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Healthy chronic carrier

I was told by a hepatologist at Duke that I am a healthy chronic carrier of HVC genotype 3. I was exposed and infected in 1977. I am in good health and only very rarely see a doctor but the one at Duke wants me to clear w. sofusbuvir.
Would anyone like to weigh in with their ideas? I am 64 years old.
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Avatar universal
I kept going to different doctors over the course of 12 years and each year they would say your liver enzymes are a little elevated. Do you drink? No. Well they're in the normal range and other than that you're in perfect health. I wasn't until someone contacted me and told me my ex girl friend when I was real young had hep did I have myself tested. So the doctors didn't have a clue. When I was tested my viral load was at 16 million and I was told I had at most four years to live. At one point through diet and taking alpha lopic acid, selenium and milk thistle I got my viral load down to 270,000 which really helped and is probably why I'm still here today.
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Avatar universal
I agree with Pooh. you sure couldn't tell by looking at me I had cirrhosis and if he had said that to me I would be finding another doctor.
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1815939 tn?1377991799
"He said to me that as soon as he walked in the room and saw me he knew I had no liver damage. "
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No reputable Hepatologist is going to walk in a room, glance at a person for the first time, and say that person has no liver damage (unless that Hepatologist has already done tests to determine if there is liver damage).

There are thousands of Hep C positive people walking around, some of them with Cirrhosis, totally unaware that they have Hepatitis C let alone that they have Cirrhosis. Unless someone is decompensated, you cannot really tell by looking at a person how much liver damage that person has.

Hopefully you have no liver damage, but until you have some tests done, you don't really know that.
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Avatar universal
Thank you very much for giving me your advice. I am leaving for Hong Kong 7th July and when I get back 15th August (God willing) going to see the hepatologist. He said to me that as soon as he walked in the room and saw me he knew I had no liver damage.
I also am wondering when the next drug is coming out? An article had appeared in Scientific American a couple of months ago which I foolishly did not keep. This drug is meant to target the liver cells themselves, compromising the opportunity and ability of the virus to access what it needs or does from or to the liver cells. Thus, it is to be more direct. You all must know alot about this by now.
Thank you again!
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Avatar universal
Back in 2001 I was told after a biopsy that I was stage 3. Watched my diet and 4 years later had another biopsy done at the University of Washington. My doctor said I was at stage 1. Not to worry and to wait until the new treatments arrive. A few years later and I had a CT scan that now shows that I have cirrhosis and get this, I was never told. I found out a couple of years later when I asked for some test results so I could go over my history myself. Not only that I had a some fatty liver disease going on and wasn't told that either. A liver biopsy can hit either a bad area or a good one and are very limited in the area's where they can take one. One doc told me the only way to know for sure is to put you under, have scope done and look at the entire surface of the liver and then take a sample with a scope. It took two CT's, two ultra sounds, a lot of blood work and about two years for them to know for sure where I was at. Best advise I can give anyone is to get all your test results going back and going forward. Also not many know that if you are a cirrhotic and are put under general anesthesia you should have it done at a transplant center. Cirrhotic's have a 10% chance of dying from being put under GA and doing so could trigger decompensation so only have surgery done where a anesthesiologist has had a lot of experience working with patients that have advanced liver disease.
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1815939 tn?1377991799
I agree with Can-do-man.

Liver fibrosis progression picks up speed as we age. In addition, people with Genotype 3 generally have more rapid progression of liver fibrosis than people with other Genotypes.

In addition to causing liver damage, Hepatitis C can cause a lot of extrahepatic manifestations (health problems outside of the liver) such as Type II Diabetes, Insulin Resistance, Autoimmune Disorders, Lymphoma, and many more.

http://www.hcvadvocate.org/hepatitis/factsheets_pdf/Extrahepatic.pdf

I was at Liver Fibrosis Stage 2 when I treated in 2011-2012 and I cleared the virus. I am now considered cured of Hep C. I feel much better than prior to treatment. However, I am left with an Autoimmune Disorder which I probably would not have if I had never had Hep C or if I had been diagnosed earlier and had treated earlier.

I would follow your Hepatologist's advice and treat while you are still healthy enough to treat and before you get advanced liver damage or some extrahepatic manifestation of Hep C.

Best of luck.
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Avatar universal
Hi there, I was also "healthy" carrier, at least I thought so until a biopsy showed my liver was not so healthy as it was cirrhotic. As we age this virus seems to speed up and after being infected since 1977 it would not surprise me if your liver is also not damaged. I would listen to my doctor and check into riding yourself of this nasty virus. Best to you.
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