Hello Sheldon,

Yes, there are plenty of yanks who have taken matters into their own hands.

Mike (search for mgalbrai) treated a couple of years ago and has been posting to the “Monthly USA Update” for the last 2 years and 3 months

https://fixhepc.com/support-forum/buyers-club-nodes/653-monthly-u-s-update.html

You’ll find quite a lot of US regulars like Greedfighter, re_roll and others there.

The question you’re probably asking has been asked quite a lot, which is “Can someone prove to me that this website is legit?”

https://fixhepc.com/support-forum/new-to-forum/1820-can-someone-prove-to-me-that-this-website-is-legit.html

Viral load is essentially meaningless. Anything over undetected is a problem and the response to treatment is great regardless of starting viral load.

Although your low level seems a good thing, what it means is that your body is having a “red hot crack” at trying to get rid of it. Your body does this by killing the liver cells containing it, so, as strange as it may seem:

Patients with high viral loads are often less symptomatic than patients with low ones because all the virus wants to do is duplicate itself – it is your body’s immune system that is doing the damage by trying to kill it.

There is some discussion here about this: https://www.webmd.com/hepatitis/c-hcv-viral-load#1

While the 2 experts focus on what is high, what is low there is mention that viral load does not indicate disease severity, prognosis and progression.

Your ALT and AST should not increase like that.

Do you have Hepatitis B core antibody and Hepatitis B surface antibody results?

This is a perfectly acceptable result for rhe 4 week test.

I should probably have added that after the PCR fluorescent probes are added to detect the amplified RNA – these target commonly retained RNA sequences in the virus and assuming equal amplification the Abbot one(s) fit your virus slightly better.

Your odds of success are 20:1 in your favour.

In the unlikely event you are in the 1 not the 20 then retreatment is simple so don’t sweat it.

PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction. It is an amplification process. When there is not very much to amplify… it may not amplify.

The not detected test was done on a Cephied carteidge based system. They are good but possibly not quite as good as the Abbott Realtime or Roche Taqman systems which are giant machines.

Where are you in your treatment cycle?

The old tests crapped out at <30, <25 and <15 so you would be undetected on all of those.

And here is one from Gaj

Hi Nick,

Was there a CBC (complete blood count) with platelets in it?

Your results are typical – just some mild elevation of ALT and AST. Your liver and kidneys look in good shape.

If your doctor thinks you can access the treatment on insurance it is definitely worth giving it a go. While the outcomes are not different (generic vs originator) US doctors have no problem monitoring patients who get the originator stuff via insurance, but can be unsympathetic to people getting generics. There is not a lot of monitoring required but it’s nice to have local support.

Anyway, there is nothing terrible in those results (but do want to see platelets).

In terms of what is what. Liver tests and Kidney tests are groups of tests

Kidney

• Sodium, Potasium, Chloride are all salts controlled by kidney
• Urea and BUN reflect your level or hydration more than anything
• Your Creatinine is a measure of kidney filtration rate – and anything over 60 ml/min is ok (100 ish is normal)
• Bicarbonate (HCO3) and Anion Gap are measures of blood acidity

Liver

• Bilirubin is a waste product of Red Cell metabolism (haemogobin breakdown) and rises if there is an blockage in the drain pipes from the liver, either in the liver or downstream.
• The liver enzymes LDH, GGT, ALT and AST are released from damaged liver cells so rise with liver disease. If the disease is like Hep C and intrahepatic (in the liver) the ALT and AST go up the most. If the issue is a bile blockage then not only does bilirubin go up so too do the LDH and GGT.
• GGT goes up alone in heavy drinkers.
• Your liver makes proteins (including albumin) so these fall in liver disease

Calcium and Glucose are tests by themselves. Glucose goes up in diabetes of course.

AST = Aspartate Aminotransferase, ALT = Alanine Aminotranferace, LDH = Lactate Dehydrogenase