Does Everyone Here Believe In Treating ASAP

[betteblue49]

I was diagnosed in 1995, when after my biopsy I was told I could wait since I only had mild inflamation of the liver. I was also told by my dr at the time, that I could wait until I was sicker, hmmm. I choose not to wait until I was sicker, Mono-interferon was the only drug available back then, and the protcol was 6mths. I did not respond and was labled a non_responder

I found another dr. and he put me back on for 1 year and I did respond, however, 7 months post tx I relapsed. To say that it was discouraging would be putting it mildy. However, I licked my wounds and went for my 3rd round, which was 18 months. Many times, I wonder what if I would have accepted being labled a non-responder, what condition would my liver be in now...

Happy to say, my tx journey ended in 1998 and May 16, 2007 I reached 9 years of being cured, yes I dare to use to "C" word.  

Getting back to my question, do must of you feel that tx is necessary and that you should not wait....

[jmjm530]

BB:Guess I should have posed it another way. Why do people feel they can wait to tx HCV, when if you were diagnosed with another illness you would treat.
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If you've run a HCV forum for seven years, then I don't have to tell you the answer. You may not agree with the reasons, but you know them, cause they come up in every one of these "treat or not to treat" type of threads. At least they do in this forum, as a quick search of our achives will show.

Seems in general three types of people are in these threads. Those who believe in treating very early; those who think you should 'watch n' wait' with little or no liver damge; and those undecided.

Obviously, you've had plenty of time to form your opinions (as have I) so neither of us are in the undecided group. And since many in the -- let's call it the 'decided' group, have done a lot of research on this -- I think I can speak for both of us here that we've done our research -- neither of us are about to convince the other. Hopefully we can therefore agree to disagree. I certainly give both credit and support  to those who decide to treat early, but in general that would not be my choice for all the reasons that I'm sure you know.

All the best,

-- Jim

[PSP-n-Me]

very sad :(   I hope people read this thread instead of dwelling on name calling in the other thread - it just goes to show you the power of the virus...I hate this bug

[betteblue49]

She might have, I know she was in an infergen study.

[PSP-n-Me]

that's a real shame...My Hep Doc told me that some people just do not respond to Interferon - hopefully those new drugs with the combo of Interferon Riba and the magic bullet will be better suited for the non responders...I think there were a couple people on this board that did the Vertex trial for non rsponders and as I recall they cleared but I do not remember the details - but that trial is over and done with...too bad Lefty couldn't of got into that one...

[betteblue49]

She was in a few studies, nothing seems to be working...

[PSP-n-Me]

oh no :(  that is hard to take - poor gal...hearing this sure makes all my troubles seem so insignificant...please tell her I was asking about her and if there is ever anything I can do to help her out all she has to do is ask or email me...I wonder if she will be a candidate for the new meds - did she have trouble with Intereron or Riba or is she just a non responder? I don't htink there is any trial she would be elegible for (they want a clean slate so to speak) but maybe if she can hold off uand hope they hit the market like planned....wow - I am speachless this is awful news...But thanks for telling me - If Lefty agreed maybe you should do a thread in here for those that are on the fence about holding off on trx'ing - from stage 1 to stage 4 in one year!!  wow