sooo scared

[paloma1]

is there a cure ? will this virus go away i have contracted it from my husband 2 years with it Did i catch it on time hep c chronic 1a . some people say i can wait for treatments i dont want to i want to get it out What is the success rate Please Help

[orphanedhawk]

Perhaps what you meant to say is that often people don't notice any liver damage for 20 years. The virus is never dormant. It may not be causing damage but that doesn't mean it's dormant.

Paloma:
Hep C can cause great damage without the patient having any idea, and it does move slowly though it varies from person to person.

[willbb]

hrsep is correct . The virus is always active ,however scarring(fibrosis) of the liver usually takes many years and often decades to do significant damage to the point of it not functioning properly.


have heard people say they dont want to get the virus upset What does that mean?
. -----------------------
There are certain things that cause the liver to work harder ( ie alcohol,most drugs ) however the virus is not  upset ,it just is there doing  what it does .fighting our immine system to survive and in the process ,ours immune system is scarring the liver

Good luck...
Will

[hrsepwrguy]

Hep c does not lay dormant for 20 yrs, you either have a active infection or you don't, there is no such thing as a dormant infection, hep c is asymptomatic and often does not show any signs for decades, some peoples liver damage may progress faster than others but they still have a active infection

[BoceprevirGal]

Yes, it is very important to avoid alcohol. Also, did you ever have a blood transfusion, before 1992, because that is another common way to get Hep C.
  Follow up, on the spot on your liver, and I would also reccomend you have a biopsy, before going into Hep C Treatment  (The CT contrast wont tell you what shape your liver is in, only a biopsy)
  Hep C moves slowly, so there is no need to panic, but it is a very good idea to get a biopsy every 4~6 yrs, especially as we get older, because Hep C tends to lie dormant for 20 yrs, and then may begin it's damage.
  You should find a Doctor who is a Hepatologist, in your area. My Primary Care Doctor, and surprisingly, even my Gastro Doctor, just didn't know enough about Hep C, to be effective in my Treatment.
   First things first though:  find out exactly why your UltraSound test had a spot in it- good luck

[paloma1]

Thank you for your respond whew im so glad i found this site i"m scared but i am comming to grips learning as i go i went to do a ct non contrast and contrast. will that be enough or is a biopsy more effective ? is there foods i shoud  avoid   i have heard people say they dont want to get the virus upset What does that mean? thank u for calming me down

[nygirl7]

Paloma you did not necessarily get it from your husband. Many people have it and got it from dentists, procedures etc. Best you should do is get a biopsy and find out how far along the liver damage has progressed. A spot on your liver...needs further investigation.

Razors are a very unefficient way to get this disease. You need to get that spot checked and have a biopsy. then you will be prepared to know if you can wait or need to treat now.  You need to know. It's scary we've all been there.....but something you need to do.

Good luck.

[paloma1]

i will keep u posted i would like to due treatments asoon as possible but i hear that the side effects are crazie and one can get thyroid problems. sigh has any one gone to treaments how effective are they Or should i wait for a new drug to come out i cant sleep what does it mean to have a spot on my liver? im getting way ahead of myself rrrrrr. i pray for a  cure for all of us. im going negative . and getting depressed i want to be here for my kids.

[paloma1]

oh wow Thank you all for getting back to me propmt its comforting to know i am not alone. Yes i know i got it 2years ago because my husband gave and it must of been the razors  i have been feelling that something was not right with me and got checked He found out he had it when i asked him to do blood work for his moods i suspected diabietes and was right also they did blood work for hep c and he came back positive I know im two years into it because 3years i did blood work for my job Im so scared we broke up since hes moods are too much for me to handle Now i have this virus Im waiting for my results from ct scan they found a spot on my liver on the ultra sound sigh

[JDB1964]

I can relate to the feeling of panic in your posts. I guess many people feel that way when they get diagnosed. Please take a deep breath and understand that for today, you are not in danger. There can be help available. The help came to me through this page and the great supportive people going through the same thing. I am an older lady but the calm maturity of these folks helped me get clear enough to make a plan for a cure. I was not sick, diagnosed due to bloodwork and spents months in shock and denial until i found a fantastic clinical trial that I beleive has cured me of this disease I likely had for 30 years unknowingly. The link Hector sent is useful. Take care of yourself!

[HectorSF]

There are a number of treatments available depending on which genotype of virus you are infected with. Cure rates have risen dramatically recently with new treat therapies for the most common genotype in the US. Genotype 1.

No, the virus will not go away without treatment if you are chronically infected. You must treat the virus with the currently available treatment therapies or join a clinical trial.

You say you were infected by your husband. How do you know how you got the virus? The best means of transmitting the hepatitis C virus is through IV drug use. Is this how you got infected? Hepatitis C is a blood to blood virus. So your husband's blood must have got into your blood somehow if you really did get infected by him. There is a very small chance that you got infected any way except through blood exchange.

If you did get infected only two years ago you can wait for newer treatment with less side effects. For most people it takes almost 20 or more for the virus to cause advanced damage to your liver.

"What is the success rate"
It depend on many factors that you didn't mention about your virus and any liver damage you may have. In general terms the cure rates are around 70-80%. Nothing is 100% guaranteed.

This is a link to a guidebook for those newly diagnosed by HCV Advocate which you might find helpful.

http://www.hcvadvocate.org/hepatitis/First%20Steps/First%20Steps%20with%20Hepatitis%20C%20for%20the%20Newly%20Diagnosed.pdf


Cheers!
Hector

[Dannyboi7]

Sorry to hear that.After 2 years the virus is pretty much there to stay,so you have chronic Hep C,unless you go under treatment and able to clear it.Now it all depends on how much liver damage you have and your age.If you little to know damage you could wait for the new generation of drugs coming in couple of years,they are the most effective and have little side effects.For your genotype if you chose to treat now,the triple therapy is very effective but side effects can be hard  and treatment can be long.

Best wishes

Dannyboi7