Genotype 4

[zeke58]

Hello.  Anyone have any experience with Hep C, Genotype 4?

[Bali05]

Not given a choice ? It is your body and you decide what is happening to it.
You are not in trial here so you should be able to do whatever you choose.
That is an advantage to you.
Just a question , who is performing your biopsy on Friday ?
In my view
there is no need to do a biopsy unless there is suspicion that you have more advanced
disease and want to wait for whatever reason. In that case you need to know if you
can afford to wait. Otherwise what good does it do. The biopsy can have complications
and the result is not 100% and there are other non invasive indicators like a FibroSure
test , FibroScan and of course bloodwork , in particular platelets , albumin , ProTime
ect...
The thing that rubs me the wrong way is that your specialist recommended to WAIT
for a new drug that does NOT apply to your genotype 4 and at the same time
is seemingly rushing you to do a biopsy.
How does your bloodwork look ?

The first rules when I was diagnosed :
1) You are your own advocate
2) Learn as much as you can about the disease and the latest research
3) Find the best possible hepatologist and GP to support you
4) Question your Drs decisions and make sure they are right for you
5) Keep records of ALL your bloodwork and test results ALL the time

[zeke58]

Thanks for the decoding scoop. Helps read everyone's shorthand.  This disease is tough enough without trying to sort out the code words.  Thanks Boobert.  I kind of had that same thought about how many Drs around here would have that kind of information anyway! There aren't that many specialist in that field in this town.  Why would the doc want me on the "new" 3 drug treatment if it really has no history treating g4s?  Have you been on treatment Boobert?  How are you progressing?

[Boobert]

A second opinion is always good if your able but don't expect to find any Doctor here in the U.S. with much knowledge on Geno 4's. They basically treat us 4's like a G1's.BX is short for biopsy and tx is treatment. Do you have any idea how long you've had HCV?

[freenikita]

Check out on the right of the page, rather bottom... Most viewed health pages: click on
http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Hepatitis/Common-Hepatitis-C-Acronyms/show/3?cid=64

great place to start as far as decoding messages around here... :)

and if i may jump into the conversation, since you wonder about: should i worry about that? speaking about the experience of your doctor, I would say: just for your own peace of mind a second opinion could be a great asset, let alone what two POVs can offer to a diagnosis/prognosis/interpretation/... of an illness. that's my 2 cent comment...  :)

best,

nikita

[zeke58]

I really wasn't give the choice of a biopsy or not.  Doc did tell me that he wanted to know what stage the liver was at.  I think I told you somewhere in my posts that I'm his first patient with g4.  Should I be concerned about that, look for a different doctor with more experience with g4 (if there is such a thing?) What is bx??  tx??  Remember, This is new to me.

[jusjames]

its important to do a bx if you tx or not