Blood Protein ALB Question

[TravisB]

I just got a blood test back by mail stating that my Blood Protein (ALB) was at the upper level of normal (47).  Anyone out there know what makes it go higher and lower and what being at the upper level means?  Anything I can do to lower it? What does the ALB stand for?  Other than ALTS all other liver related tests were normal. Thanks

[GI.PA]

Go up to the 8/2 post by Bicky to see my general stance on treatment.

If there is really no reason not to give it a try, it is worth the 50% chance of clearance.  Now with that said, if you started having a really rough time with sides I would have a low threshold for pulling you from treatment.  At that point, the risk...bad sides...outweighs the benifits (very slow progression over time..I mean a touch of fibrosis with an infection X 25 years is a great biopsy and really points to the group 3 I reference above).

Now with that said some things to remember:
1.  Standard monitoring would dictate that you have a repeat biopsy at your 3 year mark to compare to the prior.  One option it to await that biopsy and make your treatment decision based on that.  No change = No treatment. And then repeat biopsy every three years...treat when it changes or something better comes along.
2.  Be VERY warry about blaming the way you feel on your Hep C.  Can Hep C contribute to your feeling poorly, yes....But is it more likey to be work, anxiety, restlessness, job stuff, family stuff, getting a little older every year...not getting the five-a-day we need, not getting the 30 minutes of excersize 4-5 days per week, not getting the 40gm of fiber daily, not getting sex 2-3 X per week...ect.  And those are all the non-medical causes of "feeling crapy" which have much more data to support their correlation with "feeling crapy".  The medical list is even more extensive covering every organ system in the body.  Bottom line, dont treat just to get yourself out of "feeling crapy"..It just wont work.

There is strong data to suggest that if you look at 100 people without hep c and 100 people with hep c, they will have a simular percentage of fatigue, "feeling crapy", headaches, joint pains, depression, brain fog ect.  

So PLEASE treat for the right reasons or you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

Just an aside...viral load does not correlate with severity of disease.  True a low viral load is a little easier to treat than a high one. But those patients with high loads typically have no more liver damage than those with low loads.  A change from 361,000 to 2 million is significant but most likely does not signify more advanced disease.

Whew..I am long winded tonight!

Erin

[imblessed]

I would really like to hear what you might think of my situation. Although my bx. is two yrs. old I think I should go ahead with tx. If my viral load is over 2m then I know that it is working on somthing in my body. That is why I always feel like ****. I also know that it is slow acting, but if I have had it for over 25yrs. how much slower can you get. A 3% chance of damage does not outwiegh the 50% chance of clearing. A new aquaintance of mine finished tx in May and is going for her 6mths check in Nov. She told me she has not felt this good since she can remember. She is the same genotype as me.

[mikesimon]

I agree with willing. The recommended protocol for continual monitoring of hep c patients for fibrosis progression is bx every 2 to 3 years and I believe that 3 years is the common interval for evaluation through biopsy. Sonner than that doesn't provide enough time unless there are extenuating circumstances. Mike

[willing]

getting the acutual pathologist's score of your bx is pretty important before committing to tx. A two year bx is quite recent - I  think it would be difficult to find a GI who would order one more frequently than that for simple "monitoring" purposes in the absence of other indicators (there's about a 3% risk of serious complication with each bx). Liver damage from hcv is slowly progressive for most people. Before signing up for all the cost and aggravation of the tx coin toss I'd make sure there was some solid evidence of progressive deterioration (my last biopsy was A2F2, complications were getting worse, and I'm turning 50 so I've signed up - but not sure I would have based on viral count alone).

[imblessed]

Thanx for the advice. I am gonna go ahead with tx. My viral load two years ago was 361250. So it has gone up. I called my ins. company yesterday to find out if they had any stipulations or if I would run into any unforseen problems and they said no. Only thing is, there is a $5000 cap on meds. So I have to come up with other resources. I figure that a 50% chance of clearing is better than a 0% which I have right now. Thanks again for your incouragment.