im confused

[jared1414]

i dont know where to start ok i know where, the first time i gave blood the results came back with hep c i thought it was a messup so i threw the paper away then i went to the hostpital and gave blood again and once again the paper said i have hep c,once after that i went to my docter he took my blood and has imformed me that i have hep c,i just wan't to know how long does it take until i start seeing the syptoms?

[fretboard]

Thanks for enlightening me on the light responses, somebody has told me about that before and it may have been you.  LOL  Hey some of it sticks and some of it don't, take care friend.

[Trish77]

fret, I think you'll find that weekends are light on responses and particularly when the weather is good!!  :)

Trish

[Trish77]

Thanks fret... I saw this post in the middle of the night and wanted to answer but just didn't have the brainpower at the time.  

Jared,

I'm sorry for your diagnosis.  You ARE in good company here, however.  By that, I mean that there is tons of experience to go around as you sort this all out for yourself.

So...you've just begun.  You've got a diagnosis for Hepatitis C.  I'll try not to overwhelm you with the following:

First...you need to know if you've been detected for antibodies for Hep C or active Hepatitis C.  Sometimes people have antibodies only, which means their immune system has managed to fight off the virus on it's own.. happens in around 15% of the population...my numbers might be a little bit off but that's the general figure.

The way you know if you have antibodies only or active Hep C virus, which is known as chronic Hepatitis C (don't let that "chronic" word scare you), is to get a PCR blood test done.  That will tell you if you have active Hep C or not.  IF you have active Hep C,  it will tell you what your genotype is - there are various strains of Hep C and they are defined by genotype - and it will tell you what your viral load is - how much of the virus resides within a ml of your blood - it is NOT linear, so it doesn't mean that the higher the number, the worse off you are.  It's something that gets paid attention to particularly if you decide to go for treatment and I'll leave viral load at that.

So....I'm wondering if you've had the PCR test that determines if you have active Hep C and if yes, what your genotype is.  

Please post back so we'll know how much more information to throw at you.  I don't want to overload you right now!

You asked when symptoms would show up.  Well, you can go for YEARS without showing any symptoms at all.  Hepatitis C slowly deteriorates your liver and your liver can hold up for awhile without you noticing that anything is amiss.  

In that regard, if you found out by accident, rather than because symptoms are displaying, consider yourself very lucky.  There is a good chance that you've caught it early enough to have the time to educate yourself about your options and make good choices for yourself.

IF you have active Hep C.  There IS treatment for this, so find out first if you have active Hep C ...and then you can direct your energies appropriately based on the outcome of that.

Good luck and take care.

Trish

[fretboard]

I'm surprised nobody else has anything to add, I'll move you back to the top of the line, when you open the forum you can only see the top few.  Moving you to the top may get a little activity going.  So how long ago did you find out you were HepC positive?  later

[fretboard]

Sorry about your newly discovered bad news, it's not a death sentence.  You are young and it is treatable, the treatment is better for the young so I hear.  Some never have symptoms so the question about when you will have some symptoms, is not going to be answered.  I don't think, I'm fairly new to this forum as well, but I've read alot about it.  You're from my part of California and there are a few younger people on this forum as well.  I'm not a youngster, your lucky in that you can educate yourself and decide how you're gonna deal with it.  I'm from Sacramento, you can try to go to UCD Davis University Hospital.  Right across the street, like kitty corner from there like on T Street and Stocton Blvd. is the clinical trial site.  Read some of the posts, if you're interested  go to the link  www.clinicaltrials.gov.  I know it's tough and it takes awhile to accept, however don't let it control your life.  God Bless