There are many online forums and some clinics that do treatment have support groups as well.
I suggest your husband see an experienced hepatologist, liver specialist, as soon as possible, his condition sounds severe.
Also he absolutely should not drink ANY alcohol.
OH is absolutely correct.
Vomiting blood, low platelet count can be signs of advance liver disease (advanced cirrhosis). Hepatitis C is a virus and does cause vomiting of blood, low platelet counts. Decades of hepatitis C infection can destroy the liver and lead to cirrhosis of the liver which can cause these complications.
When the doctor performs the endoscopy if your husband has cirrhosis the doctor will find enlarged varices. Enlarged veins in the esophagus, stomach and bowels which can be caused by cirrhosis of the liver and portal hypertension. Advanced liver disease can be a life-threatening illness and should be treated very seriously.
No alcohol or NSAID pain killers (ibuprofen aspirin, etc.) which can cause internal bleeding.
Good luck!
Hector
My husband is only 32 and had been having some back problems. They gave him a new pain medication that they believe caused an allergic reaction. Which in turn led to the discovery of Hep C after he started vomiting blood. From the origional endoscope, they could see where the pills had sat in his stomach.
Of course the ER doc wrote this all up as him being a raging alcoholic... At that point they said no drinking and no pain medications of any type. However, what we are pissed at is that although they ran all the Hep tests, the never mentioned being positive for C or put it in the discharge papers for follow up etc...
Today he should find out the results of the ITP/APT tests. And we'll see if the meds for the low platelets have helped any or not.
It just really ***** not knowing how/where/when he got this :( Pretty sure we'll never know.
Take heart. It's overwhelming at first but you will get the support you need. Hep C is such a suprise virus that blindsides us. Yeah. My doc thought I was an alcoholic too. Then they ran the test.
Hang in there. I left you a message in your inbox.
xoxo Karen:)