Hi all, good luck to all of you! I am new to this forum and newly diagnosed about 2.5 months ago, so still in the learning faze and catching on fast. I am in the US and am still waiting on results from some initial tests: liver u/s and cryoglobulin levels Otherwise have normal labs AST =24 ALT=18 and VL= 214,070. Guess all that mostly healthy diet I have been on for years helping. Would really like to hear from anyone else from the US on how to get these generic meds here since that is what I plan on doing once I get the official denial from my insurance. I have no idea how long I have had this crap in me since I have been an RN for over 34 years and have delt with way too much blood over the years. Thanks and here’s to everyone having a happy UD new year!

Thanks Zhuk, I will check it out

That’s good to hear Joan, glad you’re getting better & stronger.
x

Thank you for your post Dr James.

I am not sure if its 17kPA I just know it was 17.

In April this year I had a fibroscan within a year it went from 8.6 to 17. The technician did it twice on the spot and I could see the alarm on her face. It was done at RPA Sydney.

It raised alarm bells as it wasn’t following a typical HepC trajectory and my specialist did every test available. When I had a liver biopsy it was F3/F4 borderline. Alt’s etc were very high . The final conclusion was my liver was inflamed and I should go on treatment immediately. That meant Interferon. I chose the FixHepC path.

In October I checked with the hospital before ordering my meds through FixHepC and was told I am F3 non cirrhotic & to order a script for Sof 400gm and Dac 60gms x 12 weeks.

Before tx my Alts were going down and I was starting to feel slightly better. 6 weeks into treatment my alt’s are normal and as mentioned 0 viral load. The hospital is monitoring me during my tx and after. I will most likely get another fibroscan in April 2016.

Thank You Dr James

Hi Lynne,

Dr James posted about this in the below link. In summary “Undetected” means a zero reading in your blood. As to whether that means no virus in your system at all, I think klhilde’s post on the same page covers it well.

Great to hear you are feeling much better. It seems many of us wake early on Tx (I only got 4.5hrs last night), just try to catch up when you can.

http://fixhepc.com/forum/experts-corner/177-blood-tests-required-during-treatment-sofo-dac.html?start=12#6189

Hi Joan,

Yes, two different tests.

1. There is an ‘antibody’ test that just tells you that your body is saying “yes, I have met this virus and fought with it”. It doesn’t tell you whether or not you currently have the virus only that you have had it at some stage. It is a relatively cheap quick test and was probably one of the tests your doctor used (along with others such as probably hep a & b) when he first suspected that you may have some sort of liver problem.

2. Then there is the PCR test which shows via detected/undetected whether you have active virus in your body. Your doctor would have run this test once he got a confirmed antibody test to see whether you still had the virus before recommending treatment. And it is the test used to check for SVR at various points and into the future if you ever want confirmation that the virus hasn’t returned. (The V/L test is basically the same test but goes into more detail to tell you how much virus rather than just virus/no virus)

Test 1 is of little use to you as you already know you have had the virus in the past and it will show positive for many years, possibly even your whole life.

Test 2 in its basic detected/undetected form is what you need from now on as you just need to keep getting undetected or zero results to confirm the virus hasn’t returned.

And while I’m mostly feeling better than I did pretreatment it is a bumpy ride some days….but there’s light at the end of the tunnel now!

Hello all you Australian GT2s – have you seen Dr James last blog concerning the new treatment protocols?

If you are GT1 or GT3 then the PBS looks like it is going to come through for you (and that is 90% of all patients), however if you’re GT2 then your only option is Sofosbuvir +Ribavirin and if you’re GT4 GT5 or GT6 then you’re still looking at Interferon and Ribavirin + Sofosbuvir. –

http://fixhepc.com/blog/item/34-pbs-listing-some-tears-in-heaven.html

Not sure how they came to this conclusion as it seems some GT2s on this forum are clearing without Riba.

Hi Joy,

I suspect Joan picked it for GT2 with the Ribavirin being cheaper than Daclatasvir and still giving “acceptable” clearance rates and “minimal” sides.
Of course this depends on who’s wallet is defining “acceptable” and “minimal”, doesn’t it?

For the GT4-6, I’m not really certain as Peg costs are usually fairly high but maybe they have a stockpile of Peg left over and figure that upsetting small numbers of a minority group of patients are better that antagonising the three main GTs in Australia?

Hopefully the finalised recommendations will include Riba and Peg free subsets in which case it would probably be advisable to make sure your doctor determines you as unsuitable for these old meds if in one of those GTs.