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Hep C and No Spleen

Hi I found out last year that I have Chronic Active Hep C.  1B
I had a splenectomy 5 years ago because of trauma to my spleen. I have a weak imune system. I also have problems with my right kidney,  I have ulcers and gallstones.

I wanted to know if Hep C causes arthritis pain,
If  it can cause problems with blood pressure.  Because mine seems real bad.
And if anyone knows what effects having no spleen can cause with Hep C.  

Thanks
20 Responses
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510626 tn?1219505569
You are correct and thank you for encouraging people to see the doctors.

...and many thanks for letting known of Katherine's passing.

I am so sorry for your, family's loss.
Helpful - 0
3 Comments
Hi my name is Katherine and I am a childhood cancer survivor of leukemia.the only treatment at the time was a bone marrow transplant, at that time the early 90s was the only treatment. My spleen was removed because of how enlarged it was. I was around the age of two.when I was diagnosed the doctors told my parents to not make any long term arrangements and that I wasn't going to make it .my parents decided to proceed with the treatment.ro which was experimental at the time. The bone marrow transplant amazingly worked and saved my life. As I grew up I was diagnosed with cataracts diabetes hypothyroidism ovarian failure and vitamin D defecincy. Then in 2008 I was left blacked out drunk on the highway and was hit on my right side around 50 miles per hour.i was even gifted with life after this. I had had a major concussion cracked my neck and hip dislocated my shoulder and broke it,I had to have metal implanted in my right shoulder.tjen I broke my elbow area which metal was implanted as well but taken out  now which will kill me with chronic pain for letting me live I also and am very fortunate to have my leg still but had my right leg shattered and more metal implanted along with a skin and muscle graph because I had an infection which greatfully was healed. A blood transfusion as well I am grateful to still be alive and walking even though I suffer from horrible chronic pain daily. My question is because I don't have a spleen could contracting hepititis c keep looking and or harm me?
Kill and harm me more
Lagringa27

So sorry for all your difficulties. This is a 10 year old post I suggest you post a new question so it can be seen and answered. But anyway Hepatitis c attacks the liver not the spleen

Best of luck
Avatar universal
I am so sorry for the loss of your mother.  I never have the right words during a time like this.  Please know my heartfelt sympathy goes out to you and your family.  
Trinity
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi, I am the daughter of Ksarahsarah aka katherine. My mother passed away on the 29th of August 2008. Her liver finally just gave out on her.. and they were unable to stop the internal hemorraging. She had a tough life and she had to fight every step of the way. I pass my prayers on to everyone having to go through anything she had to cope with.But please never put off seeing your doctors for anything when it comes to hep c... tomorrow may just be too late.

Katherine Lockwood
1959-2008 ( 49 years young )

she will be missed so much.

Jonnie ann
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
No. but i have on and off. But , now it has caught up with me. I am 40 something years old now(smile). i got hit when i was 17. And i spent life healthy and in full feeling i had beat a bad thing.(they said i would be an invalid for the rest of my life(my spine was broken in 3 places, 5 degenerated discs like i was 70 years old, a bunch of breaks of other bones, i was at the time not only paralyzed from the waist down, i was internally paralyzed, with internal lacerations, including bleeding from the stomach and the kidneys, so they put everything on a table next to me to fix (and patch up) what was needed and throw out what was not(and to clean out the mess (and then wind it all back in)) i lost almost all my blood internally) i was 3/4s down when i went into surgery, that is why, during the surgery, i got 2 full blood transfusions. It took me about a full year, to be able to feel i could do everything again, and tennis.  And i worked industrial work. ADT first female industrial installer, Com Ed first female maintenance mechanic at Fisk, the downtown fossil-fuel station in Chicago. I swung sledgehammers on number 4 bearing of the turbine itself, while 8 months pregnant with my son Brockton.   Then i built mining machines(the things that dig out coal mines) in southern illinois as an electrician.    In other words, I WAS HEALTHY, no matter what they said.
and after 28 years of stealing youth (thats what i call it). the trouble hit me like a train, all the while the doctors were saying, i maybe one of that percentage that hepC barely effects.  I have no tonsils, i have no spleen. I have hepC, what a hell of an immune system i got. left.
i am trying to find a way to keep, or should i say preserve a semblence of what i got left. to the best of its health that it can be. but being on disability, i don't get good care. right now i only got medicare. things that can help are the emergency room where they keep you alive long enough to survive in the same state for a month so as to not be blamed.  MY liver actually shows no hardening and works most the time, it just needs to heal somewhat, yes, with damage. but i dont want to lose it. 2 hospitals say i am covered for a transplant, but, what?  I had a very healthy liver a couple of years ago, but i might have had a gallstone incedent when i thought i was having a silent heart attack(but they only checked my heart).   Well anyway, sorry for my diatribe. i leave comments on sites and sign petitions, but, the holidays just passed(went back to chicago) and my guy has been pulled to the ship a lot lately(i'm in san diego for now)

