Had my 3 month follow up since my last visit in June 2022.
Good news is my insurance is now covering Vemlidy (TAF) again. They had to make a special case for me in order for insurance to cover it. Otherwise I was going back on TDF. My HBV DNA is also undected
Bad News is: My weight is in obesity stage, my blood pressure is in hypertension, my HBSAG has also increased. My ultrasound also had the lesion show up again that I had back in 2019 and back then it was a fatty lesion and not a concern, but I do have fatty liver.
Unfortunately, I forgot to ask for them to check my Vitamin D so I don't have my results there but everything else is pretty much normal and stable. See below for the latest
Glucose - 92 mg/dL
Sodium - 137 mmol/L
Calcium - 9.5 mg/dL
Bilirubin, Total - 0.4 mg/dL
Alkaline Phosphatase - 71 IU/L
AST (SGOT) - 20 IU/L (1 pt lower than 3 months ago)
ALT (SGPT) - 35 IU/L (1 pt lower than 3 months ago)
pH - 6.0
HBV IU/mL - HBV DNA not detected
AFP, Serum, Tumor Marker - 1.8 ng/mL
Hep B Surface Ab, Qual - Non Reactive
Hep B Surface Antigen Quant - 5616.00 IU/mL
Phosphorus- 2.9 mg/dL
HBsAg Screen - Positive
My HBsAg Quantitative keeps going UP and this is a problem for me. I suspect now it's weight related more than anything else.They are now as follows:
In March of 2020 it was at:
1318.00 IU/mL
In September 2021 it was at:
3599.00 IU/mL
June 2022 it was at:
4168.00 IU/mL
September 2022 it's now at:
5616.00
Regarding my weight, it's seemingly gone up since I stopped the clinical trial for TAF. My doctor did suggest try going back to TDF since he's heard patients saying TAF caused weight gain. My thought behind that is that I was on TAF in the clinical trial for 5 years and I weighed less and actually lost weight at some point.
I do agree my weight needs to come back down a LOT.
Regarding my blood pressure, while I do think my weight contributes to a high blood pressure, I also take into account that:
- I walked 1 mile to the doctor's office (because I am unable to sit comfortably in a car) and that causes the BP and heart rate to rise
- I have 2 failed neck surgeries in my neck and this alone can also cause BP to rise (and makes doing intense cardio exercises impossible, which is what I need to do to lose weight).
I was also offered to go on a clinical trial. The same clinical trial last year that they suggested I go on after a patient was cured from it, and I said no because of the Interferon treatments I didn't want to go through as part of it. They said there wasn't going to be room last year and 1 year later it's brought back to me. I have yet to say yes or no, but with my HBSAG increasing so much, I can't see how this trial would cure me of anything unless that number goes closer to 1,000.
Anyway, wanted to share my latest here! Hope everyone is well!