Hepatitis Forums
Hepatitis C Main Forums => I Just Tested Positive for Hepatitis C => Topic started by: Prayinglez on February 10, 2016, 08:09:06 am
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Wow crazy ti say it i dont know close anything about it. I have been out closet since 16 only thing my Dr say is can he my risk factor is my piercings n tatt. I took all my piercing out when i was pregnant with my daughter no i didnt sleep with man i was lucky enough to get him donate in cup(yes we had him tested for stds) tracked my ovulation n after4 montjs boom. I was with ec gf fir 3 years n brije up a while back then met my fiancé. Shebstuck by me through alot stuff moved bqck was staying with my mom let my exs cousin see ky baby who tried take her cps got involved took bby gtom her had go court prove i was good mom n a bunch more bs that had going on still she stood by me held me diwn pushef me motivated me then we movef in together everything great then boom i found out hep c just when we wabt start planning on our child n getting married first i tell her drive home she has questions i have few answers we just took my daughter be tested n found out my levels at 4.995/15 ml or something like that lady of front desk told me when called for my numbers is this bad im so lost and scared forgive my grammar and spelling
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Welcome, Prayinglez. It doesn't matter how you got hep c, so just assume it was the piercings or tattoos. A 4,995 per ml viral load isn't bad. Your doctor will probably do more testing to find out how your liver is doing and which genotype of hep c you have (the results of those tests will determine which treatment you'll be on, and for how long). You got diagnosed at a very good time, because the current treatments are quite easy and the cure rates are excellent. Please keep us posted, and feel free to ask more questions as you go along.
Gnatty
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Thank you so much. I doubt my insurance will cover the more advance medicine though i am on ssi and receive state Medi-Cal. I read up on it seems i have be really sick for them too which is another reasin Im scared. I dont know what to do my next dr appt isnt till the 22nd of this month my Dr doesn't seem be in any rush.
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If your insurance denies you treatment, people on these forums can provide you with information on getting help with appeals and/or getting treatment through a clinical trial. Hep C takes decades to do extensive damage, and it progresses especially slowly in females of menstruating age, so there's no need to panic if it takes a couple more weeks to see the doctor and a few months before your treatment actually starts.
I took a look at the Medi-Cal treatment policy for hep c effective July 1, 2015. It indicates Medi-Cal updates its policy "in light of the evolving scientific evidence and research," and it was already treating patients with only F2 severity at a time when many insurance companies required at least F3 severity. Some major insurers changed on January 1, 2016 to cover everyone, so Medi-Cal might soon be more generous. First you need to know your genotype and results of a FibroScan or Fibrosure or similar fibrosis test. If your doctor isn't having you get those tests ahead of the 2/22 appointment, you'll probably get them that day or soon thereafter.
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oh okay i see thank you so much. I want still have kids worried about howbit will affect me i was okay with my daughter besides gestational diabetes
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Your wanting to have kids will help you get approved for treatment:
"Women of childbearing age who wish to get pregnant."
Make sure your doctor knows that and communicates it to Medi-Cal.
In case you don't have it, here is the Medi-Cal treatment policy:
http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/Documents/Hepatitis%20C%20Policy.pdf
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Oh wow thanks i didnt know that. That helps. Alot
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Hi Prayinglez
Just to add I had hep c for 37 years before I was cured last fall with the new meds. I did treat with the old treatments but they did not work for me or really most people. The best we had was about 30% success with the old interferon shots and ribavirin pills.
It took 29 years of infection before I developed liver cirrhosis. Hep c is a very slowly acting virus which is part of the reason insurance fights us for treatment. That and only about 20% of people infected for more than 20 years will even develop cirrhosis most people do not even progress to that point.
Just to add hep c is not generally considered to be an STD it is a blood borne virus and requires blood to blood contact to be transmitted so you should avoid sharing fingernail clippers and tooth brushes and any other personal products that could cause your blood to contact someone else blood.
Piercings or tattoos done in other than professional settings can be a possible source of infection but a significant number of people have no idea how they contracted hep c.
How you ended up with hep c isn't important anyway the only thing that matters is getting cured.
One last comment is my pre-treatment viral load was 2,422,260 IU/mL and that is not even considered to be a high viral load. Viral load has nothing to do with severity of infection and little to do with chances of cure.
You will be fine and you have lots of time so no worries OK?
Best to you and yours and welcome to the forum
Lynn