How many 2b's stopped before 24 weeks?

My 4 week Viral Load Test came back negative.  
Do I really need to do tx another 20 weeks?  I was thinking maybe I could just go to 18 weeks in all.

Ladybug I know you stopped early.  Anyone else?
How do virus' work?  Meaning after the virus becomes negative, how long is long enough to ensure that it can no long be sustained in the body?

I acquired HepC with dental tissue from a cadaver.  Will this tissue harbor HepC?  I need to ask the doctor this, but I keep forgetting.  haha.  Even important things I keep forgetting.  I've got to get a notebook, and write down what I don't want to forget.  I'm blonde and this forgetfulness is not helping my image any.

Thanks everyone for being available 24/7.  

Jane

[brn i'd grl]

I'm not blonde and i keep forgetting EVERYTHING! I write everything down but if i forget to write it down then forget about it!
I'm 2b and stopped at 20 wks only because my hair started falling out at 16 wks and the virus was undetected at 4 wks. It's not an easy decision and i hope i don't regret mine. Good luck!

[ladybug52]

Yes I stopped at 16, but I have no guarantee that I'll be SVR, just high hopes! Rosebud, Snowbyrd, and Pigeonca all stopped prior to 24 weeks. I was UND at 4 weeks post and I'm 9 weeks post, waiting to do another pcr at 12 weeks post.
I really would not encourage anyone to quit early, BUT I wouldn't discourage anyone either! It's just such a personal decision, with risks either way.
Take care, I hope everything turns out the best for you!
Hugs,
Bug

[l-horn]

I'm on week 39 and 44 is looking like a good number to stop on. But then again, if you can do 44 you can do 48. Right ? I'm getting really tired of this stuff. That's all I know.

[geterdone]

Are you kidding me... Did I miss something these last 11 weeks? What is this a joke? Yeah, it a joke... right! I'm out of here.

jasper

[hightrekker]

I'm type 2 also, and was negative at week 4 (have injection 8 Monday)----
My doc has suggested early termination as a possibility, but would prefer
full treatment.
I've taken time out of my usual gig, and have some space to work on this, so I'm going to
try full treatment.
The stats are pretty good for early termination.
I probably was infected in the mid 1970's, so It has been a long time.

[brn i'd grl]

FYI
There is a 10% chance of recurrance with full treatment and 15% when stopped short. Just incase you didn't know the stats., it might help with your decission.

[l-horn]

Not to mention if you 'stop short' you'll pi/ss off Frank Costanza.

[Kalio1]

I was told that due to acquiring hep c in a hospital setting it was more difficult to rid myself of it. I acquired mine through spinal injection during a surgery and as the doctor put it "had it injected straight into my spine" (yikes) and that made it harder to get rid of. I would imagine infected tissue would fall into the same category but who knows. I couldn't find a shred of evidence to back up what the doctor told me but it made some sense to me.

Important things to consider stopping early are how soon you cleared the virus, your weight, your age and your liver condition.

I relapsed and I can guarantee you you don't want that to happen as you will end up doing A LOT more treatment than just the normal course. You might luck out and clear it on a shortened course, who knows.Trust me, if you stop and then end up relapsing you will always think you relapsed because you didn't go the distance, if you complete the therapy and then relapse at least you know it was not due to you not staying the course. Every single person who treats wishes they could stop sooner!
Keep in mind that even though your PCR test shows UNDETECTABLE that does NOT mean you no longer have any virus in your body it only means they are unable to DETECT it. It only takes ONE virii to begin replication again. The long months of treatment is to kill off EVERY virus because even one is too many.

[Kalio1]

I think the numbers are a lot higher than that, the average patient has a higher than 10% chance of relapse unfortunately even if they complete full course treatment. Do you happen to have a link to that stat source? Of couse relapse rate is dependant on  genotype, different genotypes have different rates of relapse.
Your individual situation ( age, weight, liver damage, etc) has an impact on relapse rate also.

