Oedema

[UKdad]

Hi

My partner was recently diagnosed with hepatitis c during routine scans for her pregnancy.  She has gone into denial and refuses to have any further tests untill she gets her head around the situation.  But having looked at info on hepatitis c in depth on the net I was looking over symptoms related to the disease and noticed that she has suffered quite a few of them.  Them being: oedema ocasionally, heartburn quite frequant and she always seems to be tired even before the pregnancy.  And not only has she got her own positive result to deal with but we also have a three year old daughter and obviously our unborn child to test.  I speak from a bias view, but my partner is a wonderful mother who puts our daughter,s happiness and health before anything and I really do not know how she would cope with a positive result for either of our children.  I wanted to ask if symptoms are part and parcel of living with hepatitis c or do they determine the level of damage to your liver i.e. would you experience oedema if you were a carrier of the disease or if your condition was fairly stable?

Please help.

[Laika]

The best way to determine extent of liver damage is biopsy.  There is a blood test, but it is less accurate.  Symptoms, elevated ALT & AST, viral load...these are all unreliable means of determining extent of liver damage.



The percentage of children to whom hepC is passed through birth is very small (3%?).



There are people who can give you lots more info and support than I can on these subjects, and they'll be along.



Hang in there,

Laika

[cuteus]

those symptoms coincide with pregnancy symptoms, so it is hard to decide which might be causing them.  Edema during pregnancy should be monitored. If her only positive test was the antibody test, it is possible that she is not carrying the virus at all. Did she have a viral load (PCR test)? If that is positive then she is infected with the virus and should consider a biopsy at some point, I am not sure if they do them during pregnancy. Give her time and space to process this shocking info, and have all the info you can get hold of for her for when she is ready to deal with it.

maternal to fetus infection is rare.

[LvdByGod!]

if your partner has been diagnosed with hep c and has had the apropriate tests to determin that for sure ( the hepc RNA), then if the edema is not related to other causes, (there are several things that can cause edema), then you should really concider that she may have severe liver damage from the hepc. severe liver damage causes edema and asceties...fluid build up in the body extremities and in the abdominal cavity...



to detirmin this she must have blood tests done first to see her liver enzymes...usually the numbers will be off on some of the tests if the damage is severe...the dr can help you detirmin the test results...but then even if the numbers are normal when we have hep c there is a chance that it could have progressed to severe damage in the liver...the only way to know for sure is the liver biopsy...this test is the next step for her once she can come to terms with her disease...



for her getting the biopsy to detirmin the damage caused so far from the virus is essential to knowing where she stands in this disease...there is a possibility she is not that far in the disease process and may still have plenty of time to treat and turn things around...but you will not know unless you get the  biopsy...with out this the dr is just really "guessing"...



for the sake of her future health and motherhood and life expectancy she must be biopsied and treated for the hep c before the virus kills the liver completely...



now this virus does move slowly and for many it takes years to get to the cirhosis and severe damage stages...but there is simply no way to know for sure unless she has the biopsy...once she has this then she can start the treatment and try to get rid of the virus that is killing her liver...this is her best chances to live a normal life expectancy...she must get rid of that virus!



the standard treatment for hep c is interferon and ribaviron and depending on the genotype of the virus she will either need to go on treatment for 6 months or a year...or until the virus is gone...



the treatment is very much like chemotheropy in that it is really rough...you got to be emotionally ready to fight and kill off the virus...but she can do it...most of us here are doing it...and she has the added motivation to do it for her kids...



when she starts treatment have her come here for the emotional support she will need to complete it...we will be here for her and help her through it...



but encourage her that just because she has hep c does not mean it is an automatic death sentance...the treatment works for many people and the sooner she starts treatment the better her odds of clearing will be...the more severe the liver damage the worse the odds get...



also, she can not do treatment while pregnant or breast feeding... it can cause birth defects so you will need protection durring treatment to insure she doesn't get pregnant and at for least for 6 months following the end of treatment...



my prayers are with your family...sorry for this great disapointment...it is very hard to come to terms with and support will be important for her...lots of love and support!

[LvdByGod!]

p.s some symptoms come from the hepc itself and others come from liver damage...it's really hard to know unless she gets the biopsy...edema if liver related is caused from the liver not functioning correctly and can mean a serious stage of liver disease...



but you can not even begin to guess at this stuff...she must get the biopsy to see the condition of the liver...scans can only tell you part of the story...the biopsy tells you the stage and grade of liver damage from the virus...



i also wanted to agree with the above posters that it is a very low probability for the children to contract this from the mom...so she can take comfort in that...remember it takes her blood to get into the blood stream of the children and this doesn't happen durring birth unless there is a cut or wound created on the child durring birth...they must be careful not to use foresepts or other instraments etc...that can cause scratches or cuts...but saying that many healthy babies are  born without hep c even if they used the foresepts...your pregnancy dr should know all about this and how best to protect the child durring birth...



also the mom surely has plenty of time to enjoy her pregnancy and the birth and also probably the whole first year of the child's life before having to worry about starting treatment...but, only the biopsy will tell you how much time you can wait before being concerned about the progression of the disease and damage to the liver while waiting. the biopsy will tell you when she must start treatment...this is a "slow" moving disease so please take comfort in that...