To treat or not to treat, that is the question!

[truredhead]

I am so unsure about whether to treat the hep c with the interferon. I already received my first 3 months medicine from Roche. I have been reading so much about the side effects that is scares the heck out of me. All my blood tests are good so far as levels except the viral load is very high. I am a 1A geno, I do not drink and have been on methadone for 15 yrs. I have fibro and irritable bowel syndrome which seems to be better in last few months.My biopsy showed F1-F2, I am not sure when I aquired it, could have been a tattoo or former IV use. Just found out I had it year and half ago. Should I wait or treat? I just need some feedback I guess. My viral load was 24 million and that is the only bad thing I see on the blood tests. I know we addicts always expect the worse, but some of those sides never go away and I hate any mental probs starting, Its a wonder I am not goofy now! I sure you can tell how great I am at making decisions!

[mikesimon]

Hi portann,

Thank you so much for recognizing and commenting on the wisdom contained in Mr. Liver's erudite post.

I appreciate you calling it to my attention - had you not posted I might have missed it.

I wasn't quite as fond of the excerpt you cited as you apparently are but that certainly doesn't negate the value of your post.

Thanks again and I'm going to watch my salt intake closely too - thanks to you and Mr Liver.

Mike

[portann]

Hi Mr. Liver,

Excellent post!  You address the issues compassionately and logically.

Thank you for your thoughts, especially this part:

"The loss of any human to any disease is a tragic occurrence... I have known more ppl with HCV than most so I have known more who died also. And I've never diminshed the role of treatment...I champion it...as tragic as it is it doesn't give anyone the right to inflate the risk and make it sound as if [when] you hit cirrhosis you will get cancer and die...it does not alter the fact one bit that HCV rarely kills."

Thanks again. And I'll watch my salt for sure.

Susan

[FlGuy]

You seem to imply that the only health-impacting result of HCV is HCC and that the low rate of fatality for HCV HCC is so low that it's hardly worth sneezing at.

[nygirl7]

Lots of Silent Killers out there but it doesn't demean the fact that heart disease can cause you to drop dead - out of absolutely no where it would seem but you are still deader than dead.  With proper treatment however to control the heart disease you could live for ages. Ask my mother who just went through congestive heart failure if she wishes that she would have stopped smoking (another silent killer) and had lowered her cholesterol (another silent killer).

Thats the point. Thanks for bringing this up.

[Mr Liver]

The loss of any human to any disease is a tragic occurrence for the family and friends. I've lost loved ones as I suspect everyone on this forum has. I have known more ppl with HCV than most so I have known more who died also. And I've never diminshed the role of treatment when it is appropriate and necessary. I champion it and I have the posts to prove it. But as tragic as it is it doesn't give anyone the right to inflate the risk and make it sound as if you hit cirrhosis you will get cancer and die. No matter how many people I have known personally who have succumbed to liver failure it does not alter the fact one bit that HCV rarely kills. Many studies that have been verified state HCC occurrence is as low as 1%. Deduct those who will tx the HCC and remove it (20%) and live happily ever after. So when it is repeated ad nauseum that HCC is gonna get ya ,its a blatant misrepresntation of the known facts, and I feel the poster owes it to the reader to give the true incidence rates to avoid bringing unneccesary anxiety to the issue. In order to make an informed decision facts must be used. And omission of facts is the same as lying .
This is the first web page that was brought up when I did a quick search. I've got a bad feeling that some of these may have seniority over HCV for the usage of Silent Killer since they have been around for much longer.

Salt is called "The Silent Killer'.

Ovarian cancer is called "The Silent Killer".

High Blood Pressure has been  called the largest of "The Silent Killer'

Diabetes is called "The Silent Killer"

Colon cancer is called "The Silent Killer"

Smoking is called "The Silent Killer":.

High cholesterol is referred to as " The Silent Killer"

Emphsyema patients refer to their disease as (you guessed it) "The Silent Killer"

There are more but you get the point.

You can call HCV the Silent Killer if you want. But it is not a very accurate descriptor given the mortality rate in the US from HCV. When I think of killer diseases I think of smoking. 60% of those who smoke or smoked will die from it. That's over half ! Compare that to the 1%-4% mortality rate from HCC. There are people who have treated and still smoke cigs and then somehow they gather of some of their selfrighteousness and march off to the computer to frighten ppl that have HCV with a cig hanging out of their mouth. Puhleeeze.

http://www.google.com/search?q=diseases+called+silent+killer&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GGIE_en

[nygirl7]

Amen sister!  It's just a horrible thing to have to experience and unfortunately for many of us we've had to watch more than one person lose this battle.  How I wish I had known I had it back then and had treated successfully perhaps I could have had some influence on two of my friends lack of knowledge on what would happen. I can't feel guilty because I didn't know much yet but once you do......that does not go away quietly.

Good luck with getting your bladder put back redhead - I hope that treatment is easy on you and you are one of the lucky ones!