Hep C is not a death sentence

[burned74]

Hep C is not a death sentence!! Last week I saw a friend's dad. He is a very sprite and healthy 90 years old. He thinks he got hep C from a blood transfusion when he was in his 30s. Thats 60 years. He still drives, though not that much anymore. I dont think he found out until 10 or 15 years ago and he has never beeen treated.

[burned74]

You are all correct, of course.

Everyone has an incurable fatal disease. Its called life. Some of us will die earlier from Hep C  than we would have otherwise. Many of us will not.

We are not a lot diifernet than smokers. My grandfather , a heavy smoker, lived until he was 100. A buddy, a light smoker, died of lung cancer when he was just 55.

We just never know.

[nygirl7]

Thank God it is not alwaysa necessarily a death sentence.  With numbers from 3mil to 5 million in the US alone infected by this disease.....it'd be pretty tragic.  But since we don't know if we will be one of the statistics or not - this is why we proactively treat to the best of our ability.  Thank God we can try to extend our lives in this manner.

[Bali05]

my dad is 82 and GT1 , found out he had it @70 during an operation

never treated (odds at the time were dismal) had him do a FibroScan

beginning of this year. F1

When we meet and go out for dinner he eats a nice steak and a couple of glasses

of red wine and drink sparkling water and stick with poultry.

I am currently on tx geno4  and about half his age.

My last 2 FibroScans were the same as his.

[RobertBeWell]

There are some folks who just never have any issues, despite being infected. My hepatologist tells me that in some 20-30% of people, the virus never causes any damage, despite their being chronically infected.

Super cool story. May we all have that much good fortune.

[spectda]

Hi-
Thats a really wonderful story!

Sadly as I am sure you realize it doesn't always work that way and it is the number 1 cause of liver transplants in the us and I believe europe. A lot of us on the forum are here because we just found out we have the disease and need information, or because our disease is advancing and we are doing our best to find a way to eradicate it or slow the progression.

It's nice to see someone post something positive like this.
Dave