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Real struggle with what am not sure of but HCV is just my only suspect.

hello everyone am Michael and am an african , back in 2016 i had a needle prick from a dirty needle used by my mother as she was going through interferon  therapy for hcv then, so when the accident happened i couldnt do anything since there wasn’t a vaccine for it , so i kept going for tests even did viral load and nothing was detected… after 1 year yet no detection, no antibody , but the thing was that my body shows a lot of symptoms like sharp pains at my liver local at my lower right rib cage which comes and goes and I slowly turned very fair (pale) my skin has never been fair am an African people around me thought I was applying some cream also few month after the accident I lost weight so much that everyone ask me what was wrong with me … and again I develops eye problems and gets tired a lot and had bumpy skin rashes, sweat a lot, had cyst removed from my back and more, I just got sicker, all this was happening while the test kept coming negative and undetected , my girlfriend as at then turned more light skin too after a while tho we broke up after because she cheated she herself started getting the liver pain after much later so at late 2017 I decided to just go for treatments and ignore the test results since I had no more choice so I ordered harvoni and did 48 days just to clear my conscience because the doctors I consulted said they cant treat me hcv if the test results says otherwise  
well after the harvoni it looked like things were normal so I asked my ex she said she did another series of antibody test yet they were negative but she says she feels sick all the time.
well this is the end of 2018 7 months ago I met another lady which I want to settle down with and yeah I met her a virgin so after few sex noticed she has started changing too she is slowly getting more fair and she started getting those pains too right now she is losing weight so fast that I have no idea what to do she has also been sick and get dizzy a lot, although I told her about my experience with hcv and she was positive I look healthy enough ….
So please people is there anyone here that had the same experience am tired of this life , I have don’t know what to do anymore, I did hepatitis b tests alongside still it came out negative I have no idea on what to do my mother was diagnosed in U.K and there wasn’t anything else wrong with her , why am I suffering this much my skin has aged so fast since then too much wrinkles I don’t drink nor small all my life I now look older than I should … please people help with an idea or something
5 Responses
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1491755 tn?1333201362
I hope the new year brings you a positive resolution to your problem. Good luck!!
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
thanks James i appreciate, wish you a better new year too
1491755 tn?1333201362
Not Hep C. Who gave you HCV drugs when you didn’t have HCV.  Good luck to you!
Helpful - 0
2 Comments
He is from Africa they do things a bit differently there it seems
Yeah you can pretty much have it ordered n one care just have the money to pay, regulations on any sort dont exist here, medical system are mostly owned by private business men which dont care nor know much about medical researches or updates... they just do it for money and the government dont interfere as some of the clinics belongs to some of them our governments is dumb and badly money corrupted thats just the simply description our universities can go on strike for a year due to lecturers not being paid  and again private universities is the best which cost as much as traveling overseas to study the same course which get u a better quality education anyways .....
683231 tn?1467323017
Just to add it is known stress can cause gastrointestinal issues it is possible that your abdominal pain could be stress driven.

What does your doctor say about your symptoms?
Helpful - 0
3 Comments
Met over 4 doctors they couldn't come up with anything reasonable my blood works has been good so far , though we are in African medical system isnt very updated around here,  perhaps i will need to reach out to a better doctor soon enough...
I hope you are able to find a doctor who can find answers to your health problems. Wishing you the best of luck and good health.
Thanks a lot
683231 tn?1467323017
Ok yes you had a needle stick but were proven several times you do not have hepatitis c.

Even  if a healthcare worker should experience an accidental needlestick the odds of transmission are only about 1.8% in other words very low.  So it is hardly a surprise that you did not contract hepatitis C from this incident.

As to you lower right quadrant pain that could be many things. I had hepatitis c for 37 years and have had liver cirrhosis for 11 years and have no symptoms beyond some tiredness. I have not had liver pain.

There are other reasons for RLQ pain other than the liver the other symptoms you describe are not symptoms of hep c or other liver disease.

Causes of RLQ pain from the Mayo Clinic:

“This area primarily overlies the Ileocecal junction and appendix and disease states affecting these organs are a common cause of RLQ pain. ... Most common etiologies include: Appendix - acute appendicitis. Ileocecal junction - terminal ileitis (infectious, Crohn's disease), irritable bowel syndrome.”

Based on what I read there you could simply have irritable bowel syndrome.

I don’t know the cause of your problems I am not a medical professional. I am simply a patient with liver disease.

The only way your problems will be diagnosed is to see your doctor and have testing performed. Even the best doctor in the world couldn’t diagnose you without examining you and performing testing. If you want to know what’s wrong see your doctor.
Helpful - 0
683231 tn?1467323017
You did it have hepatitis c as proven by your negative hep C antibody tests and even more so by your not detected HCV RNA by PCR test which checks for the virus in your blood.

The majority of people with hep chave no symptoms and when they do the most commonly reported symptom is tiredness. The symptoms you say you have experienced are not related to hepatitis c an illness you never had and for which you took an unnecessary treatment.

My best recommendation is to see your doctor for a proper diagnosis of your symptoms and believe what your doctor says and do not undertake treatment for an illness you have been told by your doctor is not needed.

Just to add there is still no vaccination for hepatitis C.

It does sound like you may be experiencing  vitiligo. Alto high I have not seen your skin condition and am not a medical professional. So again you should see your doctor for diagnosis.

“Vitiligo is caused by the lack of a pigment called melanin in the skin. Melanin is produced by skin cells called melanocytes, and it gives your skin its colour. In vitiligo, there aren't enough working melanocytes to produce enough melanin in your skin. This causes white patches to develop on your skin or hair.”

“Risk factors
You may be at increased risk of developing non-segmental vitiligo if:
other members of your family have it
there's a family history of other autoimmune conditions – for example, if one of your parents has pernicious anaemia (an autoimmune condition that affects the stomach)
you have another autoimmune condition
you have melanoma (a type of skin cancer) or cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (cancer of the lymphatic system)
you have particular changes in your genes that are known to be linked to non-segmental vitiligo
Neurochemicals
Segmental vitiligo (the less common type) is thought to be caused by chemicals released from the nerve endings in your skin. These chemicals are poisonous to the melanocyte skin cells.
Triggers
It's possible that vitiligo may be triggered by particular events, such as:
stressful events, like childbirth
skin damage, such as severe sunburn or cuts (this is known as the Koebner response)
exposure to certain chemicals – for example, at work
Vitiligo isn't caused by an infection and you can't catch it from someone else who has it.”
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
Flyinlynn thanks for your response, the point was that this whole thing started off right after the needle prick, also you forgot the part that i do have pains at my liver location and again why is my new girlfriend getting the same symptoms... even she has started complaining that she dont know what is wrong with her that she is just getting sicker and her skin is changing and was asking me if there was something i need to tell her.... i want to ignore hcv but its not leaving my head.  ok maybe i contacted something else from the needle prick then what could it be? i have done lots of tests nothing came up its all revolves around liver issue even at some point i developed fatty liver from the scan i did and letter as i changed life style it went away.....
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