Thank you for sharing with me. I went through tx. 3 times, I had SVR in Oct.99; then the Dragon flared again in 2002 (that's when the biopsy finally got done). My first doctor I was sent to was a CLASS A jerk who never explained a thing to me and told me I was "too fat" for a liver biopsy; this of course, enraged my new and present doctor who ordered everything done that should have been to begin with!
Anyway, I unfortunately failed to clear with tx's 2 and 3, and my viral load actually started climbing, my platelets were bottoming out and I was sicker than I had ever been. So, now I'm monitored every six months (for cancer, and other problems) in the event I don't come in first with a new symptom(s) present.
But, I am okay in general for the stage I'm at, and I just do whatever I have to do (such as a healthy diet, getting plenty of rest, etc.) to keep myself as well as possible. I am grateful that I still am able to work full-time at a sit-down job. I have also been able to use what I am going through to testify before the House Legislative Committe where I live on behalf of others who have Hep C.
Again, thank you both for your input to help me in my journey fighting this Dragon!
Yes. I had 3/4 liver damage too and had undiagnosed vitamin D deficiency due to my liver being unable to convert vitamin D to the form that was useable by the body to maintain bones. I then had the situation worsen by having long term malabsorption caused by a medication (diarrhea keeps gut from being able to absorb vit. D). I cleared the virus and liver got well enough to process the vitamin, but malabsorption problem continued long enough to cause considerable bone loss. A bone scan showed considerable bone loss and bloodtest showed only 32 for vit. D level (normal is 30-80).
I take fosamax to slow down bone break down and am on 2000 units vitamin D plus 1500 mg of calcium to provide plenty of building materials to restore the lost bone mass. My vitamin D3 level is now up to nearly 43 and I feel confident that bone is repairing. It took a couple of months on high D to normalize everything and stop the bone loss. The good news is that bone loss from Vit. D deficiency is completely repairable. Probably a good idea to treat the Hep C if possible so that your liver can do a better job of turning vitamin D into it's bone-friendly form.
Vitamin D deficiency is a pretty common issue among those with Hep C. There are several threads on this site regarding it. I don't know that there are any "long term effects" from it, as long as you get the levels up to where they should be.
What I am curious about is that your biopsy results those grades/stages are pretty far along - their certainly not minimal - did your doctor not suggest treating this disease?
You might want to consider asking your physician if the time is right to try and stop this disease.
Good luck.