great to find this thread .
I’m genotype 1a, fibrosis 3-4, treatment experienced.
Have had HCV for over 40 years.
I’m now 11 weeks into 24 weeks treatment of
Sofosbuvir / Ledisbovir & 12 weeks of Ribavirin 1200.
My first 3 weeks was a breeze with no side effects.
But it soon went down hill after that.
My Haemoglobin dropped to 110.
My mood changed.
Trouble sleeping.
No energy.
Feel nauseous all the time.
My food tastes have changed.
Don’t feel like eating.
BUT hey ! I’m still breathing & in just 7 days, I finish with the Ribavirin .

Remember the half life of Ribavirin is about 12 days so it takes 12 days to drop to 1/2, another 12 to drop to 1/4, another 12 to drop to 1/8 of the original ie expect it to take a couple of weeks to come good when you stop.

You may be interested in this (which is from our decision support tool) Look at the f4: and fail: sections and you will see the SVR rates for 24 weeks with/without Riba from ION-3)


sof_led: {
default: 97,
rating: {
aasld: ratings.classILevelA,
easl: ratings.A1
},
gt1a: {
default: 97, // ION-1 98% (142/145) ION-3 96% 96% (165/172) Aggregate 96.8% (307/317)
rating: {
aasld: ratings.classILevelA,
easl: ratings.A1
}
},
gt1b: {
default: 99, // ION-1 100% (67/67) ION-3 98% (43/44) Aggregate 99.1% (110/111)
rating: {
aasld: ratings.classILevelA,
easl: ratings.A1
}
},
f4: {
default: 97,
rating: {
aasld: ratings.classILevelB,
easl: ratings.B1
},
w12: 97, // ION-1 97% (32/33)
w12riba: 100, // ION-1 100% (33/33)
w24: 97, // ION-1 97% (31/32)
w24riba: 100 // ION-1 100% (36/36)
},
fail: {
default: 94,
rating: {
aasld: ratings.classILevelB,
easl: ratings.B2
},
w12: 94, // ION-3 94% (102/109)
w12riba: 96, // ION-3 96% (107/111)
w24: 99, // ION-3 99% (108/109)
w24riba: 99 // ION-3 99% (110/111)
}

},

There is very little statistical difference between 11 and 12 (<10%) so given you're symptomatic and with or without Riba you are looking at an SVR of 97-99% I would be inclined to stop now.

Hi,
I’m new to this forum, but not to Riba.
It is the worst drug I have ever taken; I did 12 weeks of it with Peg/interferon and Simeprevir, and I failed treatment.

I hope you stopped taking it; I doubt it would make much difference to your SVR now. Even the stats the Dr. put up show minimal difference.

The filthy drug nearly killed me, truly, I was heart attack/stroke material. Blood pressure went sky high, never mind Anemia, that wasn’t the hardest bit to deal with, though not nice, it was the racing mind, heart, shakes, and insomnia that nearly sent me over the edge. It’s taken me nearly 12 months to start to sleep for 5 hours again, and I still wake every hour or two!
I’m supposed to have it again with Harvoni, but I’m not touching it, no matter what, I’ll take my chances without it.

Just my few cents worth; sorry to rave all over your thread, but mention Riba and I’m off!

Good luck with the rest of your treatment; I hope you feel a lot better soon.

Cheers!

Hi I have received my first blood test results(4 weeks) and am disappointed to still have a viral load reading of 239.
Has anyone else had that high a reading at 4 weeks?
Thanks

Good luck Valerie, wishing you all the best, is that a significant drop from your pre treatment VL? We cannot see your stats…. you can make a ‘signature’ in your profile, then other forum participants and mods can see your VL pre tx, gen and F score etc and if you are tx naïve etc. Those factors and all sorts of other things seem to affect everyone differently. Anyway I wish you all the best for getting UND asap, Gaj gave the right advice to consult your doctor/specialist, hugs from Ariel.

Thank you M that’s very encouraging, it’s easy to overeact in these circumstances!
Val

Hi I have received my first blood test results(4 weeks) and am disappointed to still have a viral load reading of 239.
Has anyone else had that high a reading at 4 weeks?

Hello Valerie,

I have just looked at our SVR group and there is this group who were a bit high early on who are now SVR4 +/- SVR12

The dates are: start, end, SVR4 and SVR12

Hi Valerie,
I was also a bit slow responder. My VL was 83 at 4 weeks of treatment. And <15 at 8 weeks.
But finally UND at 8,5 weeks. I had some emotional weeks on treatment!
Two more weeks to 12 weeks after EOT. I hope to have my own SV12!

Big decrease in ALT! ALT 19 is very reassuring!
I wish you good luck and UND soon!