hep c labs showed a slight increased levels

I have had Hep c for over 10 years and been tested every 3 months. My Dr. told me I may never need treatment and could not pass it on based on my lab tests untill now. I don't know what the nunbers were. He told me about it is passed by blood and so on. He also mentioned treatment in the futur if I wanted but he said my leveles only increased a little I think he said 17,000 and he would keep testing every 3 months. My question is should I start the treatment sooner than later? I am 58

[spectda]

Is your doctor a specialist in treating hepatitis c? You haven't given us very much information about your condition and we are not really qualified to advise you although people can relate their own experience to you. Have you had a liver biopsy? If you had a liver biopsy what were the results? what genotype are you? I guess the 17,000 you mentioned is the viral load, that's very low. The viral load is not a significant indicator of how whether your liver is being damaged or not. It can be high with little damage and low with a lot of damage.

[rickj999]

No my dr is not but he has said my liver fuctions are normal. No biopsy yet.I had a an ultrasound test 7 years ago with no damage and I am about to have another one next month. We talked about me now going to a specialist. I don't know much else.
Thank you

[nygirl7]

Yes I'm a bit concerned by the fact that he's basing this on your viral load as well - can you get a copy of the tests he has done? Do you know if he's even done the liver enzyme tests?  The only real way to know where you stand is to have a biopsy that determines how much liver damage you have already got. Again it doesn't come from your VL really.

Is this a general practitioner? If it is you really do need a REAL hep doctor - at least a GI with a busy hepc practice who knows what he is talking about. Most GPs will act like they know but they don't. Believe me mine told me I was fine, didn't need any treatment and I had no liver damage (because my ultrasound was good - but that only tells you if you have tumors or cancerous growths or advance cirrhosis).  By the time I went to a real doctor I thought I was ok but it turned out in fact I was stage 3 out of a possible 4 and ended up doing treatment for 72 weeks. of course i fired her fast................


You wouldn't go to a foot doctor for an eye problem right - it's sort of th same thing you really do need someone who knows exactly what they are talking about.  If you were biopsied and found out you only had a little damage you could wait a few years and then rebiopsy - its not horrible like it sounds at all - but you'd know for real where you stand on the matter.

Good luck.

[spectda]

nygirl is offering you good advice.You really should find a hepatitis c specialist. An ultrasound is not the standard for determining liver damage. How long have you had Hepatitis C?

[rickj999]

I just looked at my labs 17,000 was wrong. I copyed and pasted some of them.                        
  RESULT    UNITS       REF RANGE
HEPTIMAX(R) HCV RNA
HEPTIMAX (R) HCV RNA      * 172000    IU/mL       <5
HEPTIMAX (R) HCV RNA      * 5.24      LogIU/mL    <0.7

The range of the HEPTIMAX (TM) assay is 5 IU/mL to
69,000,000 IU/mL0
HBS AG. HBS-AG  NEGATIVE NEGATIVE  
ANTI-HAV* HAV  NEGATIVE NEGATIVE  
ANTI-HCV(ELISA2) HEPC  POSITIVE NEGATIVE  
ANTI-HBS HBS-AB  NEGATIVE NEGATIVE  
ANTI-HBC* HBC  NEGATIVE NEGATIVE  
ALT (SGPT)* SGPT  22 iu/l 9-60  
HEPATITIS Sig:Cut (HEPCV)  26.6

[nygirl7]

Let us just explain that viral load goes up and down all of the time and isn't an indicator of how much liver damage you might have.  While your VL is low - most are in the millions - mine was only 568,000, not much more than yours.  Yet I already had stage 3 liver damage (stage 4 is cirrhosis).  had I just gone by that number I never would have treated and I would have had very very big problems shortly - I wouldn't have realized how important it was for me to at LEAST live an extremely healthy liver lifestyle let alone that I really did need to treat as I was almost out of good, healthy liver.

You really need a well qualifed specialist to be taking care of this......not just going via viral load regardless of how low it is this is an active virus that is most likely damaging your liver.

[rickj999]

he said liver enzymes are within normal limits and I think Ihave had hep c 16 years.

[Trinity4]

What do you get tested for every three months?  

