12 week results

[stalion]

i just recieved my 12 week results my viral load was 1,156,203u/ml pretreatment it has decreased to 2,304u/ml my doctor say that is a 99.8% decrease.  he is recommending continuing treatment does this sound as good as he is saying? i sure do hope so

[pcds]

I can share with you  what my doc told me.  I am the same geno as you. Similiar VL at start. If detected at 12 weeks I am to discontinue tx bec there is little hope to get SVR.  Not rec 72 weeks.  I just completed my 12th shot.  This is just to let you know what others are hearing from their docs and not to influence you on what you do. Gather information here.
judy

[Magnum]

I would caution against Infergen. Maybe at the normal 15mcg dosage daily it may be alright, but others here like myself, have experienced very bad sides. I would suggest Infergen as the very last alternative. Otherwise, it's up to you...

Magnum

[sunshines76]

When I didn't clear by week 12, my doc was disapointed and suggested switching to infergen. He said it looked like pegasys didn't work for me, so switching to a different type of interferon would be a good idea. I agree with desrt - you need to ask those questions and then decide for yourself what you want to do. I am glad I switched to infergen, it works for me, and I am almost done with tx. You can certainly wait for pls, too.

[desrt]

Ask your doc how often he plans to check your viral load during the next 12 weeks, whether he has any ideas for creating a more aggresive tx approach, and at what point he would consider stopping tx and waiting for the release of the PIs if you don't show a better response soon.

[Trinity4]

Stalion, I'm glad to see the your vl has decreased to a couple thousand IU/mL but you are considered a slow responder if not UND by week 12.  Hopefully you'll become UND soon but you may want to consider extending to 72 wks because your odds of SVR are diminished at this point with 48 weeks and still no guarantees with 72 wks.  You definitely need a UND by 24 wks and perhaps a PCR every couple of weeks to see when you actually become UND.  A possibility is discontinuing treatment and waiting for the PI's to be released if your liver damage isn't too advanced.  I don't mean to discourage you but those are the facts.

How's your HGB?  Have you experienced big drops?  Not always, but low HGB is a good indicator your body is effectively metabolizing the ribavirin which gives us a good shove towards SVR.

Good Luck
Trinity