Just got the news today!

[shouldhave18]

Not sure where to begin. Went in to the Doctor last week because I started itching all over. I have been associating a lot of my symptoms with food intolerance. I have been battling brain fog, headaches, eye burning and dry mouth for the last couple years. It seemed as though when I would eliminate certain foods my symptoms would improve but only for a short while. Around May of this year is when the headaches and itchiness started to become more frequent. The interesting part was when I went to Hawaii and Cabo on vacation my symptons were virtually gone. Once again I was trying to associate it to my diet. All that aside after my meeting with the Doctor I now  know what the problem is. My blood test resulted in Alt of 280 and AST of 104. All other liver function was normal. My Ferriten level was 550 and my Iron saturation was 55%. All other test were in range. In fact all of my other tests showed that I was in overall good health despite my Hep C and High liver enzymes. The best I can figure is that I was infected around 1988 to 1992. I did a ton of drugs, (which included IV drug use) and I  drank like there was no tomorrow. I have been clean and sober since 1997.  I have exercised religiously, and lived  mostly on an organic whole food diet. So I have been infected for roughly 25 years and am now starting to show signs of liver damage. I have a liver ultrasound scheduled for the 27th of this month. Need some tips on things I should do or consider before moving forward. Hoping that I can be cured and don't have too much damage to my liver. What can I expect from treatments? Will it be hard to function in my job? Scared and looking for some sound advice.

[Mugwump]

HCV that has progressed with other factors like the consumption of too much alcohol treats exactly the same with the new DAA cures. PROVIDED the other factors are under control. If you have progressed to cirrhosis it is even more important to stop the damage that HCV and alcohol are doing asap!

Remember this; that a healthy diet with regular hydration and exercise during treatment will help the liver heal more than any thing you can do during treatment. Treatment is not the same as it was with interferon because the new treatments are directed specifically at the infected liver cells and stop the replication of the virus inside a liver cell. Then the cells that would have died anyway must be flushed from the liver through the natural processes that exchange the dead liver cells that would have been killed naturally or unnaturally by drugs or alcohol.
DAA treatment requires good digestive and renal functions which are both facilitated by a healthy diet, exercise and good hydration. It is that simple.
All the best getting treated ASAP
Eric 

[Lynn K]

I treated with Harvoni and ribavirin for 24 weeks because of my prior treatment history and liver cirrhosis. I worked full time on treatment and even went on a business trip crossing 9 time zones. The ribavirin did make me anemic so a bit tired and winded but otherwise treatments went relatively easily. Most suggest keeping properly hydrated which seems to help diminish the most commonly reported side effect of mild headache.

My understanding of how the new DAA’s (direct-acting antivirals) work is as the name implies they work directly against the virus specifically preventing the hep c virus from replicating wherever it exists in your body. So as time goes on the existing virus cells die and are not replaced by new virus cells. Kind of like giving the hep c virus birth control. Then the dead virus particles are excreted from your body in similar manner as any dead cell like we have many body cells dying and replaced every day. I guess they say we replace every cell in our body every seven years so we literally are not the same person we were seven years prior.

So sorry to read about this sudden bad news. Hang in there and work with your doctor. Other than that eat a healthy heart smart diet and try to get some exercise as tolerated is about all you can do.

Best of luck