Newbie

[1dayatime626]

Hi everyone.. I  came into contact with hep c positive blood in june 09 was diagnosed in dec 09 hep c positive  started treatment march 23 and on april 10 blood work i was undetected.... Viral load was very low but all my blood work was finally in the normal zone since dec... Doc told me today i had a decision to make reguarding treatment... Can spot at 24 weeks with a 40% success rate or go till feb which will be a 50% rate wondering what you all may think....I hate the treatment, but not sick at all bad cough since I started treatment alittle moody feel like i am lazy and got thrush  all the time.... So I guess i cant complain compared to others but still dont know what to do ....

[Marcia2202]

LOL....ashes... I can see you are really brain fogged.... Oh my, oh my... do I remember being totally out of it. Often I didn't even know what the heck I was talking about. Starting a sentence and getting stuck. Thank God I had a good sense of humor and family who understood. Never felt so stupid.

You just gotta laugh at yourself when it gets bad.

You will be able to start thinking again after finishing treatment. :-)

[FlGuy]

The ashes are figurative, representing the mental clarity loss.  It gets better.

[1dayatime626]

Havent experienced that as of yet....and hope i dont  doesnt sound to good

[FlGuy]

"ashes on your pillow'  the residue of the poor little brain cells being fried by the treatment meds.  We all go through it.  The result:  the brain fade you're feeling.

[1dayatime626]

Sorry ashes

[1dayatime626]

What do you mean shes on my pillow?

[1dayatime626]

I knew when typing out my post i wasnt adding enough but i did the best i could come up with lol. And i know i should be greatful reguarding the treatment but i dont what to have brain fog forever because of the meds... this is why i am full of questions related to length.....And thank you for your replys

[Marcia2202]

Thanks for all your explanations. And sorry, I was confused with the 2.6 before.... I didn't mean to cause confusion with it.

According to studies done in Europe you would be eligible to do treatment for 24 weeks.

You could also decide to do 36 weeks. Just thinking of something in between. Ask your doctor what he thinks.

I believe that the less time one exposes oneself to the drugs than one absolutely has to, the better.

I wish you really all the best in deciding what to do...

[1dayatime626]

I got all blood results and only once did my white count go down but back t normal now.... everything looks normal  like a uninfected persons blood so they tell me.. hard to believe with the way my body feels at times

[1dayatime626]

yes he is also geno type 1  and has been infected since 2005 started treatment but it didnt work so they stopped it ... ya well i am so hoping to be done with this in the 24 week mark i got thrush  all the time i hate it!!!

[FlGuy]

Although getting blood covered is not a usual route to get hcv, what seems to sound like the Acute Stage at least in the ballpark.

Do you know if hubby is also Geno 1?

The very low viral load (anything in the 3.0 log neighborhood) was good news and becoming undetected in about 3 weeks (possibly sooner) is even better news.

I'd really think about shortenting the treatment to less than 48 weeks, but I'm not a doctor.

The brain fade you are expereinceing is not at all uncommon with the treatment drugs, you might even wake up with ashes on your pillow.  But, stick with the med schedule - shots and pills on time.

The doc whould also hve you doing some routine blood work (like CBC) to make sure that the treatment meds are not really whacing your blood chemistry.

Good luck.

[1dayatime626]

Doctor gave me the numbers for old viral load and told me to use a calulator for long form 2.89 i think it was but I am not sure how to do that.Been lookin online but no luck yet... They also told me  it was a low viral load but seeing some of the numbers on here makes me wonder... Am I in the millions.... I read so much stuff and half of it dont make since and i get frusterated easily  since i started these meds and i give up before i get what i am looking for... I can call at anytime to ask questions but  i end up forgetting what they say and dont get a chance to write it down fast enough.... That has got to be the worest side effect for me, my brain seems so slow at times. And thats why they printed me off the results of blood work so I could look and research but not having luck until I joined this group, which by the way I am so glad I did.. I wanted to for awhile but thought I would hide from the fact I am hep C positive , I think I needed just alittle time to except this ... Now I am ready to learn all I can for myself and my kids... Thank yu FIGuy for taking ur time to help me understand  what I am going through.....