I wasn't asking for your expertise. i am hoping somebody knows the ropes and who the experts may be, but i thank you for writing  and your kind caring.
Doesn't any docs ever read these things? that is what i was referring to.   kendrafay has almost the same problem i have, i was hoping someone could hear.  I even made a joke with one of the doctors when i was real sick, i said 'i'd be a hell of a case to suggest for your med exam final, wouldn't i?'  he said 'yes, but i'll try to figure it out.'
Anyway, thank you 'new york girl 7?' When i have the wear-with-all, i'll be assertive and find the answers to this one- splenectomy victims and hepC  people on this forum. and i will pass on what i learn and what i can give in, how to deal with it. i just don't know know. it is a new place for me. But, again, thank you.
Helpful - 0
179856 tn?1333547362
Sarah, this is outside my realm of medicine...none of us are doctors only patients here.

HCV surely can give you arthritic type pains in your bones and joints that much I do know.  A cirrhotic liver doesn't just 'clear up'.  

Are you being seen by a specialist right now?  You really really really need to get to a doctor if you are serious about that fact.
Helpful - 0
179856 tn?1333547362
Sarah, this is outside my realm of medicine...none of us are doctors only patients here.

HCV surely can give you arthritic type pains in your bones and joints that much I do know.  A cirrhotic liver doesn't just 'clear up'.  

Are you being seen by a specialist right now?  You really really really need to get to a doctor if you are serious about that fact.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal


oh and SORRY, for the repeats, (the site was busy and my browser would not load at the time. but i tried). as you see.