[brn i'd grl]

That is the stats my dr gave me when i was trying to make my decision. At 1st he just told me it's a higher rate of relapse when treatment is cut short. I  had to pry the stats out of him i suspect because he didn't want me to quit. I'm geno type 2. The stats are higher for geno 1.

[traveler65]

I will do shot #18 on Monday night. I am a 2B and was und at 4 weeks. I thoght about stopping at 16 because the anemia was so bad HGB at 7.5 and procrit not helping. I ended up getting a transfusion (raised HGB to 12.3) and am continuing on trying for the full 24. I am almost 66 yrs old, and if this does not work I will just let it take it's course as I never want to TX again (at least with this poison)
My docs advise was to try and do the full 24 if able to.

[pigeonca]

As Ladybug already told you, I'm one of the 2B's who stopped short.  I did 12 weeks of riba and 13 of Peg-Intron, at which point my hepatologist said, "You're done."  Because I was UND at 4 weeks, and because I was on weight-based riba, the early termination reduces my chances at SVR only minimally.  Google Peg-Intron 2B "12 weeks" and you'll get thousands of hits on this subject.

If you're on Pegasys with 800 mg of riba daily, I believe you need to go at least 16 weeks.  But it's ideal to try to complete the full program if you can.  In my case, I was having severe autoimmune problems (cutaneous scleroderma) which my doctor feared would become, if not systemic, then disfiguring and possibly debilitating, so I had no choice.  Also, I'm a grade 2, stage 2, so failure to obtain SVR doesn't present as great a problem for me as it might for others.  I can possibly afford to wait for new drugs if necessary, although at my age (63) I understand the rate of damage ramps up considerably.  

I sincerely hope you can hold out, but stay tuned as Ladybug, Rosebud, Snowbyrd and I give our reports.  I'm due for my next PCR at the end of July.  Since I was still UND 4 weeks after stopping tx, and since most relapses occur during those first 4 weeks, I'm pretty hopeful.  Stay tuned.

[NewEnglandLady]

Did your doctor or the hospital tell you that's how you contracted Hep C?

I went to a Boston dental school and they don't even want to talk to me about this. I'm just wondering about the reaction of your medical team and if any of them took your claim seriously.

Thanks!

[rosebud57]

hi, i haven't checked in much lately look, but i have computer problems and sometimes locks up at sign in (i'm in safemode right now).

I stopped peg-intron @ 21 wks 4/10 and continued with riba until 4/18 am, stopped because i was just feeling so ill, caught a virus or something, they gave me antibiotic, i really think that complicated whatever i was going through because i then had "yeast/fungal" problems, but this was not confirmed by any physician,  they were not helping me so i used home remedies and was better within days after weeks of suffering.

i was und @ wks. 4, 12, 16 and thought i would have to wait until 6 mth post 10/18, but went for blood draw on 5/15 for thyroid and saw that there had been a post 4 week test scheduled (GI RN originally said no there wouldn't be on 4/18), so i saw the papers i handed the lab tech and one was for the HCV RNA etc. they drew my blood, everything came up online except that result, i have left a message w/GI RN to inquire the missing results.  The test was definately scheduled so i will post new that result hopefully this or next week.

i feel confident that all will be okay, if it were to come back i would determine then whether i would treat or not.  

hope everyone is having a nice holiday or as best you can given your circumstances.

[GoofyDad]

Those 10%/15% numbers look pretty avg to me. Geno 2B has about an 80% chance of SVR from the get go. Figure 10-12% don't complete -  88-90% do. 10% of those relapse and that ties back to the 80% SVR rate.  

[EspritLibre1]

Great Post!!! Came in here a little over a wk ago wanting to quit because I had no  detect from my first mnth lab! I figured if "ain't" there, its gone!! ha ha... wyntree and joybhk gave me reason to believe otherwise. Kinda like an antibiotic and gotta do your sentence! Just did tenth shot Fri.. Started with 11 million vl, 1b with stage 2 scaring.  Yikes...that scared me!!! Glad I read here... but to do this for A YEAR!!! This is one nasty creepy virus!!!!!!!!!!! be well...

