harvoni

[workingonit]

It's refreshing to read  commentary and the comments of others fighting Hep C. I think I have had HCV for 43 years. I believe I got it when I was stationed in South Korea when I was 17. Every annual physical I had after I got out of the Army shows elevated liver markers. The doc would always ask me if I drank alcohol. I always told him that I drank a few beers a few times a week which was true. He told me I should be cautious about my alcohol consumption.

I never thought much about it. I changed doc's in the early 90's and the liver test came back the same. The Doc said there was a test that he could do that was new to rule some things out. The test came back hep C pos. He referred me to a gastro doc who confirmed the hep c Geno 1a. That doc referred me to another doc who was doing clinical trials for Infergen and ribavirin. I got in the study and went to undetectable but tested positive again after a month or so.(side effects were pretty bad) lost a lot of weight, felt strange, irritable and pretty bad all the time. It was hard to keep working, but I did. It was a good thing my job does not require physical work

After about a year my doc told me he wanted to try Pegasus and ribavirin, the latest thing. So I did. The results were the same, including the side effects. So my Doc put me on a maintenance dose of the Peg. After about 6 months of that I told him I had to take a break

After about a year he put me on a daily dose of Interferon, one shot a day. I could only do that for about 2 months it was awful. It almost did me in.

I told the Doc that I was done with treatments until something new came out without Interferon. From that point, I started keeping up with research and the progress of new treatments. I went for checkups with my gastro doc once a year, had blood work and sonograms. A few liver biopsies and such. I never developed cirrhosis, The treatments could have been a factor in that.. My liver markers were always slightly elevated. I rekon I have been lucky. I had been following the development of Harvoni. I was excited when it was approved by the FDA in October. I went to my Doc in November and told him that is what I wanted. Tomorrow Dec 18th will be my 19th day on Harvoni. Wow! what a breeze this is compared to the other stuff I have done. I went to my primary care doc for my annual phys last week and my liver markers are in the normal range. I know that is not an indication of being cured but it is encouraging. only 65 more days after tomorrow. I take the pill in the morning around 5:00 AM with my BP meds. No notable side effects. First few days I noticed a slight headache around mid afternoon. I started drinking water regularly during the day and have not had one since.

I have been married to the same lady for 40years and have three children. I had everyone tested when I found out I had hep c, and none of them tested positive.My next appointment with my gastro Doc is Jan 5th.  I will make another comment after I finish treatment. Good luck to all of you in your Fight!

[badbradley]

WOI,      Sounds like your having a n easy ride so far. Best of luck with treatment.
                                              Brad