if there is a moderater for the forum, please, could you kill the extras? i don't know how to. i would appreciate it. and thank you if you are able.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
P.S.  When i went in with that pain they could not determine, they did say something about shadow gallstones they saw. I started getting the ascites about maybe a week and a half later, and then they said i had a cirrhotic liver. (i don't know if that cleared up what i was trying to say (i am not a good typist)) but i hope you understand. This is really all new to me, just the same. Good health to you, kendrafay, and don't ever let em beat ya.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
P.S.  When i went in with that pain they could not determine, they did say something about shadow gallstones they saw. I started getting the ascites about maybe a week and a half later, and then they said i had a cirrhotic liver. (i don't know if that cleared up what i was trying to say (i am not a good typist)) but i hope you understand. This is really all new to me, just the same. Good health to you, kendrafay, and don't ever let em beat ya.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
P.S.  When i went in with that pain they could not determine, they did say something about shadow gallstones they saw. I started getting the ascites about maybe a week and a half later, and then they said i had a cirrhotic liver. (i don't know if that cleared up what i was trying to say (i am not a good typist)) but i hope you understand. This is really all new to me, just the same. Good health to you, kendrafay, and don't ever let em beat ya.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
P.S.  When i went in with that pain they could not determine, they did say something about shadow gallstones they saw. I started getting the ascites about maybe a week and a half later, and then they said i had a cirrhotic liver. (i don't know if that cleared up what i was trying to say (i am not a good typist)) but i hope you understand. This is really all new to me, just the same. Good health to you, kendrafay, and don't ever let em beat ya.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
P.S.  When i went in with that pain they could not determine, they did say something about shadow gallstones they saw. I started getting the ascites about maybe a week and a half later, and then they said i had a cirrhotic liver. (i don't know if that cleared up what i was trying to say (i am not a good typist)) but i hope you understand. This is really all new to me, just the same. Good health to you, kendrafay, and don't ever let em beat ya.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
P.S.  When i went in with that pain they could not determine, they did say something about shadow gallstones they saw. I started getting the ascites about maybe a week and a half later, and then they said i had a cirrhotic liver. (i don't know if that cleared up what i was trying to say (i am not a good typist)) but i hope you understand. This is really all new to me, just the same. Good health to you, kendrafay, and don't ever let em beat ya.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
P.S.  When i went in with that pain they could not determine, they did say something about shadow gallstones they saw. I started getting the ascites about maybe a week and a half later, and then they said i had a cirrhotic liver. (i don't know if that cleared up what i was trying to say (i am not a good typist)) but i hope you understand. This is really all new to me, just the same. Good health to you, kendrafay, and don't ever let em beat ya.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
P.S.  When i went in with that pain they could not determine, they did say something about shadow gallstones they saw. I started getting the ascites about maybe a week and a half later, and then they said i had a cirrhotic liver. (i don't know if that cleared up what i was trying to say (i am not a good typist)) but i hope you understand. This is really all new to me, just the same. Good health to you, kendrafay, and don't ever let em beat ya.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
P.S.  When i went in with that pain they could not determine, they did say something about shadow gallstones they saw. I started getting the ascites about maybe a week and a half later, and then they said i had a cirrhotic liver. (i don't know if that cleared up what i was trying to say (i am not a good typist)) but i hope you understand. This is really all new to me, just the same. Good health to you, kendrafay, and don't ever let em beat ya.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
P.S.  When i went in with that pain they could not determine, they did say something about shadow gallstones they saw. I started getting the ascites about maybe a week and a half later, and then they said i had a cirrhotic liver. (i don't know if that cleared up what i was trying to say (i am not a good typist)) but i hope you understand. This is really all new to me, just the same. Good health to you, kendrafay, and don't ever let em beat ya.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
P.S.  When i went in with that pain they could not determine, they did say something about shadow gallstones they saw. I started getting the ascites about maybe a week and a half later, and then they said i had a cirrhotic liver. (i don't know if that cleared up what i was trying to say (i am not a good typist)) but i hope you understand. This is really all new to me, just the same. Good health to you, kendrafay, and don't ever let em beat ya.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
P.S.  When i went in with that pain they could not determine, they did say something about shadow gallstones they saw. I started getting the ascites about maybe a week and a half later, and then they said i had a cirrhotic liver. (i don't know if that cleared up what i was trying to say (i am not a good typist)) but i hope you understand. This is really all new to me, just the same. Good health to you, kendrafay, and don't ever let em beat ya.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I got hit by a car as a pedestrian in 1976, I lost my spleen, and they patched up a few other things. I had 2 blood transfusions. I acquired pneumonia 10 times in 2 years after that, and hospitalized heavily for a few of them (it was along time ago).But my physician was up to date and i started taking the pneumo-vacs shot every 2 years since there on in. And i found out in 1991 (although i was perfectly healthy(as far as i knew))that the blood donation i was given, was not good enough, a 50-50% chance it might carry this hepC virus (their tests could only suspect then).  And so time went on, i was on disability and one day i got real sick. i thought i had pneumonia, and i went to a doctor, he saw my blood pressure (170 over 110, which is a normal 120 over 80), and his eyes opened wide. he said, 'you get admitted now, or i cannot help you.' It was during the time of the SARS virus (so my family had to see me in a bubble). Well, anyway, he found i had an inflamed case of COPD(i had water around the heart and pulmonary arteries), that i had hepC, and after 10 days at the hospital, they let me out,  i saw a hepatalogist who did a ultrasound on my liver and CBC and did not see any damage. it looked perfectly healthy and he said maybe i was one of the lucky ones.  and i was fine for 3 more years. I was very physically active and energetic still.
And then 1 day i had this pain, and all my energy was drained (over 25 years later) and i had them check my heart and they didn't see anything. but then after that my stomach started to swell with fluid, ascites, my liver was cirrhotic, they said, do you drink? i said' hell no, except for holidays.' And i said what about the pain i had had a few weeks before?
Well, again, because i have moved a few times since then, i went on a plane ride, and i thought it was going to break me, as soon as i got into the state i went to the emergency room, and they stuck a temporary stent into me, because of a distension of a vein. Now i have portal hypertension.   So if you know any more about splenectomy victims that have hepC, let me know. I got a two-for in 1976, and it has caught up with me.  

And anyone else who reads this and does know what there is to do, answer will ya? And thank you for your kindness, for the both of us.
Helpful - 0
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