Ohhhhh, I thank you for the eye opener, perhaps I am a river in Egypt, 'cause I mis-stated myself...I believe it to be 25 to30 years since I prob. got infected, but I never came up pos till couple weeks ago when liver enzymes were up. Oh gee. I'm so very glad that I am better informed, and I can still hope that I am a lucky one while I wait for the dreaded pancreas picture as well...high risker for that too. How about Milk Thistle?
Perhaps I shall become more holistic as well, but I know you have to be careful now with everything that goes in to the body. I think that PCR will be another couple weeks. Their "order" I saw, was for genotyping and viral load, which I assume to be the PCR. Thanks to both who helped me. (Between the not-knowing and the knowing though, I shall, and have been, admiring the sunrise so much more..)
You've had normal liver enzymes and function tests? That is not unusual. That is usually the case of us with HCV. You may have had It usually takes many decades for the virus to damage the liver.
There is no correlation between how much virus you might have and the amount of liver damage that would cause your liver enzymes to be abnormal.
As dranurag said you must have a HCV RNA test to determine if you have active virus. Liver enzymes only change when you have liver damage. You can reach stage 4 of liver disease and not have abnormal liver enzymes.
So to truly know if you are infected with HCV please get tested.
Good luck!
Hector
hi welcome! It seems you tested positive to HCV 25 years ago and had raised enzymes until 5 years ago.What is your HCV RNA now. If negative your guess is right --you have been the lucky one. It is known to ooccur but very little chance once you enter chronic stage --ie 6 months after initial infection. Were your enzymes and HCV levels positive for more than this periodd? If yes I suggest you repeat HCV RNA PCR by cobas Ampliprep method and keep away form alcohol and other toxins.