What fantastic news!! That is incredible, I am so happy for you. After all you have been through, getting such positive news must feel great! It is very encouraging to me! Thanks for making my day! Your site has been invaluable to me during my treatment. Thanks you so very much for your great site and funny take on things, it has pulled me out of the blues many times this past year.
Thanks for sharing this with us and it gives hope to us who relapsed. I got the news yesterday.
Beagle
Damn, that is extremely comforting news for those in which TX does not provide an SVR...
So what plans you have for future tx? What kind of mad scientist brew are you compiling now?
One of my Dr's at the UM actually went as far as stating that the inteferon itself uses the collagen in the liver scar tissue as a catalyst.. That it feeds off it.
great news man, hope you continue with the trend!!
The last time you and I spoke it was about writing and you trying maintenance. So I'm assuming maintenance helped with your liver buffness, this is wonderful news to me, I begin maintenance in about two weeks, and the cherry on top is to hear how well you are doing.
The girl with your favorite girl's name of all time,
Jackie/Willow
That's wonderful news. Congratulations and stay well. Mike
I hope today is a bit better. I know how devastating the news is, once your mourning phase eases I hope you can remain positive. You will find a new doctor or a new avenue to take. Don't let this virus "win" by keeping you down. You are still recovering from treatment! Hang in there, you have such a positive spirit and always offer people hope, which is what I offer you now. Keep that "you can do it" spirit up for yourself that you always offer to others. This is just a bump in the road. Wishing you the best.
Andrew, I followed your story for so long and am delighted to hear the news. Your liver healing itself is a miracle indeed. I will continue to keep you in my prayers.
Valorie
do the "cotton eye joe" dance or something! that is great news! It is about time good news come from all your treatments!
Snatched back from the abyss. Hallelujah! You're going to be one heck of an eighty year old & I hope to be there to hear your stories. Way to go, man.
THanks for posting that Miles. Congratulations - such great encouraging news.
Snook: Looking into the inti-fibrosing proprties on INF, I found <a href'"http://www.urologyhealth.org/adult/index.cfm?cat=11&topic=50">this tidbit:</a>.
<i>Interferon: The use of these naturally-occurring antiviral, antiproliferative and anti-tumorigenic glycoproteins to treat Peyronie's disease was born out of experiments demonstrating the antifibrotic effect on skin cells of two different disorders
hey, lotsa stuff to like about your site, great info, and it's AMUSING! gotta have amusing, or this stuff is a tad depressing...and now you give us this wonderful news!!! this will cheer up a great many people who have done multiple treatments and not SVRed...bully for you!!! this is great...
And I've always liked your name, very impressive....
Thanks to everyone for your lovely, supportive responses. It's great to "see" you all, and for those of you who have never visited my website before now, thank you so much for taking the time to read.
My biopsy report is somewhat of a miracle - there's no doubt about that. My doctor was shocked. He and I are close, so even though he tried his best NOT to leave a message on my service (confidentiality), he was like, "I got your biopsy report. Call me." Then he was like, "Okay, it's VERY good news." Then he said, "Look, I just talked to the pathologist at the hospital. This is what he said..."
So I went by to see Dr. Liverman yesterday and I saw him only for a minute, but he was clearly excited about the results, and I'll be seeing him soon so we can discuss the implications for future treatment. He's got some stuff up his sleeve that I really cannot share yet, but I've always beleived the answers were right in front of us.
So to all of you who have done major treatment and failed to clear, hopefully IFN has done you some good.
Health and blessings to you all.
Miles
BTW, yes "Jackie" is my favorite female name ever. My second favorite is "Natalie." I used them both in my first novel.
Thanks, I needed to hear that and hope this feeling leaves me soon. I know I need a new plan but the problem as my dr pointed out that doing tx longer for me is not an option with my HGB so low. Even now my HGB is 10.8, 3 months post. I am redoing the PCR, he already mailed it to me. Now the question is where to go? I've always went to Quest.
Beagle
CONGRATULATIONS! Your experience gives hope to so many. Take good care.
I know it is slow, slower than we would like! But it IS coming up and you are very much still in the recovery phase. I bet you see it inch up each time you check. It WILL stabilize and in the meantime you can forget it and enjoy you life, your wife and your tx free life! I would think with Thal it might take awhile but you will get that Hgb back up. Your damage isnt too bad, you can reconoiter. I bet your doctor will discuss what to do whe your Hgb is better. He was willig to go where others weren't before, he is just being safe and watching out for you. If he doesn't work out you will find a doctor who will. Try not to let despair win. This is when our optimism is put to the test. You have pulled me ( and many others) up when we needed it, I know it is hard to apply that to ourselves. Do something nice for yourself, maybe plan a trip or buy that item you have been wanting.
Congrats Miles. You deserve it.
Reading your recent post....what information can you provide about iron overload? I see that you did some blood letting. I too have had high iron that doesn't seem to concern my doc, but it does me.
Mike
OOOOOOUUUCH!!!! Interesting blurb, but man, glad I took my injections in my tummy...
Great news..............how did the biopsy go? I am sure "they" will want me to get another biopsy at some point in future, especially if i go into some trial. I went the 48 weeks TX with about 90 weeks of maintenance.............or at least it will be about 90 weeks when I finish in 3 weeks.
Congratulations on your encouraging biopsy results!
I've thrown around the idea myself of more frequent VL testing with the intent of jumping into treatment at the bottom of the curve. Definitely does sound like a plan, however, given your past experience with Peg, I would think you might be waiting until next year to take a peek at SVR data from the Vertex trials.
Nice Blog BTW and regarding your "lost" novel, you might want to contact Drivesavers. http://www.drivesavers.com/enterprise_solutions/index.html
They can literally -- and have -- retrieve data off a drive submerged under water. They bailed me out once when the local computer store told me all was lost. Somewhat pricey but maybe worth a call.
All the best.
-- Jim
Just to tag Jim's comment, I took heavy amounts of lactoferrin for four months before starting tx in order to get the VL down as low as possible.
Great Miles, I'm happy for you. Susan
To me the best news about MK's biopsy is that he no longer HAS cirrhosis. That is incredible.
Fibrosis progression from HCV is nonlinear..There is no table or rule of thumb to predict rate of progression between stages. It might take one person 7-10 years to go from stage 1 to stage 2, then that same person might progress from stage 2 to stage 4 within 10..
One of my DR's stated the exact same thing Rev's Dr stated, that when a person is at stage 3, the median time for progression to stage 4(cirrhosis), is 18 months.. Once things start backing up, and damage is severely effecting function, progression advances rapidly. Of course that would only be relevant to someone not treating, etc.