life expectancy hepc

[rockey]

i was diagnosed with hep c when i was 20 im 25 now i also have gout in the feet im a social drinker on average what would be the life expectancy of a person in my position

[LipStick1959]

I have Hep C, I'm in stage 2 of Liver Damage, I believe I am genotype A or 1... I'm not too informed, my reading & sitting days are too painful to search the internet anymore. I am a recovering drug addict. I have only 2 months of the Peg & Ribo treatment left, with a 1 % chance of it helping me. I am scared, and I came here by asking about "Life exectancy" Is anyone here knowledgible enough to at least give me a round about number? Just a guess would be great. I am forcing myself to eat 3 x a day, taking vitamins, and I've cut back on my smoking...but I am so tired & weak. I am one of those who has sit back the last 3 years & let Life pass me by. Can anyone give me an answer...or be willing to try? Is there anything out there I should be taking..like Milk Thistle for my Liver? Please help me.    LipStick1959 at Hotmail

[FlGuy]

All is not so bad. Making an effort to be less pitiful and some new subject matter at work piques the interest.  Big diff, I think, is from a change in Peg from the first go-round.  Family is good and the rites of spring (softball leagues and SATs) are here again.  Just trying to stay in a serviceable groove.  I had a call last week about my interest in a trial using Abluferon, instead of peg.  This may be of interest, fewer shots!

[Forseegood]

hi Floida Man, hope youre doing well, I think of you and your family...I hope youre having a better time this time then last..

[FlGuy]

Too bad no one has answered your question. When you are social drinking, do you also drive an automobile?  Do you smoke, eat well, skydive, cross in the middle of the block?  Do you exercise, get rest, have a passion to do something when you wake in the morninng? Is your idea of a useful pursuit to sit around your house in your underwear and watch the world pass by your window?  How long do you want to live?  It's really up to you.

[Forseegood]

also, I'd like to see where it says that a few glasses of red wine benefits outweigh the downside of alcohol in a hep c infected person, no offense to anyone, but some of the things that get thrown around here are just mystifying to me...

We have Hepatitis, (those of us who are not SVR) the game is completely different for us then a person without liver disease, sad but true...if a doctor has a problem with that, it's not his/her liver that he/she is playing with, it's ours...most docs don't have this disease so I don't see where they have much on the line here, except to give out opinions, in this regard anyway...

it's our individual health on the line here, not theirs...

[Forseegood]

this has been discussed to death, but I do see that there are a whole lot of new members, and the archives here are a little problematic (to me anyway) so I'll wade in with my usual...

I just don't see how anyone (including a doc, no matter how renown, I've had problems with other advice I have seen from "renown" docs) can say that it is okay to drink, say, 3 drinks a week while you have this disease....how can this information be quantifiable? We've all seen the studies that say "women" metabolize alcohol differently then men, prob because we carry more "body fat" and when you have more "body fat" the alcohol will tend to stay in the system longer in the fatty tissues...or something to this effect...conflicting studies mean that they just don't really understand this type of stuff - to a high degree....to me anyway....

So alcohol might effect me differently then it will effect someone else...who knows for sure? The only constant we have in this equasion is that we have liver disease, and that alcohol is a known toxin to the liver...there is "no way" of telling how much one person can get away with, as opposed to another, while having this disease....

So they ( a few experts) take an educated guess that a few drinks a week won't hurt, how can they possibly know for sure? "Maybe" it might not effect John, but it will effect Bill? How can something with sooooo many variables be quantified, with any degree of accuracy, from person to person?

Moreover, do we all know exactly our liver disease is progressing? We've had threads before discussing how it's darn hard to get a completely accurate overview on our individual liver disease, so we need to throw in a "wild card" like alcohol consumption into the equasion? Why not wait till after your SVR to drink your few drinks per week, is the irritation of 'going without' while your ill with this really worth the risk?

So, with the few elements that we do know something about with a lot more accuracy, that we have liver disease, and that alcohol is a known toxin to the liver....isn't it only fitting that we err on the side of caution? I mean, we do have a potentially deadly disease, and who knowns who is going to clear with the present SOC, is it really worth it to anyone to try your luck with some fixed number of drinks per week? I guess it is to some, that's pretty apparent, all I mean to say is that I just don't understand that way of thinking...and I don't think erring on the side of caution with a potentially deadly liver disease makes me an alarmist...in this regard anyhow...