new guy in need of some advice

[e2]

Hello All,
I'm new to all this and was hoping to find out what you guys would do in my situation. I found out I have hep c a few years ago and now have a viral load count of 13 million. that's hi I know. However, I don't have any liver damage because i guess i've only been positive for a few years. Anyways, I am about to finish college and start a new career. I am a designer and have been very successful internationally (before even finishing school) and have several lucrative job offers. My field is very competitive and requires one's complete devotion. Its basically all i do. In a few months I will be starting to work at a studio. I don't want to start my career with the side effects from interferon. I could destroy it before it really starts. If anyone could describe the steps that occur during interferon treatment that would be great. Also, if anyone could describe - considering my present state how the virus progresses without interferon that would be good as well.
I am considering waiting until after I've been working a while to start interferon. Also if you guys could define some of the more complex lingo that you use here it would help. One last thing. I've gathered that this microscopic silver solution is a hack, but what about all those testimonials. Do you guys think those are just completely made up?

[cuteus]

it is so true that we can find a study for almost any point we want to  make, and they can be contradicting in content. I do agree with Andy that HCV should be reclassiefied as a blood infection more so than a liver infection> HCV is more systemic than presently thought.
One of the studies presenting lower SVR rates in private practice, stated using a length of tx of 29 wks, maybe that plus undercompliance can account for the disparity between theirs and the drug co data?
Then you get the recent study of following up long term svr and the actual SVR rates as measured by the serum rna;
http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/Hepatitis/tb/2152
and the one I like to read about durability of SVR with no findings of HCV in intrahepatic tissue, plus many other studies showing HCV is not persistent
http://www.natap.org/2005/HCV/010505_02.htm

I guess you can find a study to back almost any claim

[couldn't think of a nickname]

I think he said 100's

[andyarundel]

Now your a doc treating 1000's of patients. What next?

Anyway, I'm a touch busy, have to feed the Corgi's and check on Charles. Being the Queen of England does have its moments.

Have a wonderful day.

[couldn't think of a nickname]

I think we should be careful not to point to any one study, as there are always those that contradict. Some of the studies cited above are very small, and we know nothing about those in the studies. I would point out something interesting that VRTX has said, and that is they believe they can drive the virus down to below 10 copies IN THE BODY-they first said blood, then quickly corrected themselves. That is a question I have for them, but I have not had a phone call returned yet. One thing that should also be pointed out about small molecule drugs, is that they have a better chance of getting inside compartments than large molecule drugs do. One of the big problems with lyme's disease is the blood/brain barrier-a tough thing for any pharma. Most drug molecules are too large to penetrate that protective barrier.
I would point out before we remain doom and gloom, is that I would like to see those same studies done with the PI small molecule drugs.

[andyarundel]

This is a blanket statement. "I guess we should just disregard completely what you so eloquently dumped on this forum when you make statements like"....

The statements I made are to the best of my recollection true, and based on many years working in the HCV community, attending and chairing many HCV conferences. Working closely with drug companies and researchers in the HCV field. If you care to debate any of my opinions, by all means please do so. If you are suggesting I just found this stuff on the internet..well enjoy that thought.

By the way, what do you feed your elephant?

[jmjm530]

We are indeed flying (or let's say injecting :)) in the dark when it comes to tx outcome.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to my doc about how many weeks would be optimum for me to treat. After going back and forth about the 36-week rule and the 46-week rule I (didn't even know that one existed LOL ) -- almost as an aside he said that what I really needed was a special blood test to determine what kind of t-cell response I was having.

We didn't have a lot of time to get into the test, but his basic point was (in my mangled words) was that some people during treatment have a profound t-cell response and some only have a spiked response to the interferon. The test can differentiate between the two.  Those with spiked responses will tend to relapse. He went on to say that this particular test is only available in a couple of research labs around the world. The tone of his voice was telling -- we just don't really know with what we got to work with today.

But whether it be more study into pre-tx genetic predictors, or more sophisticated early treatment testing like with the t-cells, anything that helps take the guesswork out of tx outcome would be a blessed relief to all of us. It's really hard to plug into the risk/reward equation when we're somewhat uncertain on either.

-- Jim