newly diagnosed

[kiowa806]

i have been newly diagnosed.My viral load is 5,000,000.My alt is 463 my ast 189,What does this all mean and what should I ask my Liver specialist that i will see next week. i am scared

[mikey61]

Hep C is curable? As in completely out of your system(blood)???

[mj6000]

The good news is Hep C is treatable and curable probably in a majority of cases. I had a viral load of 4.6 million with high enzymes like you but currently under treatment I'm undetectable and have low enzymes. There is much to learn about Hep C and the more you learn the better you'll feel. Ask your specialist to explain your bloodwork tests and what they mean to you. Make sure the Dr tells you what genotype you are. Have you visited any other sites? Here are a couble of good sites to check out as well.

http://janis7hepc.com/

http://www.hepatitis-central.com/

The best to you.

[nygirl7]

Your liver enzymes are extremely high.  This means that right now most likely quite a bit of damage is being done to your liver.  You need to ask how soon you will be having a liver biopsy to determine how much damage has already been done. An ultrasound will let you know if you have tumors or cancer or something but you need the biopsy to determine the level  of fibrosis or cirrhosis.  It is NOT painful as it sounds it would be.

Then once you know how much liver damage you have you can determine if you need to start treatment immediately or if you have some time to wait and see if the new drugs are released shortly.

there are lots and lots of questions but you need to take one step at a time and just go from there.  The good news is hepc is treatable and you can be cured. It's not fun but it can work.

Good luck.