TOPIC: I'm new to the forum

Why Worry?

Either you are sick, or you are well
If you are well, why worry?

If you are sick...

Either you are going to live or you are going to die
If you are going to live, why worry?

If you are going to die...

Either you are going to heaven or you are going to hell
If you are going to heaven, why worry?

And, if you are going to hell...

You will be so damn busy catching up with old friends you won't have time to worry.


Don-joe

Life is a gift, each day is a blessing, and the ending is known in advance - none of us are getting out of here alive.

Life is a journey, it's not a trial run, so seize the day and make the most of it.

Here is a hint - every single day you have worried you're going to die of something tomorrow YOU HAVE BEEN WRONG.

I've held the hands of patients who have been dying and the common theme is "I wish I'd spent more time with family and friends, I wish I hadn't let my fears control me and I had done X Y Z".

Please have a look at get.gg

Start here: www.get.gg/step1.htm

Arrest the cycle of worry - it would be a pity if you spent your life so consumed by worry that you missed all the fun.

Be well.

Great advice Dr James, I hope Don-Joe can follow these words of wisdom. The online course you linked to seems very helpful as well.

Very well said Doctor.

S

Stool is still yellowish and sometimes clay colored just like the Google search results show. My urine is dark as well.. I fear the worse. I'm on the verge of suicide if I hear that I really have chronic hepatitis. I can't function. I'm even afraid to know at this point.

Big thanks,

But to not worry is easier said than done. We are mad the same but our thoughts often differ. I'm a natural empath who's helped strangers with rides, money and shelter. I'm no angel but very far from being a devil. I haven't lived enough to be this consumed by fears. I don't know what to do besides escaping my terrible adversity. What keeps me from ending things is simply the shock I'd cause on friends and family. Crazy thing is, I always dreamed that I'll take matters into my own hands. In such a cruel world with humans full of judgement with little to no empathy until there in the driver's seat without a wheel then they'd truly understand why some of us turn off the lights

Hi Don Joe,

I would like to say a few things.

From what you said in your previous posts, you should get your blood work results in about a week or less. This will give you or your doc the best fact-based indication of what is causing the dark urine and yellow or clay colored stools. So my advice is just to hang in there and wait for the results. Everyone here has been through that. Mostly it will be good news (like hepatitis cleared), sometimes not so good (hepatitis still there). Really bad news is very rare.

Chronic hepatitis C is not a killer these days. It is easily treated. It is why we are all here.

If the bloodwork suggests a biological case, your doc will order more tests to confirm Hep-C or something else. This will mean more waiting.

If the bloodwork suggests a not Hep-C but physical cause, your doc will order an echography or an X-ray scan. He will look in order of most likely cause first. Most likely is a gall stone stuck in the bile duct. This is easily treated. If nothing is visible in the imagery he could order a biopsy.

And so it goes on. Right at the end of all of these possibilities is your worst fear. Even if your worst fear comes true, it might still be treatable.

Right now, I am sure your thoughts a racing everywhere. As soon as you get the first results in, you can just focus on what that means, and you forget about the rest.

Even if the waiting is driving you nuts, everyone here is telling you in a different way that you just gotta do it!

Thanks for the concern.
I'm a nervous wreck. I'm almost afraid to know, i just want my boring life back. If there's anything going on I'll say it's hbv according to my (amatuer) research. I've literally been at gun point in a few occasions even shot at once before. I'd say the idea of an underlying health condition is much more frightening than anything I've ever been thru. So scared. I face danger when its necessary, I can't face this like a man.

Don-joe

1) If you have hep C it is curable
2) If you don't there is nothing to cure

Either way...

Thanks Dr. James


I'm more concerned with hbv since it's 50 to 100 times more infectious. The encounter I had was more at risk for hbv. I'm very afraid emotionally out of it.
The thought that I can lose my job as well. Just too much on the brain right now. I just came from quest diagnostics trying to be a real man for a change. They don't allow us to test w/o a prescription or some type of doctors note. It took courage from another planet to even go just to be turned away. I'm afraid at this point jaundice is next considering my bowel movements and dark urine color. I'm f'd up in the head right now.

Don-joe,

Hep B is a disease for which there is an effective vaccination.

It is also a disease where 95% of adults who get it will develop natural immunity and cure themselves so it's not exactly the end of the world for an adult to catch it.

For you, get vaccinated and stop worrying about it.

I'm reading where ppl that have hbv have it for years. Some clear the infection some don't. I'm on all types of forums looking for information. Some clear it and some don't.

Hello don-joe,

Getting more misinformation from more misinformed people is unlikely to reduce your anxiety.

Yes, some clear it (95%) and some don't (5%).

The 95% that clear it logically spend very little time on Hep B forums.

It's the same here. If jump in the time machine and do a search back for posts before 31/12/2015 you will see lots of names of very active members here. While a handful still drop in from time to time most of them have moved on with Hep C free lives.

Cease and desist from your self-sabotage. You could be vaccinated for Hep B, having safe sex with randoms or unsafe sex with a reliable partner, and you would have zero anxiety about Hep B because you have zero risk.

Try the serenity prayer,

Give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and the Wisdom to know the difference.

Or if that does not work for you

For every ailment under the sun
There is a remedy, or there is none;
If there be one, try to find it;
If there be none, never mind it.

Have some results from

Cbc with differential platelet
Cmp 12+8AC
Lipid panel.

As if I know what this means
Albumin,Serum 5.3
Globulin 2.4
Bilirubin, total 0.3
Alkaline phosphatase 63
LDH 176
AST 30
ALT40


WBC elevated 13.5
Neutrophils 8.8
Lymphs 3.3
monocytes 1.2
I'm no Dr, but I'd say my body is battling something. Dr prescribed me Bactrim. I'm reluctant to take it don't wanna risk liver damage.

For the most part don-joe this is a forum for those of us with or treating HCV. Sharing and support.

You said almost 3 weeks ago you had some symtoms and mentioned you were tested for the hepatitis's.

Would it not be best to rely on the doctor running your tests (and seemingly asking some history)
to give you his/her profesional opinion on what they feel is going on .

If you have not been given the results of your hepatitis tests yet the doctor should have had them by now.

It would seem the professional that prescribed you bactrim feels there may be an infection going on somewhere and it would only be dangerous to take that if you had severe liver damage ,which obviously they do not feel you have (backed up by those tests you posted)

S

Hey thanks for the help, I'm just scared man. I did say I had symptoms which are still around. I mentioned me trying to go to a place that does testing, but wasn't able to test without a doctors prescription. I was upset with that, i think we ought to be able to pay and find out without a doctors order. I only have test results that the Dr ordered.

The symptoms remain the same yellow stool, sometimes clay colored to brown with dark urine. I was just trying to get insight based on symptoms and lab results. I find it strange to have dark dark urine with negative bilirubin urinalysis... and 0.3 total bilirubin in the blood.

I read bactrim is pretty toxic on the liver and is known to increase bilirubin. I normally do as the doctor says but I don't understand my total condition. That's the 2nd Dr who went to the computer and picked up where the previous Dr left off. It's difficult not having the same Dr. (Insurance issues) I'm paying out of pocket for everything