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 ):

[Anne1717]

It will be okay kiddo and I am sorry for your diagnosis.  You will recover but it very important to take care of yourself and adopt a healthy lifestyle.  If you are still using or drink, please make every effort to stay sober.  
Most likely at your age you have minimal, if any, liver issues.  The treatments today are very effective any have a high likelihood of a cure.   You are lucky to have found out so early that you have HCV since many have lived 30 - 40 years not knowing they have it.

Stay in touch here and as you get further information please post it and ask any questions you may have.

Keep your chin up - it will be okay.

Anne

[waterjoe]

Danielle,

I got hep C (and B) when I was 19 shooting dope. I didn't start my treatment until I was 58. I'm saying you have some time. Old school thinking was you'll die with hep C not from it. From what I've seen, that is probably true for most.

Slow down, relax. . . you're going to be just fine. I was 58 five years ago and am still a BA mountain biker. This is just a speed bump near the beginning of what will probably be a long healthy life. :)

[wrayc]

Danielle

....happy birthday but more importantly, sorry that you contracted HCV at ANY age, much less 17.

1. this disease progresses slowly for most, so there's plenty time to accumulate and assimilate the info you will need.

2. educate yourself about the disease process and different treatment options standard of care including peg/interferon with ribavarin as well as newer class treatments, such as telepravir etc that are promising upwards of 75% cure.

3. Maintaining your sobriety to ensure to further infections do not occur

4. Lifestyle management, such as alcohol abstinence or diet and exercise to mitigate the damage to the liver

Welcome and Good Luck

wrayc

[coeric]

hi Danielle,
welcome to the forum.  there are many kind people here with wonderful advice.  i've been carrying this virus for a little over 30 years.  i always figured something (jealous husband, shark attack etc) would kill this body before the virus does it in.  but now the docs are saying i am experiencing compensated cirrhosis so it might be time to get after it.  
blessings
eric

[Danielle7]

Everyone,Thank you so much for your support (:

Anne, I will gladly keep in touch.

[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 ?

[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

[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??? :-(

[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

[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!)

[frijole]

Welcome to the forum, Danielle.  Ditto on the method of infection -- 40+ years ago for me, and I still have a very healthy liver.  Good luck on the biopsy - they aren't bad -- I will be having one soon too.  

You will have a long and healthy life.  Good thing you have taken charge of it.

frijole

[kirk8]

I am 25 and also 1a. I was a heavy substance user from the time I was 15 to 23.  Giving up the drugs and alcohol was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do but after my diagnosis I realized I had to make a change in my life. I was able to cut back at first but had a hard time because all I did with my friends was drink all day and grow pot.

I was living in Humboldt County, CA where most of the good weed in the country is grown. I was able to get any drug for free at any time and people would come to my house and offer to get me high all day. They were shocked when I started turning them down because I had been doping up with most of them for years.  I was able to keep high all day, make enough money to get by and all I had to do was watch my beautiful plants grow.  I was a practiced professional at drug use and have done enough O.C.s to kill a person more times than I can count.

I was able to give all that up but I had to move to do it. I had to give up some friends who I still love but just weren’t helping me. It took a change of life to get me to give up drugs (especially boos). My point is, if I could do it, u can to. I’m not saying It’s going to be easy, life isn’t easy but if u face your issues head on it will b more rewarding.  My mind was the same place yours is now a year ago.  Now I’m 6 months clean and sober and much happier.

Also, I will b starting treatment soon and highly recommend u look into it. Especially if u have good insurance through your parents. We have much better options than most because of our age and the emergence of new drugs. U can likely be cured in a year and will never have any complications.

[Danielle7]

I do plan on starting treatment after I get back from my trip. Im goin to up state NY for a horse camp the rest of the summer (starting the day after my bday, july 9). My doc wants to do the interferon and ribavirin. Are you planning on doing the same ?

[Danielle7]

Happy Birthday (:

[nygirl7]

Danielle make SURE your doctor includes one of the new drugs if you can - the new PIs make the odds so much better for a geno 1, up from the old days with just interferon and ribavirin only having a 40% - 50% chance of winning to now when it is 75-80%. If he doesn't know about them then find another doctor.........run fast!

That is huge.  I had geno1a and 1b (I'm telling you I was a good awfully good at doing drugs ;) and beat them both with regular treatment cause they didn't have the new drugs out yet when I treated but if they had I definitely positively would have added one. For me I ended up having to treat for 72 weeks because I didn't respond quickly enough........you dont want to have it happen to you.  Get all the odds on your side and beat those critters up good!

So you are July 9th well that's just as good as July 8th at midnight we will both be on the same birthday ;)

[Danielle7]

Okay I'll definitely ask him.