[rickj999]

I had  lapban surgery 15 months ago. They go in with tv camereas.  I think They said they have to lift or go by the live to install.They checked for galf stones and removed them. Is it possible that they checked out my liver knowing Ihave have hep c. So far I lost 185 lbs. now at 280. my diabetes is gone and blood pressure normal my dr stayed away from treatment because of my previous health

[rickj999]

5/13/2010 12:39 AM  Heptimax(TM) HCV RNA  Verified  View Details  
5/13/2010 12:36 AM  URINALYSIS w/reflex to culture UA 4770  Verified  View Details  
5/12/2010 6:52 PM  XHEPATITIS COMP PROFILE 355  Verified  View Details  
5/12/2010 6:52 PM  ALT (SGPT)* SGPT  Verified  View Details  
5/12/2010 6:50 PM  GLYCOHEMOGLOBIN GLYCO  Verified  View Details  
5/12/2010 6:50 PM  COMPREHENSIVE METABOLIC PANEL W/eGFR 944  Verified  View Details  
5/12/2010 6:50 PM  CBC WITHOUT DIFF WITH PLATELETS 4518  Verified  View Details  
5/12/2010 7:38 AM  PTT* PTT  Verified  View Details  
5/12/2010 7:38 AM  PROTHROMBIN + INR 4021  Verified  View Details  
4/22/2010 12:00 AM  Patient Result Letter_S  VerificationNotRequired  View Details  
4/20/2010 4:58 PM  URINALYSIS w/reflex to culture UA 4770  Verified  View Details  
4/20/2010 4:58 PM  PROSTATIC ANTIGEN PSA  Verified  View Details  
4/20/2010 4:58 PM  MICROALBUMIN RANDOM URINE W/ CREA 6517  Verified  View Details  
4/20/2010 4:58 PM  LIPID PANEL ( AMA ) 1383  Verified  View Details  
4/20/2010 4:58 PM  GLYCOHEMOGLOBIN GLYCO  Verified  View Details  
4/20/2010 4:58 PM  COMPREHENSIVE METABOLIC PANEL W/eGFR 944  Verified  View Details  
4/20/2010 4:51 PM  Heptimax(TM) HCV RNA  Verified  View Details  
12/8/2009 12:00 AM  Patient Result Letter_S  VerificationNotRequired  View Details  
12/2/2009 11:13 AM  SHOULDER, COMPLETE 3V *  Verified  View Details  
12/2/2009 11:13 AM  SHOULDER, COMPLETE 3V *  Verified  View Details  
11/12/2009 12:00 AM  Patient Result Letter_S  VerificationNotRequired  View Details  
11/10/2009 7:56 PM  PROSTATIC ANTIGEN PSA  Verified  View Details  
11/10/2009 7:56 PM  MICROALBUMIN RANDOM URINE W/ CREA 6517  Verified  View Details  
11/10/2009 7:56 PM  LIPID PANEL ( AMA ) 1383  Verified  View Details  
11/10/2009 7:56 PM  BASIC METABOLIC PANEL W/eGFR 982 BMP  Verified  View Details  
11/10/2009 7:56 PM  GLYCOHEMOGLOBIN GLYCO

[Bill1954]

Hi Rick,

Congratulations on the weight loss; that’s tremendous, and probably the best action you could have taken for overall health concerns.

Just for your info, my viral load was checked dozens of times over the last six years or so; it was always less than 150,000. I also had stage 3-4 liver disease; snuggling up next to cirrhosis, they said. I mention this so you understand that looking at viral load isn’t necessarily a good indicator of fibrosis, or scarring of the liver. Of course, biopsy is the most accurate method available to us. That said, biopsy isn’t always indicated, either; this is something that should be addressed with your qualified specialist.

Best of luck to you—

--Bill

[nygirl7]

They would have to take a few (three usually) samples of your liver with a long needle - that what the biopsy is.  Really the liver has no nerves inside it that would feel the pain so basically it's just nervewracking because your brain is positive it's going to hurt - but it doesn't.  They wouldn't just do it while they were in there doing something else - that sounds illegal to me.

