How long for you and how much damage?

[Mike1A84]

Heres a queston for everyone.How long have you had hep c for?and what
kind of damage to you have at this point.For me I have had it for almost 20 years and was stage 1 grade 1 in the beginning of 2011.anyway feedback would be nice.

[ceanothus]

I had numerous possibilities for exposure from medical procedures done in a third-world country in 1981-1982 and from a transfusion here in the U.S. in 1984. In 1989 my biopsy was stage 1. I treated unsuccessfully but didn't have another biopsy until 2004, when I was stage 4. There was no question of it being just a bad little area, as that one was a "wedge" biopsy done during a major abdominal surgery with my entire diseased liver fully exposed. It was not a transplant but was a difficult surgery that required the skills of an exceptionally talented and experienced transplant surgeon, and when he later described my liver condition to me he really didn't expect it to last much longer. I treated unsuccessfully again from 2005-2006, and then my third tx in 2012-2013 finally worked. I've been SVR for three months. Contrary to expectations, my cirrhosis is still compensated!

[belle19]

i got it in 1974.  diagnosed december 2010.  liver biopsy 2011 stage 2 grade 2.  went into a clinical trial may 2011...finished may 2012.  SVR november 2012.  life is great!  i never had one symptom, ever.  best wishes.  belle

[Kadeeta]

Thank you to all of you for your  posts --I have read them with great interest ,It is a great community  -I am lucky to found it.Thanks again .

[medic54]

"Furthermore..hepatic pathology is not always uniform, particularly with fibrosis"... Cleveland Clinic re- first thread of  my Google search 'liver, needle biopsy accuracy'.
Not saying you should not get one, indeed mine motivated me to do treatment, but I don't put a lot of faith in being stage 3 because of some unknown techs interpretation of a needle biopsy... most liver area could be stage 2 or (and a lot more likely considering 40 years) stage 4. When I questioned my doc about the electroelasticity test he referred to it as "the giggle test" and said it's accurate at either extreme but not much in differentiating between stage grades. To me, when I here grade ?, I say probably but maybe + or - 1, maybe 2 over the entire organ. Just saying, several decades in medicine of seeing reversals and absolutes proved wrong has made me quite skeptical... not to mention the inherent accuracy errors in each device/ methodology... add the occasional incompetence and the only things certain are these tests results are far from absolute and unless you do a lot of medical study reading you'll be the last to know how certain/uncertain they really are. The wedge biopsy is suppose to the most accurate but obviously more invasive as it removes much more tissue.

[Advocate1955]

Yes, sadly we have quite a few friends on this forum who have ESLD and/or HCC who are trying to be listed for a life-saving transplant or are listed but there are others ahead of them who are even more I'll and higher on the list. Right now we have friends on this forum who are suffering from severe and life threatening complications of decompensated cirrhosis due to Hep C and who are frequently in and out of the hospital trying to stay alive while they wait for their new liver. To those of you trying to decide whether or not to treat, consider yourselves lucky if you even have an option to treat.
Advocate1955

[pooh55811]

I agree with Advocate, Desrt, and Can-do.

I also agree with Advocate on the following statement and wish to repeat it: to everyone with f2 and above treat when there are treatment options available to you.

We see far too many people on the forum who have already progressed to F3 and F4 and who wish they could have treated earlier.