Hi Tom
4.5 kpa is a good score for fibroscan! Mine was 4.4 kpa in 2013, practically the same, and I remember the consultant saying it was the same score as his and classed as a normal liver.

That’s a very good set of results Tomas. With your liver functioning so well, and you being treatment naive, you’re probably an ideal candidate for clearing your hepc on the new DAAs.

Hi Tomas,

For somebody with HCV it really does not get better than that prior to treatment.

With low fibrosis you chances of cure are at the higher end. No 100% cast iron guarantee but good reason to be optimistic.

I’ve lost my youthful years, but to feel well, before I become old, will be a reprieve.

We are all the product of all the people we have ever met, and the things we’ve done and have between now and whenever our time runs out to do whatever it is…

My mum once told me something useful:

“Life is not a trial run.”

Get cured and find your new future, whatever it might be.

On my first freefall skydive I asked my jump master, Captain Ron Llywelyn SAS this question:

Hey Ron, how long do I have to pull the ripcord?

He said:

Well James, I’ll tell you. You’ve got the rest of your f$&@ing life to pull that ripcord…

Yesterday is the story that delivered you to today. In front of you is a blank page and you can write today’s story any way you want. You can scribble on the pages, tear them out, or write your masterpiece.

Those are some good points you raise Tomas.

I don’t know if there are any good research statistics on this (I’ve never come across any), but I doubt there’s any argument against living healthily giving your body the best chance to defeat this virus.

But (and there is a but), following a particular lifestyle does not make a given in how your health will end up. Taking myself and the people I know (sure, anecdotal) I drank like a fish, probably to the point of alcoholism, for over thirty years (having hepc throughout) until I stopped a couple of years ago. I also always ate what I wanted and have been overweight to varying degrees for most of my adult life. On the plus side, I’ve always excercised well, kept fit, and since I was diagnosed with hepc about 13 years ago I have taken high daily doses of curcumin and milk thistle. My bloods before starting treatment last September were similar to yours (apart from a high GGT of 357), and a fibroscan I had last November gave a ‘normal’ reading of 4.7. Whilst I would not advocate anyone, with or without hepc, following my lifestyle, I have pretty much got away with it.

My brother, who has been an intravenous drug user on-and-off throughout his adult life and drank moderately when off the drugs, started suffering liver failure over 10 years ago and had a liver transplant about 2 years ago.

A mutual friend, who used intravenous drugs with my brother briefly over 30 years ago and drank and smoked fairly moderately afterward living quite a healthy lifestyle, died from liver failure over 5 years ago. He’d stopped drinking and smoking 4 years before he died.

Another mutual friend, who also used intravenous drugs briefly with my brother in the early days, has drank and smoked heavily for the rest of his life but otherwise kept fit and looked after his weight. He’s still doing ok health-wise.

The point I’m trying to make is that, whilst you’re right about looking after yourself, it’s still something of a lottery. And living a particular lifestyle certainly doesn’t preclude one from getting cleared from hepc.

Sorry if Doc James and Myself appeared to take your thread offtopic with our exchange, but there was an important point in there which addresses the point raised in your last paragraph. I’ve always tried to have a positive outlook and live my life to the full, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it so far. As Doc James said, the future is always a book full of empty pages in which one has the ability to write many different stories. And we do try to keep a sense of humour on this forum .

Anyway, thanks for the thoughtful post. It made me think about a few of my perceptions, for sure.