Your ALT and AST are your liver enzymes - we can't click on view details to see what it says but...while they could be good now they could have gone up and down and up and down in the past.  When a liver cell dies it releases the enzyme so the higher it is the more damage goin on at that MOMENT.  And you can't tell what they have been in the past. So they aren't really indicative of how much damage you have...you'd need a record of them constantly since you got hep.

What kind of doctor is this?

[rickj999]

ALT (SGPT)* SGPT  22 iu/l

[rickj999]

general dr. DON'T SEE AST

[nygirl7]

You REALLY REALLY NEED a hep doctor - regular doctors just don't know this important stuff although they sure act like they do.  My GP said I was just fine and did not need treatment - God she was so WRONG.

Please Ricky - you've done so much to take care of yourself and have had so very much improvement in your health, it's SO wonderful what you have accomplished - please please find a specialist and talk to him.  As you can see there are a bunch of us who were in your shoes and had we listened to the "your VL is fine therefore so is your liver" stuff that GPs give out well.......we'd be in a lot of trouble right now.

Please.

[rickj999]

My insurance needs a referal too a gastmoligest. Is that o? I realy thank you guys for all your concern. Of course I am scared with all this and I would hate to ever pass this on.

[Bill1954]

Hi Rick, yes; either a gastroenterologist (gut doctor, or GI doctor) or a hepatologist (liver doctor) typically manage this disease. Your primary care doc will make a referral to one if you ask him/her, most likely.

Bill

[Ironhead86]

Hi Rick, Bill, Trinity, nygirl and spectda,

Thanx for your entries. i'm new to the site but not new to the ailment. i was diagnosed in Nov of 06 with what i thought was a very high hep C viral load of 3.4 million. further testing indicated genotype I. Biopsy showed minimal liver damage and lab results indicated moderately high enzymes. Lifestyle behavioral patterns suggest that i probably contracted in the mid to late 70's. My current age is 55 and i ceased using alcohol in Sept of 92 for reasons that obviously have nothing to do with the virus as i had no cognizance of its presence in my system.

For the first year i was in a state of denial and just ignored it. At the end of 2007 i started going to a GI specialist and getting a blood draw every 3 months. my viral load at first was stable while enzyme levels began to rise. when my Viral load hit 23 million i sought alternative treatment as i have a couple of acquaintences who went on the Interferon/Riba run and never made it back to work and worse yet, never achieved SVR.

So anyway i met this Naturpath who told me of this treatment involving Alpha Lipoic Acid delivered via IV. So i have been seeing her for about 7 1/2 months now. Enzyme levels are looking very good being well within the reference range.
My doc has also been administering high levels of nutrients in IV's alternating with the ALA. Viral Load peaked at 51 million which seemed pretty scary but again i have to stress the outstanding liver function. One month ago my viral load was 16.7 million. Expect results from most recent lab any minute now.
I have to ask; does it really matter what the VL is if the liver runs like a well behaved teenagers? How many people in their mid fifties can make that claim? HCV or no?

To learn more about ALA checkout Dr Mark Berkson of Las Cruces NM.

[Diane12855]

Another reason you need to see a hepatologist or at least a GI:

In 2001 my family doctor discovered that I have an hemangioma (vascular tumor) in my liver. He told me it was benign, but that we'd have to watch it because sometimes they grow fast and then it would have to be removed. Every 6 months for the first 2 years they did ultra-sounds and a full liver panel. The ultrasounds never showed anything but the hemangioma, the liver panels were always normal. Then they changed to once a year...once they even did a MRI on my liver because I was having swelling and discomfort... normal... That is a total of 12 normal liver panels and ultra sounds!!! always normal until this past January when my ALT was elevated. They did the hep c antibody test, and my adventure began. Long story short... I'm 1a, have been infected since 1987, Grade 2 Stage 2... yet every image and lab test was normal all those years that my liver was being damaged. YOU HAVE TO GET A BIOPSY TO REALLY KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON IN YOUR LIVER. DON'T CUT CORNERS, YOUR LIFE IS WORTH IT.

You can ask your doc for a referral on the phone... he won't be insulted, he knows that he hasn't learned anything about hep c since he was in med school... he has too many colds and flus to treat to do any research.

BTW I'm 55 too.