And no, my birthday is July 8th, I was saying July 9th is the day i fly out to NY. So we will have the same birthday (:

[nygirl7]

hahahahaha it IS a great day, we are special :D

[kirk8]

Yes, I’m supposed to start in Aug. and u will need to take one of the new drugs telaprevir or boceprevir in addition to interferon and repairing. Dr told me that I wasn’t a candidate for treatment before these new drugs came out; so I’ve had some time to get in the best physical shape possible for treatment.  I found out what I had to do from blood tests.

These tests can b very helpful. I found out I had high iron so I stopped eating as many stakes and started eating more chicken. This is important because too much iron is toxic too the liver. I also learned that I have a fatty liver from drinking so I cut back and then quit. It took a while but I got all my liver enzymes back in normal levels and I lost weight because hep c hides in fat cells.  The thinner you are the better chances u have of clearing the virus during treatment.

Have a good trip and happy birthday to u both. My birthday is July 16.

[Danielle7]

Right now my wieght is about average. I've always been a big girl since Im so tall and big boned. I wouldnt say Im overwieght but Im sure I could lose some wieght. Ive started working out. You think a diet is also necessary ? What about vitamins ? Do you know of any that are used for wieght control ?

[Danielle7]

Oh and my physiatrist is having me blood tested for like everything possible to make sure Im as healthy as I can get before I am weaned off of suboxone. She says the withdrawals wont be as bad this way.

[kirk8]

Diet probably isn’t necessary. Especially because of the new drugs,  Incivek (Telaprevir) and Victrelis (boceprevir.)  These are brand names and (generic.) Most people in this forum use the brand names but I tend to use the generic because that is what my Dr. calls them.

Before these drugs came out a1 was the least responsive hep c genotype to treat.  Although there is conflicting evidence on how harmful different genotypes are to the liver. They probably all do about the same amount of damage.  With the possible exception of some genotypes that are found mostly in Southeast Asia.  Doctors suspect that these genotypes r less harmful because of lower rates of fibrosis (liver scaring) and cirrhosis (which is like when the liver just becomes one big mass of scar tissue.) These conditions take many years to develop. In some cases never. Anyway I won’t get to technical.

When I was diagnosed, 3 years ago, treatment wasn’t done for a1 until these conditions started to develop.  There was only about a 20% chance of clearing the virus with Interferon and Ribavirin.  With such a low chance of success Drs thought it was better to wait.  In theory, treatment (even in unsuccessful cases) will slow the progression of life threatening cases of cirrhosis in people who needed liver transplants.  This bought time as people waited on transplant lists. 1 in 5 people with hep c developed advanced cirrhosis and ended up needing liver transplants.

This is why we are lucky to be newly infected now.  The addition of a the new drugs increased the chances of SVR, (sustained viral response) or clearing the virus, to about 75%.  Sorry about giving such a complicate answer to a simple question but this is a complicated disease and I’m trying to give u some information that I think u should know. I wish I had someone to explain this all to me when I was diagnosed.  I thought I was going to die too.

Anyway, with the 20% success rate. They wanted me to become VERY, VERY thin because hep c hides in fat cells.  Back then it was more important than it is now.  I started going to the Dr again about three months ago because I knew these drugs were about to b approved by the FDA and wanted to get treatment ASAP. My Dr didn’t even bring my weight up as an issue until I asked about it.  

The FDA approved the 2 new drugs two months ago and I’m just trying to get all my levels perfect before I start. I would have liked to have started already but there is a big rush to get treatment right now.  Millions of people who would not have been candidates for treatment before are now.

Remember, I’m not a Dr.  Nobody on this forum is.  I’m trying to give u a summery and I hope I got my facts straight.  If I didn’t I’m sure someone will read this and correct me. There are some people on this forum who are a lot more knowledgeable than I am.

[kirk8]

Your other question was about vitamins.  You should probably take a one simple multi-vitamin a day.  Don’t take anything fancy.  Remember, everything u eat and vitamins or supplements all have to be processed through the liver. So, taking more vitamins than u need does more harm than good.

There is one supplement called milk thistle which my Dr recommended.  It reduces inflammation of the liver but this is the only supplement I have ever heard of a Dr recommending. Most people with hep c get inflammation. You might not though so I would just stick to the multi vitamin until u know more.

[kirk8]

I don't know much about anti-depressants.  That is what suboxone is rite?  R they taking u off it because it could cause liver damage? I know a lot of anti-depressants can cause liver damage.  I was taking naproxen (which brings down swelling) for an injury. My Dr cut me down to half doses because of possible liver damage.  

If u ever have any more questions or just want to message someone who’s been there I added you to my friends list.  You can send me a note there.

[kirk8]

Oh, suboxone, I remember what that is now.  I had a friend on that a year or two ago.  I hope it helps with cravings.  It gets easier as time goes on.