Well… that happened.

Six months of Sof/Dac; never missed a single dose. I was pretty hopeful because I tested Undetected at 2 weeks after starting treatment and my starting VL was 14 million. I remained UND through EOT (tested again at 4 wks, 8wks, EOT). EOT + 4wk test saw the virus surge back to 12 million.

Ah well, I guess I am a nice place to live.

While I had almost no notable sx there were a couple curious things. Though I generally felt good throughout tx, I didn’t experience a marked increase in energy and feeling of well-being… until about 2 wks after EOT. At that point I noticed that I felt really good; full of energy and fully engaged with every moment of the day, which seems odd, almost as if my body responded with enthusiasm to the return of it’s previously known state.

Also, my monitoring physician did another Fibroscan at EOT. My pre-tx Fibroscan was 8.9, so high-ish F2 (interestingly, the Fibrotest Pre-tx was F3). At EOT my score dropped to 4.8, so F0/F1. That was even more unexpected than my 2 wk RVR. I don’t know what to make of that exactly except that in my case it seems the non-invasive fibrosis tests more accurately demonstrated liver inflammation rather than actual fibrosis.

Not being cured is frustrating and disappointing, although curiously, not crushing, perhaps because I’ve only known about my hep-C for less than a year. Most frustrating is that there’s no clear explanation of why the tx failed. Most likely it’s RAVs. My dr. took blood Pre-tx to store so we’d be able to test for baseline RAVs in case of tx failure, but his tech accidentally sent it in rather than stowing it in the fridge That test found the Y93H mutation (as well as others that apparently are not clinically relevant). That was tested again after tx failure and showed the exact same mutations, which is good since it says I did not develop any new NS5A resistance. Though I don’t quite understand how they survived the Sof for 6 months, I guess the RAVs got me. Oh, and the whole ‘harder to treat GT3’ thing.

So yeah… tx failure. Like others, I’ve got my eye on the Sof/Vel/Vox combo. So now there’s the wait for the release of Vox and trying to stop my mind from incessantly chewing on the why of my failed tx. One thing I’m confident was not a factor is the choice of generics and I am deeply grateful for Dr. Freeman’s efforts as well as the courage and determination of everyone on this forum.