16 year old recently diagnosed with hep c

[Danielle7]

Hi, my name is Danielle. I'm only 16 years old, 17 next friday (woot woot :D). I have been recently diagnosed with hep c and am scheduled for my biopsy. I am genotype 1A. I most likely caught this virus from IV drug use. I am a recovering roxicodone addict. I'm very scared.. I dont know whats ahead of me.. what to expect ? Whats going to happen ? Will I never recover and eventually kill myself by destroying my liver ? HELP ):

[nygirl7]

Oh and PS My daughters name is Danielle so we have alot in common (only I'm just wishing I was going to 17 again although I still basically act like I am, I'm not!)

[nygirl7]

An awful lot of us got this disease in the same way and we weren't much older than you but we didn't find out until many years later when our livers were already very much damaged - so as sad as it is to find out you have it...in a way you are very lucky because you can kill it off before you have a great amount of liver damage.

Do yourself a huge favor please.....stay sober.  If you can get a handle on it now you will save yourself SO MUCH heart ache and problems in the future. You have your whole life ahead of you.......man I wish I had stopped when I was your age but I didn't.

Happy birthday - mine is the July 8th too I think that is next Friday so we are celebrating together :)

Deb

[flcyclist]

Consider yourself lucky you caught this so early and have the support of your family to help you through trt.  You have 2 dark clouds hovering and hope you can get rid of both the HCV and the drugs.  The sooner the better for both so you can move on with your life.

You will have a lot of questions, so don't be afraid to ask.  You liking all this rain in Florida??? :-(

[22hamilton]

Welcome Danielle, I contracted hep c three decades ago doing similar stuff. There is time for you and youve found a good place on the web full of very informed people who wont judge you. Hope your stay is short but productive.

Paul

[James10500]

You have not had it for long, meaning your liver should not be messed up at all. As the others have said it takes a long time to do real damage. But don't kid yourself it does damage, the amount all depends on the condition of your liver.  You should be able to handle the get off drugs drug long enough to get off that too.

What would you do to a person you knew was injecting your horse with drugs that were killing it ? Because that's what your doing to yourself.  F drugs they SUCK !  You wanna he a healthy horse in a meadow that is beautiful and strong, or a broken down nag in a dirty stahl ?

[Danielle7]

Everyone,Thank you so much for your support (:

Anne, I will gladly keep in touch.