need helpful answers

[jonney4141]

was just diagnosed as having hep c. my quantitation was 4,400,000 my hcv log10 was 6.643 my prothrombin time was 0.9 and my ast was 99 and alt was 109. i am having a liver biopsy monday and am very scared, does anyone know if this is serious by these numbers? thanks so much

[jonney4141]

just wanted to thank you all for your kind support and advice, i feel much better, and will keep you all posted. you all are also in my prayers. thanks again...
jonney4141

[fretboard]

Your VL is the same as mine, I just round it up to 4.5 million.  I freaked out when my load went from 2.5 to 4.5, it doesn't speak as loud as your biopsy will.  Your ALT and AST are of course higher than normal and mine weren't as high as yours.  I have taken two biopsies, last one in June of 2005.  I was told I was a grade 1, stage 1 to focally 2 fibrosis.  At the end of the month I will be having another biopsy because I'm trying to get into the Boceprevir trial and my biopsy is a little old.  A biopsy is more waiting than anything else, you will see the gear that they will use, they will hook you up to an iv drip and give you a valium or something.  I don't know what's in the drip.  They drape the area and what I did was keep my eyes closed thru almost the entire thing.  In other words, I didn't need, or want to watch.  All I felt was a little thud, It would be much like a chopstick tapping your belly then it's over.  That's it, it's really easy and you don't have to worry about it, when your done you have to wait a couple of hours.  Good luck, welcome and God Bless  

[HARRYBEADS]

Hello,
- it's one big smack in the head eh? being diagnosed with THE HEP, we have all received that smack to the head here.
  Your numbers are fine for your liver ,100 is elavated but not to bad, these indicate the degree of liver irratation. Healthy people are around 25, your hcv log is the number of little buggers in some unit of blood, high loads are concidered around 8 million and over low is around 2 million, but before I say anymore you have to understand that this number fluctuates alot so it's not to be taken to seriosly, but it's a good starting point to remember. So you are about average for that count,6 million, really everything is about average.

  Two things ya gotta do now are get geno typed ( think thats been done) and the biopsy. The biopsy is easy as everyone has said, they take two small sample that look like a small pink inch worm, and give you grades of damage, 1 to 4, you want a low one.

  Don't be scared, some people need help dealing with it, I'm talkin about me here, so they gave me antidepressants to lubricate the situation. Learn everything ya can about your geno types treatment and also look at not treating, it all depends on your situation.

  I also found out on Thanks giving weekend two years ago, finished my 48 week treatment last New years eve ( toasted my last shot) and killed all the little buggers.

         I'm cured of THE HEP1a, it was a peice of cake, a crappy cake but a peice of it.

Harry

[HCA]

Your prothrobin time is fine.Your transamines are somewhat elevated but not alarminly so.
Your viral load (which doesn't mean much) is not low,but  not but typical of chronic Hep C.
As previously noted the biopsy report will reveal how much liver damage you do or don't have.

[Trinity4]

As CMcH indicated, most people diagnosed with HCV should have a liver biopsy.  A liver biopsy is currently the most accurate method to assess liver damage.  An initial biopsy can be used as a baseline for future testing and evaluation.  A liver biopsy may show various levels of inflammation (irritation) and/or various levels of scarring (fibrosis/chrrhosis.)
In general, there is no correlaton between ALT levels and symptoms and pathology.  In other words, there is no clear relationship between symptoms, liver disease progression, liver enzymes, and viral load.
A liver biopsy is relatively painless.  The worst part is anticipation.  Most of us have been through it and afterwards wonder why we were so scared.  It's over in 30 seconds, then you wait several hours which for me was worse than the procedure.  Trust me on this, you won't have any problems with biopsy.  Your PT is a little low, don't know what the cut off is but I'm sure they will test you before biopsy.  Good Luck
Trinity

[CMcH]

The Biopsy should give you more info to go on. The Biopsy is not that bad but make sure to rest after. I made the mistake of doing it right b4 having Thanksgiving at my house for 15 people. I did to much and when steam cleaning the carpets at 10PM was in so much pain I had to go to the ER.
There are people who are more informed than I but your numbers are fairly common among people w/HCV.
Check out the Social living side they have a new thread that states peoples VL before, during and after TX. It also lists side effects. You will hear a million times everyone is different but it really helped me to prepare for TX.