18 days into treatment

[SOG]

This is the first time I have ever gone onto a forum.  I don't even do Facebook, but anyway.  Briefly,  I am 60 years young and have had hep c 35 years.  Genotype 3, and after 3 denials by my insurance company, they finally approved me for treatment.  Don't give up on the insurance struggle if you are in it.  18 days ago I was tested with a 15 million viral load.  I am on my 18th day of treatment in a 6 month treatment.  First 2 weeks smooth sailing.  More energy than I have had for some time.  The last 3-4 days, slight side affects-little dizzy, nausea, fatigue...all very minor.  Will find out at the end of the month what my viral load is.  I expect it to be gone.  This was all God's timing.  Looking forward to being cured of this long time companion.

SOG

[KimInTheForest]

Welcome to the forums, SOG. And congrats on starting treatment! What treatment are you taking? There are several available these days involving the new direct acting antivirals.

Feel free to post your treatment experiences, questions, side effects etc. as you go along.

best,
kim

[gnatcatcher]

Hi, SOG -- glad you've found our forum community. I don't do Facebook (or any of the other social media) either, but this has turned out to be a great group of people, even if what brought us together isn't so great. May any side effects you get in the future be no more difficult than the ones you've had the last 3-4 days. (Mine were mild, too, and intermittent.)

Gnatty

[SOG]

Wow,
Thanks for the quick response.  I am on a 24 week Sovaldi/Ribavirin treatment. 
Below are my pretreatment figures.  Don't understand them all fully, but on Dec.1st, my first doctor visit since starting, he will probably explain.  Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks to both of you.


Below HCV FibroSURE
HCV FibroSURE Results:
Fibrosis Score 0.57 High 0.00-0.21
Fibrosis Stage F2-Bridging fibrosis with few septa
Necroinflammat Activity Score
 0.74 High 0.00-0.17
Necroinflammat Activity Grade
 A3-Severe activity
Analysis:
Alpha 2-Macroglobulins, Qn
 266 mg/dL 110-276
Haptoglobin 71 mg/dL 34-200
Apolipoprotein A-1 108 Low mg/dL 110-180
B
ilirubin, Total 0.5 mg/dL 0.0-1.2
GGT 22 IU/L 0-65
ALT (SGPT) P5P 124 High IU/L 0-55 is my pretreatment figures.

[gnatcatcher]

SOG, I'm looking at my FibroSURE results and comparing them to yours. Your results are better (healthier) than mine. We share the Fibrosis Stage F2, the Necroinflamm. Activity Grade A3, and Bilirubin 0.5, but on nearly all the others, your result is lower (better) than mine.

The most important result is the F2: it means your liver has very little scarring, so it should heal very well once the medicine has gotten rid of the HCV. Ironically, the good F2 result is probably why you got the 3 insurance denials -- a lot of insurance companies only want to pay for treatment if a person is a lot sicker -- at least F3, and some insurance companies won't treat unless F4 or the patient keeps pestering them all the way to outside review.

In short, things are looking very good for you: a relatively mild case of HCV to go along with your mild side effects. I think you'll be very pleased by your four-week lab results.

Gnatty

P.S. Kim, the forum spelling checker wanted to change "Bilirubin" into "Bribing."
SOG, Kim started a thread in the Off Topics Forum called "Auto-correct - gotta luv it!": http://forums.hepmag.com/index.php?topic=3531.0   We Heppers get our laughs in all sorts of ways, like seeing auto-correct suggest that our hepatologist is really a herpetologist. Since HCV is referred to as "the dragon," it kinda makes sense!

[SOG]

Gnatty,
What does A3 mean.  In my report it says severe activity.

By the way, thank you for the encouragement.

Rick

[gnatcatcher]

Rick, the grading goes from A0 (no activity) through minimal and moderate to A3 (severe activity). I've just Googled "necroinflammatory activity grade" -- the results are full of Medicalese, but one article (http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/410846_2) seems to indicate that the necroinflammatory activity grade, which used to be a big deal, is now thought to be much less helpful than the fibrosis stage. Excerpts:
"To summarize, clinicians should not take 'significant activity' as a surrogate marker of 'severe disease.' . . . Activity grade . . . is not a good predictor of fibrosis progression. In fact, fibrosis alone is the best marker of ongoing fibrogenesis. So far there is no study demonstrating clearly that activity grades are predictive of fibrosis progression independently of fibrosis stage."

Rick, as you know, your fibrosis stage is quite good. Now that you are being treated, your liver is on its way to becoming less inflamed. These new medicines work really fast, so your liver is probably already feeling the best it has in years.

I didn't happen to ask my medical professional about the necroinflammatory activity grade. Since you'll be seeing your doctor long before I see mine, please let me know what you learn.

Gnatty

[KimInTheForest]

P.S. Kim, the forum spelling checker wanted to change "Bilirubin" into "Bribing."
SOG, Kim started a thread in the Off Topics Forum called "Auto-correct - gotta luv it!": http://forums.hepmag.com/index.php?topic=3531.0   We Heppers get our laughs in all sorts of ways, like seeing auto-correct suggest that our hepatologist is really a herpetologist. Since HCV is referred to as "the dragon," it kinda makes sense!

That's funny Gnatty! I wonder who we're supposed to be bribing...

kim