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Thank you all for your posts.....this Forum has kept me "sane" through the last five weeks and I confess I have a bit of a laugh at some of the posts. Laughter is good for the soul apparently. I am off to see my GP on Monday with a nice bottle of Red to give to him for Xmas. He has been a great support to me and no doubt will be on board with his other Hep C patients now.

Just a quick bit of advice if I may ask......when I have finished my treatment in 7 weeks do I have another VL test then or do I wait for 3 months after I have finished? I think that wait will be more stressful than the last four weeks of waiting

I still have insomnia and a few headaches but nothing I can't cope with and my energy levels are much better too. I also feel a sense of "calm" which I haven't had for a very long time.

I wish you all a very Merry Xmas and a happy healthy 2016.

My heartfelt thanks go to Dr Freeman

It's currently pretty standard to do an end of Tx test but as the nurse at RHH said to me she doesn't know why they are bothering because, provided you continue to comply with Tx, you will be undetected immediately after completion. As if the virus returning wasn't enough incentive, I think the added fact that we have paid for our own meds is a pretty good reason to think there's unlikely to be any problem with compliance from us.

You only need qualitative PCRs now except in the unlikely event that you relapse after Tx. The good news is you get 4 qualitative a year as opposed to only 2 quantitative (that measure VL) under Medicare. Not sure if they count them from your first test or on calendar years. Perhaps the doc could enlighten. Qualitative just look for any virus RNA. If there is none then it follows that a quantitative would also be undetected.

However, I found the first two weeks after Tx rough going and became super paranoid. So I asked the nurse if I could get a qualitative done at 4 - 6 weeks for my own peace of mind. I haven't used it yet and am 4 weeks post Tx now. But now that I just feel consistently good and feel confident the virus hasn't returned I'm just going to hold onto the form and only use it if I feel I need some reassurance. I may not get it done at all. While SVR12 is considered cured, I don't think I'll be completely convinced until about the 12 month mark so I want to have some tests to spare for later on. I've also factored into my own considerations the possibility of relapse and should that happen, I want to treat again sooner rather than later.

I would suggest consider all the above and "spend" the tests available to you according to your own requirements including what you think you need for reassurance and in consultation with your doctor. The only one you really need to factor in definitely is the 12 week post Tx one.

Hello everyone

The Doctor just gave me my blood test results and has asked me to see if the following may have something to do with the medication.

Neutrophils 1.9
Platelets 148

Apparently these are just a little bit lower than normal and nothing to worry about but as I have never had results like this before he just wanted me to check. Will follow up again in one month. Liver function test was perfect!

Thanks in advance.

Congratulations Lynne on the UND! A great xmas pressies for you

Hi Lynne

Congratulations on the great result, Merry Christmas I too had a neutrophil drop to 1.6 early in tx but really don't think it was a medication side effect, more to do with a Flu I was carrying at that time, however, any infection could give a neutophil result like this. I'm not sure that these meds do anything to your WBC and indicator counts. Others will be able to advise. I know that interferon had me at 0.2 at one stage and caused havoc with WBC and Neutophils.

Don't worry this will bounce back and 1.9 isn't really that low but something to monitor. Mine came back in 2 weeks. Em

Congratulations Lynne thats great news!!

Just a quick bit of advice if I may ask......when I have finished my treatment in 7 weeks do I have another VL test then or do I wait for 3 months after I have finished? I think that wait will be more stressful than the last four weeks of waiting

The PROTON trial of 200 vs 400 of Sofosbbuvir showed that on the 400 mg dose 100% of people who went undetected on treatment stayed UND at EOT (End of treatment) www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC396...e1-1756283X13515825/ For the 200 mg dose only 94% hit UND at EOT but the SVR of 90% was almost the same as the 91% for the 400 mg dose.

So in English if you've hit UND on treatment you will be UND at EOT so doing a test then is academic. Nice to see, but basically useless.

At 4 weeks post treatment UND means a 96% chance of absolute cure, and at 12 weeks UND means 99%.