Miracles do happen!

[HippyHal]

Well, as you may or may not recall.. my last post was early March when the Dr. pulled me out of the triple therapy .. cold turkey..  like.. stop now...after 2 months and 1 week.  They pulled a couple of gallons of fluid out of me, sent me home and started talking about introducing me around Mayo for transplant.. I could hardly get off the couch, was up to 205lbs from 175, and looked like death warmed over.

Fast forward to last Friday when I received a letter from the Dr. that my latest tests show the Hep C virus as undetectable for both the Quant real time and the Virus Log tests!..  along with a note from the Dr. that said "Although the treatment was cut short, it appears to have cleared the virus.  Great news and congratulations!"

Wow..  the side effects are mostly gone (evidently the Riba stays in your system for 6 months) My liver function test are in normal range (first time in 40 years)  and only my platelet count (80) and my bilirubin (1.3 and 0.7) are out of range..

I just stopped taking the diuretic and will see if my liver is functioning well enough to stay off those..

She is having me do semi annual ultrasounds to be proactive for potential liver cancer, but otherwise feels that unless something stupid happens, my liver should last as long as I do :-)

One of the weird things is that now, after the treatment, I was diagnosed as "prediabetic" (never the case before, no family history).. but glucose is running just above 110 and my A1C is at 6.0..  so am controlling with diet and exercise.

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks to all who kept me in their thoughts and prayers, to me, there is no other explanation..  and I count my blessing daily.

Cheers!

[Dee1956]

This is wonderful news, I am so very happy for you.  It seems based on others experience that this new medicine is very effective.
I wish you all the best

[Revalation]

One of my doctors told me about a man who was pulled off early because he had become suicidal. He remained undetectable.

I know you've got to be thankful for the blessing!!!

Your news is great and I wish you continued health in the future.

Reva

[JasmineT]

Wow! What great news!  Congratulations!  You must be on top of the world.  

[Idyllic]

You must be elated. I did not fare well the first time I treated and it sounds like you really walked into to Triple determined to clear the virus no matter what. I glossed over some of your posts and saw all the rough patches you went through on Indivek; how your platelets fluctuated and then plummeted, and then there was that trip to the ER and then finally the fluid build-up. It sounds like you would have hung in there despite all this if you had not received the letter advising you to stop.

Then no posts since February.

I am not only glad for you as it truly sounds like a miracle (the 747 landed smoothly) ~ I feel encouraged myself. I hope you continue to post about how long term SVR works out as well as how well you respond to being off the diuretic. You have treated before so I know you are aware it takes time to feeling normal. I am quite sure no longer having the dark cloud of HCV looming over your head will go a long way to give you the strength and spirit to keep a goin' and stay healthy. Don't be a stranger and once again, Congrats!