[Liv]

Was reading your post re: your suspected mode of infection.  Did your doc definitely state he/she believes it was due to a spinal injection?  If so the needle they used was contaminated with Hep C blood.  That's very troubling.  Maybe I'm misunderstanding you and if you don't care to elaborate I understand.

[amommy]

hi there!

I haven't been able to log in to post in forever, but finally figured it out today.  Anyway, I am from MA so we are probably neighbors!  

I was a geno 2 and I was clear at week 4.  Since I was NOT on weight based riba for the first 12 weeks of my treatment (a whole other issue) I opted to go for 20 weeks.  I felt as though I was rewarding my early clearance but also sort of compensating for the lack of weight based riba.  I am happy to say that I was clear at 6 months post!  

I have not done my 1 year post test yet.  I am currently 4 months pregnant, and feel confident it is still gone. If not, I don't want to know.  We will do my PCR when I am around 36 weeks pregnant so I can make any necessary delivery decisions based on that information.  

The way that I came to do the short course of treatment was that I KNEW I was taking a chance but I was completely ok with the outcome either way.  I was at peace with the decision which is how I knew it was the right one for me.  I thank my lucky stars every day that things turned out in my favor.  

Good luck!  Keep us posted on your decision.  

[EspritLibre1]

Just wanted to wish you well, in your final decision. It is obvious we are a team here and have that instinctive desire to support one another, obviously!! with all the compassionate posts above... just want you to know I'm rooting for you and pray for your SVR... and will be watching ... so please keep us posted.. be well...

[amommy]

Hi there!  
You are so sweet :)  I was poking around here yesterday trying to get caught up on peoples news.  I didn't see any updates from you.  How are you doing?  How is Nick?
Thanks for checking in on me.  I will be turning 17 weeks at the end of this week.  I was having complications early on, but things seem to be going just fine now!  I feel so blessed.  I am very much looking forward to my level 2 ultrasound in a couple of weeks where they will be able to make sure that everything is working as it should with this little munchkin!  
I hope to check in more often now that I figured out how to do it.  So, please update when you can!  I will be on the look out!  I'm thinking of you.  Thanks again for asking about me!

[nygirl7]

Treatment protocols are 24 weeks and 48 weeks, minimum.

If you choose to stop early your odds of SVR go DOWN.  There are really no definitive studies because not ONE study does a real platform make.

It's up to you but if you relapse you will have to come back and do 48 weeks more likely so you are doing a total of 72 weeks (relatively).

That isn't worth it, is it?

I had horrendous hgb issues and did 72 weeks.  Unless you were tested with a VERY sensitive test (heptimax) at week 4 you won't know if you really were indeed negative or not (although even with Heptimax you can't really "know).

Just be careful.  We've seen a lot of Geno 2 and Geno 3 relapses from people who did everything exactly how they were told to by the doctor...and believe me...it's not worth it.

[Myown]

As far as I am concerned it is tough to make any decision while on tx. I give credit to those who can do the short course and feel at peace with their decision. I wanted to quit at 20 weeks being its right in between the 16 and 24, but the decision was too hard, so I am going to finish the 24. I did cut back one riba at the 20th week cause I am trying to avoid procrit. I figure I have enough build up of riba in my system and also I am in the 800mg weight based as of now due to knocking off a few pounds. My doctor who is a leading hepatologist wants me to finish. The NP's thinking is that if I stopped now, I'm either svr or I'm not- another couple of weeks won't matter. I guess with this disease there is still alot of guess work and we sometimes just have to make decisions that we can live with.

I wanted to stay off forum until I was finished with tx, but here I am, so if I can't even make a simple decision such as that and stick to it, I would not trust my judgement in cutting the tx short, but thats me.