Txing is gonna take alot of education and weighing of pros and cons on your part. You certainly have time to watch & wait. Your VL is low right now and some ppl would tx for that reason. You really have to evaluate your own variables as tx takes 100% total commitent as for some ppl it can be minimal sx's and for others it can be extremely grueling. As far as the colloidal silver goes, there has been reports of the gray lady and the blue man. If you go on youtube and enter colloidal silver, one of the videos that comes up is the blue man. Stay away from that stuff. There is no other cure besides the Peg and Ribavirin. good luck with your decision
Your low Vl is a good sign. My Vl at start of tx was 172,000 iu/ml and as per my doc the chances of SVR in such patients are a bit more than persons with high VL. I was diagnosed in 2002, styarted tx in 2008 , I am Geno 3 and i am on tx from last 6-7 months ( stretching my tx to 9 months).
Low VL, young age, early stage of disease, All these factors support the better chances of SVR . As per adoctors who attended AASLD meetings etc says new meds are atleast almost 2-3 years away and mostly these new meds are in addition to Peg & Riba and not replacing them.
I started with a fairly low VL of 350,000 1a stage 1/1 probably since 1986 exposure at a hospital. I had known about it for a long time and decided to start TX when I began having autoimmune disorders like Thyroid and RA. Now that I am at about shot 34 of 48 I would say wait for a couple of years unless it is really affecting your life. TX has changed my life and not for the better. Hopefully post TX and SVR I will feel better and change my tune. It's a big decision and this is a good place to start.
Take care
Connie
You should make the final decision in consult with preferably a hepatologist, or a gastro that has experience treating Hep C.
That said, if it were me I would wait for the new drugs (protease inhibitors) to come out. Maybe another forum member has the latest estimate on when that might happen.
I agree with what others have said above, there are risks with SOC and it is no picnic. Your low grade and stage give you time. There are "liver friendly" diet and lifestyle choices you can make to try to reduce the chance of damage between now and whenever you treat.
I also strongly agree with fretboard, Peg and riba are the only things that have been proven to work. Avoid colloidal silver.
smaug