Dormant Hep-C ?

[duekah]

Thank God for all of you . Please be patient with me as I need to learn alot REAL fast. I have Hep-C geno 1B and 2B, I had it for 25 years without knowing it and then I showed up on an annual check up liver panel .I have seen a specialist and had a biopsy it came back level one he recomends just watching it , no treatment and I have been 5 years now with no treatment and the liver panel continues to read in the normal range although the Viral load is always high . Is there anybody else out there like me ? I feel like I am sitting on a time bomb . I did find a friend who also is in the same situation he says his is dormant like mine . Is that a correct way of discribing  our situation ? Dormant ?

[medicmommy]

Hello!
Welcome to the forum...First of all, Fmulder is correct, Hep C is not a disease that can be considered dormant. Your viral load will fluctuate and it will not reflect how much the Hep C is progressing. This IS a disease of decades, and the most accurate way to assess damage is the liver biopsy. Be aware Hep C can also affect other body systems, and when your immune system is stressed, the Hep C gets a toe-hold and replicates faster, accelerating the damage it is doing. When your immune system recovers, the evil dragon genie is mostly returned to the bottle...This is the unpredictable part about the hep C, and the reason I decided to go ahead with treatment, because I was getting older, and you just never know what your health is going to be like in a year, or when (or if) you decide to follow through with treatment.
After I completed treatment, the chronic fatigue that I'd attributed to aging was gone..I could remember things, and my chronic low blood sugar episodes resolved...This is more than a liver disease, but the liver takes the hardest hit...I was fortunate, I had only 3a geno. 1 a or b is more difficult to treat, and takes a longer treatment course...Ask lots of questions! We are here to help...(((((((((((((((HUGZ))))))))))~MM

[Fmulder]

P.s., There is NO such thing as Dormant!, Either you have it or you don't!, Not everyone who get's it will die from it, But make no mistake, It's always there and contegious through blood contact!

[Fmulder]

Im In exactly the same situation as you, Except I don't have two geno types, It sounds like you were infected twice with two different geno types?, You doctor is right (in my opinion) about waiting, Your NOT going to drop dead any time soon, Youv'e had it this long and it is slow progressing, The treatments available now only have about a 40 or 50% cure rate with your geno type, (1B) Not to mention the toxicity of the current treatments, This is of course your choice, I can only tell you what Im doing, The treatment choices that are coming soon will be more effective with less side effects and shorter durations, Do your homework and don't panic!