[1dayatime626]

My ex had a car accident in june 24 09 and left hospital with IV piece still in arm he pulled it out and was bleeding I plugged the spot with my thumb but not fast enough and both he and I were covered in his blood I was ok until Oct 09 and became very ill turned a very bright yellow and stayed like so for almost 2 weeks then things started to come around  nov 15 i turn the same shade of yellow  and that lasted a week.... Ex knew he was HVC but didnt tell me  with all the blood work I had done I found out in Dec I was positive.....And I had blood work done the morning I had my first injection and that night I took my first 3 pills...

[FlGuy]

Just a little clarification.  You said you started treatment on March 23, right?  Was March 23 the first date of of your first injection of Interferon and the first day you took ribavirin?

I see that the HCV viral load (Roche Monitor) results are also dated March 23.  Did you have that test on the same day that you started the injections and the pills?  If you remember, which did you do first that day - have the blood test or take the Interferon injection?

And, you said you 'came into infected blood'.  What does that mean?

[1dayatime626]

Answer a few of ur questions... Yes I came into  infected blood in june of 09 but showed no symptons until oct 09 was diagnosed in dec 09 and started treatment in march 2010.. And my blood results were for after the first few weeks of treatment... date march 23 first day of treatment may my blood work was verified on april 21 so it was only a few weeks

[1dayatime626]

Yes viral load really low.. And the doc gave me some time to make a decision ..24 weeks or 48 he reccommends 48 of course but said I had a chance at 24. And I agree somewhat with the 48 cause if I dropped it at 24 and it relasped then I guess I will never know. And each time I go to the doc we talk so much that I forget things and when I get home my brain is all jummbled with imformation and this is why i looked for a blog .. thank you guys for all your answers you have been very helpful. I also asked for a print off so I could look at the paperwork myself  so I have it here..and this is what the bottom says...

Final Report
Verifirf 2010/03/23
HVC viral load (Roche Monitor) results
HCV RNA dected
2.89 Lot IU/ml of serum

then then the next one says

Final Report
Verified 2010/05/05
HCV viral load (Roche Monitor) results
HCV RNA not detected

I also got the rest of my blood work and everything is in normal range and has been since dec 2009


Thank you to everyone who is taken the time to help me with this....

[Marcia2202]

When I read 2.6 I thought of 2.6 million...

If it was in a log format, then it looks like 24 weeks would be a great possibility

[FlGuy]

Some things are not clear.  Are you saying that you became hcv infected since June 2009?  And, and what is viral load 2.6?  (is that in log format? which would be about 400 iu/ml).   And, was the 4 week viral load test (actually looks like 2 or 3 weeks to me) the first one after treatmant began?

If the answers to all those are yes I'm pretty sure that I would be thinking about a short course of treatment.

[Marcia2202]

You now have a 90% chance of succeeding treatment, if you go for the 48 weeks.

You actually do not qualify for doing only 24 weeks, as you started with a high viral load.

400.000 and below is considered a low viral load.

[Diane12855]

I have to go the 48 weeks too. I understand your wanting to stop early, but with a 10% better chance of never having to do this again if you hang in there... I'd go the 48 weeks. If you stop early and then relapse, you will never know if it was your choice that made you have to go through this again.

That's just my thoughts... I was wrong once before but..............

[1dayatime626]

Geneotype 1 starting viral load was 2.6 and week 4 was UND but i want to stop this meds i hate it..... But i guess I got to do what i got to do if I want to be rid of this forever.....

[Marcia2202]

I assume you are a genotype 1.

If you were RVR (undetected by 4 weeks of treatment) your chance of curing the disease with 48 weeks of treatment, should be 90%. I don't understand why your doctor told you it would be 50%. Unless you have advanced liver fibrosis.

New studies have shown that genotype 1 may treat for 24 weeks, but ONLY if they started with a low viral load and were RVR.

For the thrush, I was on a weekly time release tablet of fluconazole through the whole treatment. As soon as I would skip a dose, it would come back. So I stayed on it.

[Trinity4]

What genotype are you?  What was your starting viral load?  What week did you become UND?