Newby just diagnosed with Hep C

[care_free]

I am a 19 year old female who has recently learned she is positive for Hepatitis C. I am being sent to a gastroenterologist on Tuesday and I do not know what to expect. Can anyone give me any insight? Thank you!!!

[Trinity4]

When you say you tested positive for hepc did you test postive for the antibodies and if so did they give you an additional blood test called HCV PCR RNA which determines if you have the active virus?  If you tested positive for antiobodies, there is a 15-20 percent chance your immunue system could have fought off the virus and you do not have the active hepc virus. You will always test postive for the antibodies, but not the virus.  If you have not had a PCR RNA test yet, that is the next step in the process.  That test will determine if the virus is active, the viral load count and genotype.
If you are postive by PCR RNA, because of your age and when you may have been exposed to the virus, he may not order a liver biopsy.  Most genotype 1's will have a biopsy to determine the extent of damage to the liver, but being 19 I can't say what your doctor may do.  Personally, I would want to know because hepc progresses very slowly and it usually takes many years before damage occurs to the liver.  You probably have time to wait before treating and there are new drugs on the horizon which look much more promising in eradicating the virus.  Read the archives of this forum which will provide a weath of information and here are several links which are very informative too.
www.janis7hepc.com
www.hcvadvocate.org  
Good Luck
Trinity

[Bill1954]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis. Are you sure you have been diagnosed for HCV? Often, there is confusion between positive antibody testing and the actual HCV RNA. Testing positive for antibodies means that you have been exposed at some point; from there, an HCV RNA test is generally ordered to test for active virus. Only then is the diagnosis complete.

If you have been formally diagnosed, the GI doc will probably help you determine whether treatment for the disease is a good idea for you right now. The treatment consists of the drug interferon, combined with the oral drug ribavirin; this combination is administered for about 6 to 12 months, and can be physically and emotionally challenging; it’s sometimes compared to cancer chemotherapy.

Not everyone that is diagnosed with HCV needs to undergo treatment; the severity and progression of disease is determined by the amount of damage your liver has sustained; this is generally determined by liver biopsy. That sounds frightening, but is much less traumatic than it sounds.

The initial consult with the specialist is normally just to find out where you are with the disease, and to determine a course of action. Until you get this straightened out, make sure to abstain from alcohol; it is a bad idea to mix booze with hepatitis.

A good resource to review is:

http://janis7hepc.com/

Start by reviewing “newly diagnosed” on the top of the page, or open any item of interest in the right-hand margin of the page. Continue to read and ask questions in here, too.

Best of luck to you—

Bill

[Robin2536]

I am 43 and just found out I am hepc. I too am interested in what to eexpect? are there different phases to this?