8 years after transplant- Hep C is back- Should I do treatment?

[56Mike]

My dear son shared his liver with me 8 years ago... I was dx with Hep C, in 2004 tried the PegIntron and Ribaviron and only lasted 3 doses- my Dr said I had to quit treatment as my counts were too low. I rapidly deteriorated and became a walking encephalopathic corpse and  would have most likely died waiting for a cadever liver. Interestingly before transplant in May of that year- the Hep was no longer detected. I just had a biopsy- that came back 2/2- they had been undetectable all these years. My liver labs are pristine. I am afraid to start these meds again because of what happened the first time. My genotype is 2- but it looks like at best- hope for remission is 30%? Any thoughts or suggestions please?

[56Mike]

Oh, and yes- Genotype 2b, and no, my son did not have HCV. Thanks to all for your help

[56Mike]

Sorry for not being more accurate....  I do not believe my transplant center was looking for viral load counts- I was not told I was positive again with a count of 19,000 until 2010. They monitored my LFTs closely and had yearly biopsies that were, up to now- normal.

[56Mike]

Thanks for your support- wish you the best too in your journey

[FlGuy]

A little confused by your story.  I can see how you may have become undetected, and stayed that way, after just a short course of treatment.  The strange part is the "undetected all these years" unless your referring tot the biopsy results and not the viral count.  Am curious about a couple of things...when you were treated back in 2004 was it for Geno 2?  And, has your son ever been evaluated for Hep C?

[56Mike]

Thanks much for this information- my wife did get an email from Hepatologist- he said they follow the same treatment algorthm as Mayo ( I am at the U of M for treatment)- and based on how severely I crashed the first time, he would no way agree to tx me now, especially since my lab work is pristine. He said new treatment was 1 1/ year away. I will look into this information further- thanks again!

[56Mike]

Thanks much for your help and support- man, this is a rough time. I did receive word from my Hepatologist (my wife is relentless- she found his email address) and he responded we would talk at the Dec appt- but based on my first trial- he would not agree to tx and thought the new meds would be available in 1 1/2 year. He was hopeful that since it took so long for it to attack this liver again- that I should be able to wait that long. He thought the danger of shutting this liver down was too high- and my liver labs are still pristine- bili .6, alk phos 50, alt and ast in the 30's. Does this sound reasonable to u?