BIOP RESULTS

[STUSEE]

I AM 54 HAD BIOPSY 15YEARS AGO WHICH SHOWED MINIMAL PORTAL FIBROSIS. JUST HAD ANOTHER AND SHOWED STAGE 1 WITH MINIMAL FIBROSIS.DOCTOR RECOMENDS 6 MONTH FOLLOW UPS WITH BIOPSY EVERY 5 YEARS. I HAVE THE VIRUS AT LEAST 35 YEARS. DO YOU GUYS THINK ITS A BETTER IDEA TO TAKE THE MEDS.

[cougareyes]

Thank you for being honest about your treatment experiences. I do hope you guys find some release and peace. I just started, shot #2 sun nite, and I'm having a horible time. I weigh 175 and taking 180mcg peg, 1200mg riba.
The thing about these post is sometimes people change there stories. I've have read some posters acting as tx is a piece off cake, then reading one of their post from a year ago and find a completely different story.
I understand you cbee by not wanting to scare anyone, and I know everyone reacts diferently to tx. My Dr. warned me that I would probably feel alot worse when I started tx. There are so many variables that go into deciding to treat and how a person will fair on treatment.
For me I know tx is the right thing, I was already getting pretty sick before tx. I wish everyone here well, this board has helped me tremendously.  
thanks for listening

[cuteus]

a big difference seems to be which peg you are on, Pegasys is less of a hell from what I read.
This forum helped me stay the course, and the vicoprofen for aches. Those were my lifelines...and of course, my beautiful daughter.
don't be afraid to ask your dr for effective pain meds, you need to feel close to being a human. and don't let the anemia disable you, many drs wait until you are near transfusion status before intervening.
it will be over soon and then you will not remember much of what this year was like. That is why some sound like they had a breeze, We forgot the actual hell we endured. The fog is a blessing in this case!
Honestly, I can not remember how bad I felt then, my hair is back, my skin does not look ashen, Summer is not killing me,,,,I guess I do remember some stuff, lol.
You be well

[cbee]

This is my own experience.  I have had a horrible time on tx.  I am 47, female, geno 2.  Grade 1, Stage 2.  Have done 26 weeks (there is some confusion about my 12 week sensitive PCR).  Am doing only 2 more shots.  Knowing what I know now, I would wait.  Unfortunately, there are those who can't and I understand that.  You've got to treat if the alternative is much worse.  This has been debilating both physically and mentally.  I've lost 50% of hair, look like a walking zombie, am obsessive/compulisive, have lost the ability to sleep or think straight and fly off the handle with little provocation.  I could not work full time after 3 months and now am on disability.  I shoot Procit and Neupogen along with the peg and riba.  Yes, my doctors have prescribed various things for the sides but they don't help much.  Truly my quality of life sucks.

The worst part is the lack of compassion and sympathy.  You really find out who your friends are when you go through something like this. I guess people understand chemo with cancer but they don't get it with the HCV.  I've done this alone (my poor 13 year old son has had to deal with so much this past 6 1/2 months), no family and friends dropping like flies.  

It's true that a lot of people don't have a response that has been as bad as mine.  But we are out there.  I've started to tell you all about it several times but didn't want to scare people.  I guess censoring myself wasn't fair to me or others since we are supposed to be able to speak truthfully here.  I hope to return to the pretty woman I used to be.  I hope my brain slows down and I will be able to sleep again.  I hope I will enjoy things again, and most of all to be the loving mom I used to be.  Time will tell.  

Thanks for listening.

-cbee

[Moeymitt]

just a quick post here, I will come back later, be careful about doing the Fibrosure (blood test they are using in place of bx) I had both, one bx 3.5 years ago and one bx last week, along with The blood test one month ago. BX read the same Grade 2, stage 1, Fibrosure read score of 75, Fibrosis, possible Cirosis. When I get the paper work from Doctor I will post word for word. I took the Fibrosure test to 3 different GI's they all said not a good diagnostic tool.

[cuteus]

I hope so, they have been saying something similar for the last 10 yrs. Hopefully nothing will halt the trials. There is no guarantee that the side effects of those meds will be easier, from what some of  those in the new trials have shared here.
good luck

[Califia]

I applaud your honesty, you two:  it's so important that we enter this treatment with our eyes wide open about all the risks and benefits.  It ain't no picnic, that's for sure, and we have no clue as to what the long-term effects on an aging body might be.   Some of us had no choice, and were grateful that with the development of pegylated interferons, "success" rates (for geno 1's) actually increased from about 10% to 45%.   But that's just some of us--and if I were in my late 50s, had weathered the dramatic hormonal shifts of menopause without an escalation of the disease course _and_ had minimal liver damage--I would choose not to treat with pharmaceuticals.  But that's a personal decision, and I don't mean to offer any grand ideological position on this.  I am merely speaking from my own experience.  Treatment is very hard, both physically and mentally.   I am always amused by doctors who report that very few of their patients have had "serious" side effects.  If one does, like my friend M. who suffered a heart attack two days after taking her last shot, there's inevitably a lot of mumbling about proving causality and maybe yes, maybe no, and sure, there's no reason not to treat again.   (And she will, as soon as she can take a year off from work.)  Short of a heart attack, or blindness, there are merely flu-like symptoms--isn't that the party line?   Those of us who have been through it know better.