Hello! I’m new to the forum and wanted to introduce myself and give a little background, post my VL and LFTs. I’m a 33 year old female, in the US.
I was first alerted to the possibility of infection 5 years ago. I had some routine bloodwork done during a yearly well woman’s exam. My ALT was around 42 at the time, and the nurse practitioner (bless her) said that I should look into getting a Hep panel done. Even though it was only slightly elevated.
I looked at her in astonishment and said “well didn’t they do that during my pregnancies (2)?” She shook her head no, and told me not unless I gave them reason to believe that they should.
I didn’t divulge to my OBGYN that I had used drugs when I was 17 years old. It was embarrassing. I figured if anything was wrong, surely they’d catch it. Wrong.
I went on to have the antibody test, and sure enough… tested positive. I was devastated. I had been living on the straight and narrow… moved away, turned my life around, got married, and had two beautiful children. My children!!! I panicked. Got them tested immediately and by the grace of God they were negative. My husband still hasn’t been tested, which scares me. Even though I know the odds are low, there were 5+ years of me NOT knowing and us sharing razors, and just not even thinking of the possible risks.
I didn’t have insurance at the time, and couldn’t afford the RNA… so 5 years later, here I am.
I am now fully insured (after being uninsured for 10 years) and told my brand new doctor EVERYTHING. He ran a full metabolic panel, CBC, and Quant RNA on me. Sadly, I am indeed infected with HCV and I have been living with this for 15 years at the minimum.
Strangely, my bloodwork is perfect. From all appearances, everything looks good. Except for the viral load of over 3 million!!!! I wasn’t expecting that. I’ll go ahead and post the bloodwork and let you be the judge, because I’m freaking out at this point and would love any positive words:
WBC
Your Value
5.76 K/uL
Standard Range
3.90 – 12.70 K/uL
RBC
Your Value
4.19 M/uL
Standard Range
4.00 – 5.40 M/uL
Hemoglobin
Your Value
12.3 g/dL
Standard Range
12.0 – 16.0 g/dL
Hematocrit
Your Value
40.4 %
Standard Range
37.0 – 48.5 %
Mean Corpuscular Volume
Your Value
96 fL
Standard Range
82 – 98 fL
Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin
Your Value
29.4 pg
Standard Range
27.0 – 31.0 pg
Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Conc
Your Value
30.4 g/dL
Standard Range
32.0 – 36.0 g/dL
RDW
Your Value
12.2 %
Standard Range
11.5 – 14.5 %
Platelets
Your Value
288 K/uL
Standard Range
150 – 350 K/uL
MPV
Your Value
10.9 fL
Standard Range
9.2 – 12.9 fL
Immature Granulocytes
Your Value
0.2 %
Standard Range
0.0 – 0.5 %
Gran # (ANC)
Your Value
3.9 K/uL
Standard Range
1.8 – 7.7 K/uL
Immature Grans (Abs)
Your Value
0.01 K/uL
Standard Range
0.00 – 0.04 K/uL
Lymph #
Your Value
1.5 K/uL
Standard Range
1.0 – 4.8 K/uL
Mono #
Your Value
0.3 K/uL
Standard Range
0.3 – 1.0 K/uL
Eos #
Your Value
0.0 K/uL
Standard Range
0.0 – 0.5 K/uL
Baso #
Your Value
0.03 K/uL
Standard Range
0.00 – 0.20 K/uL
nRBC
Your Value
0 /100 WBC
Standard Range
0 /100 WBC
Gran%
Your Value
68.1 %
Standard Range
38.0 – 73.0 %
Lymph%
Your Value
25.3 %
Standard Range
18.0 – 48.0 %
Mono%
Your Value
5.7 %
Standard Range
4.0 – 15.0 %
Eosinophil%
Your Value
0.2 %
Standard Range
0.0 – 8.0 %
Basophil%
Your Value
0.5 %
Standard Range
0.0 – 1.9 %
Sodium
Your Value
136 mmol/L
Standard Range
136 – 145 mmol/L
Potassium
Your Value
3.9 mmol/L
Standard Range
3.5 – 5.1 mmol/L
Chloride
Your Value
101 mmol/L
Standard Range
95 – 110 mmol/L
CO2
Your Value
25 mmol/L
Standard Range
23 – 29 mmol/L
Glucose
Your Value
77 mg/dL
Standard Range
70 – 110 mg/dL
BUN, Bld
Your Value
10 mg/dL
Standard Range
6 – 20 mg/dL
Creatinine
Your Value
0.8 mg/dL
Standard Range
0.5 – 1.4 mg/dL
Calcium
Your Value
8.9 mg/dL
Standard Range
8.7 – 10.5 mg/dL
Total Protein
Your Value
7.9 g/dL
Standard Range
6.0 – 8.4 g/dL
Albumin
Your Value
3.6 g/dL
Standard Range
3.5 – 5.2 g/dL
Total Bilirubin
Your Value
0.4 mg/dL
Standard Range
0.1 – 1.0 mg/dL
Alkaline Phosphatase
Your Value
67 U/L
Standard Range
55 – 135 U/L
AST
Your Value
20 U/L
Standard Range
10 – 40 U/L
ALT
Your Value
28 U/L
Standard Range
10 – 44 U/L
Anion Gap
Your Value
10 mmol/L
Standard Range
8 – 16 mmol/L
eGFR if African American
Your Value
>60.0 mL/min/1.73 m^2
Standard Range
>60 mL/min/1.73 m^2
eGFR if non African American
Your Value
>60.0 mL/min/1.73 m^2
Standard Range
>60 mL/min/1.73 m^2
Here’s where it gets a little hairy…
HCV RNA Quant PCR
Your Value
3,148,265 IU/mL
Standard Range
<12 IU/mL
Yikes.
So there it is, folks. I’m awaiting an appointment with gastroenterologist on the 19th and hope to celebrate 2020 on treatment. I have no idea what genotype, or what damage has been done over the past 15 years.
I’m hopeful, and I’m forever grateful to have this forum to read success stories, and understand more about my new journey.
Thank you for reading!
.
