. The wait seems FOREVER.

It is possible that the Nausea comes from the stress. I just hate to see him not feeling well:(

[jmjm530]

I started to develop reflux a couple of weeks prior to treatment. It might have been the result of pre-treatment dietary changes, but my guess is that stress may have played a factor.

That said, nothing happened to me pre-tx like is happening with your husband. Losing 15 pounds in three weeks and vomitting 3X a week should be looked into now and should not wait for that GI appointment.

Hopefully, it will turn out to be stress, but other things should be ruled out.

All the best,

-- Jim

[northstar]

I began getting real bad stomach aches everytime I ate, so I practically had to stop eating. I was tested for so many things, gall bladder, etc. I had lost around 30 pounds. I only found out I had hep c when my hubby tested postive after going to see the doc with some severe skin problems.
The waiting was awful,......hurry up and wait.
Still, even after I got to the hepatologist, he wanted me to go through a stress test (more tests, appts. and waiting) before starting tx.
It does seem like it takes forever, but this is such a slow moving disease, that (in most cases) we really can afford the wait. So many of us, once we find out, we just want to hurry up and get started so we can be done with this. The biopsy will give you more info. so you are able to make educated decisions.