12 weeks after 8 weeks Harvoni treatment

[HopefulCamper]

Hi

I got HCV 1a when I was born in 1974.  F3/F4 liver.  AST 45 ALT 99 from my test yesterday.  Waiting for my viral load results, expect to get it in the next few days.  Liver numbers were, unfortunately, all normal during treatment.   Did not do Riba with the Harvoni.

Keeping busy!

HopefulCamper

[KimInTheForest]

Hi Hopeful Camper, and welcome to the forums! I hope you get good news on your viral load numbers. What do you mean that your liver numbers were "unfortunately" normal during tx? Do you mean they were above normal?

I very much hope your 8 weeks of Harvoni did the trick for you. But if by any chance it didn't, there will be other options. So there will absolutely be other chances, and you will be cured. But let's hope this one worked for you. Good luck!

best,
kim

[HopefulCamper]

Good to meet you KimInTheForest.

I just mean my liver numbers were all within the healthy standard normal range each time I checked during treatment.  The unfortunate part is that now that I am post-treatment I am out of range.  This would be less worrisome if I had other theories for the cause of the change besides relapse.  I have not heard about nor read about any cases here where liver ALT and AST numbers were normal range during tx, then went out of whack after treatment except due to relapse.

I will know for sure Friday-Tuesday I guess.  Thanks for reminding me of the new medicine combinations on the horizon it helps to stay upbeat.  I just had another look at the HCV Drug Pipeline chart.  I guess there are a lot of people accumulating as Geno 1a Harvoni relapsers.  I wonder what the best next step will be in 2016. Harvoni 24 weeks seems long and kind of expensive in terms of time, health, money but surely worth considering.  I wonder if there are any short-duration possibilities in the next 12 months?

Good luck everybody!

HopefulCamper

[KimInTheForest]

There can be other reasons for high liver numbers post-tx even if they became normal during tx. That actually happened to me. I got depleted during tx due to side effects (unable to eat or sleep properly plus anemia from ribavirin). Consequently, I got some sort of mystery malaise immediately post-tx and my liver enzymes went back up even though they had fallen to normal range during tx, and I was undetected during tx. I was worried that the Hep C had returned. But I just got my results on my 4-week post-tx labs, and I am still undetected - SVR4. So in my case, the elevated enzymes were due to other problems in my body post-tx from getting so depleted. Just something to keep in mind while you wait for the results of your viral load test.

I think with Harvoni relapsers there is now an effort to test those people to see if they have developed resistance to NS5A inhibitors (e.g., the ledipasvir in Harvoni). If they have, then treating with longer duration of Harvoni is not advised or useful. So those people may be waiting for next new thing to come along. But there is a great deal of stuff coming out of the pipeline now.

Hoping for good news for you!
kim