VL gone up ????

[copyman]

hi, i just got back my baseline pcr and labs. labs all look good and got the ok to start tx. but i'm worried because my vl more then doubled since june when i was dx'd with hcv. my vl was 9 million then and this vl was almost 20 million! what would cause this jump in such a short time? i had the hep "A" vaccination about 3 weeks before this pcr, i think i had read it can cause the vl to go up, does anyone know about this or have any other explanation for this? is it worth me even attempting tx because i'm also 1a and now with this high vl thats 2 strikes against me acheiving svr. i was all geared up and ready to start tx then this. this damn disease just never lets up !!! you start to feel good and then get knocked back down. thanks for all your help here.

49M
1a
1/1
labs all normal
prob had this about 20 yrs

[jmjm530]

Maybe my last post was unclear, but your viral load may not have increased at all. It just may be that the test is not all that sensitive per the reference cited in my previous post.

[bobbyullc]

if you are only a stage 1/1 you also have the option of waiting a year or two to see when the new drugs will be come available. they are looking good. if you had hep for 20 years you are a slow responder and could wait a while to see. i would love to have your numbers.
bobby

[jmjm530]

Ditto to what Bobby said. Vertex SVR data should be available in about 1 year, if not sooner.

[merlino]

Is it harder to achieve SVR if you have a high VL or the more liver damage you have the harder it is? My VL has gone up and down over the years also. I am starting tx next month. It always scares me to see my Vl go up. Last time it was 4mil.

[GrandOak]

My VL for tx:

Base   - 72 million
week 8 - 2.4 million
week 12 - 1.8 million
week 24 - 2.9 million

We've attributed the changes to a riba reduction from 1200 mg to 600 mg at wk 5 and a slow increase to return to 1200 on wk 20.

Now that I've gone to 1400 mg on wk 26 we are re-starting from then looking for 2 log VL drop from original 72 million in 12 wks (or wk 38, but most likely wk 39 if I stick with 6 wk doc follow-up).  If that turns out promising, then I've only got 65 more weeks of fun without sun on the HCV Peg/Riba/Procrit/Neupogen cocktail.  I only hope that I don't need to start looking at adding a red-packed transfusion chaser into the mix, upon which I'm riding the fence right now.

Bottomline, it seems VL jumps around and that YES riba most definitiely seems to figure into the formula.  I guess the overall goal is to see an overall decrease to UND, but that is not linear.  In fact, most studies I've seen do claim more of an exponential drop at start of tx with a gradual approach to a linear drop as tx progresses.

[Tater-ToT]

VL can go up & down own it's own....
I had been infected approx 23 years before starting TX, I had little to No Liver Damage & treatment was optional both times!

Originally my VL was almost 5 million.... when I relapsed it quickly jumped up to 6 thousand & two weeks later before I restarted TX the baseline had dropped to 1000 on it's own!

Maybe our bodies try to fight it off naturally on it's own so we get spikes occationally..??? I Dunno, VL has nothing to do with amount of liver damage or lack there of...I guess one guess is as good as another, yet it happens all the time!

To start TX, or to wait with low to no damage is certainly a personal choice as there is no way of predicting when or how fast it will progress... & the lower the VL & the younger we are the better the chance at beating it... & none of us are getting any younger...

If I should relapse again, I will be waiting on the newer drugs, but merely due to financial reasons!

Glad you got the Okay to get started... good luck with your decission "If" you are trying to make one!
:)