Hello kaju,

There is not need to worry when you are undetected.

If that changes we do have a good option for you, but for now we should just wait. If you need it we’ll get it for you, but if you don’t there is no point in wasting money on treatment for a disease you no longer have.

I know it is hard, but please be patient. The wait is hard, but passes quickly. Most people that relapse do that in the first 4 weeks so testing again at that stage would be reasonable.

Hello Kaju,

Sorry to hear about your worry. First let’s see what the result is. Maybe there is no reason to worry, maybe there is.

Mostly I deal with good news stories and the patients wander away.

Sadly a few patients do relapse and we have to look at retreatment. It’s not a short story, and what needs to be done varies, but it is always possible to retreat, so even if you have relapsed the chances are you can be cured.

I have a lot of patients cured first time round, I have some that we cured second time round, and I have a handful where it was “3rd time lucky”.

We try to live by the moto of the US Marine Corps…

No man left behind

Moderated for political correctness as either

No man, woman or child left behind

Somehow “no person left behind” does not have the same ring to it.

http://heart.arizona.edu/clinical-approach-patients-frequent-pvcs

We need to rule out a structural cause. If there is not a structural cause of the PVCs then either

a) They will get better with exercise
b) They will get worse
c) Exercise will not change them (unlikely)

So, assuming the usual investigations have been done, and there is not a structural cause, either exercise will make them better or worse. If it makes it worse stop, if not… continue.

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.

Congratulations JoannaCH

Hello sabrecat,

Yes there is a small, but real risk that having a CT will give you cancer.

For an adult the risk is roughly 1:10,000 per year post exposure with the risk being cumulative so more scans (say 10) might make this 1:1000. This was the results of a really large Australian study into the risks:

https://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f2360

This compares to a 3% 3:100 per annum risk of a cirrhotic patient getting cancer.

So the risk benefit analysis that HCC is relatively likely (for cirrhotics) and the chances of the scan doing harm are small. So we do the scan.

For a child, who has a CT of their brain there is a 1:500 risk of that giving them brain cancer, so, it is very rare that we would take that risk (we would MRI).

Patients don’t typically have the small risk of CT explained, but their doctor (if they are any good) will have considered the risk/benefit – it’s basically what we do all the time.

Hello Nedgemmer,

Welcome to FixHepC and the forum.

Yes, strange as it may seem, your viral load has no impact on cure rate.

You have a high viral load because your body (immune system) is not really trying to do much. The upside is that your immune system is not destroying your liver in its attempts to kill the virus. The downside is that… well, actually there is not a downside besides the extra ink to print the extra zero after 3 million (this is the average viral load).

33 million viruses don’t eat much – maybe 1/2 a hamburger a year (they are very small) so you can afford to feed them.

No reason not to get cured and your chances are as good as anyone else. Not 100% on the first pass, but about 95% for GT1,2,4,5,6 and 90% for GT3.

Back in 2015, when we were doing RVR testing on a new drug we saw a guy with a 16 million viral load go to 16 in the first week. These drugs are remarkably effective.