Hi Chejai,

Great to hear you sounding more cheerful today.

If your old GP is really within reasonable* driving distance for non HCV related illnesses then it may be worth considering changing all you appointments back to him as someone you know and trust with yours and.presumably your son’s health. I suspect for you, once you get rid of HCV there will be less doctors visits but obviously your son will still need regular visits for a few years due to his age. A trade off between walking to the GP vs better health care as long as delays caused by longer travel distance won’t cause issues for either of you.
Regardless of whether you take that path, I do think it would be a good idea to consider approaching him for monitoring during treatment anyway based on your available options.

*(for overseas readers: this is Australia so ‘reasonable’ can be sometimes be considered several hours if you don’t live in a major city )

Make sure you are comparing apples with apples though. There are two different measurement systems in use: ng/mL and nmol/l

nmol/l is 2.5 times as high as ng/ml so:

20 ng/ml = 50 nmol/l

30 ng/ml = 75 nmol/l

40 ng/ml = 100 nmol/l

50 ng/ml = 125 nmol/l

I suspect Dan’s result of 86 is nmol/l which is 34 ng/ml and is >30 ng/ml so should be fine?

Well done on taking charge of your health.

Looking forward to hearing of your progress and milestones.

OMG! I wouldn’t put someone like that in charge of a chook raffle!

Chejai,

If this person calls themselves a medical professional they are sadly mistaken. What would she propose to someone else who’s test came back abnormal for something else? “Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t know what is wrong with you so my duty of care prevents me from helping you.” Has she never heard of referrals!!! Most medical professionals have been using them for ailments they don’t understand themselves since the dark ages. There is uninformed, misinformed and sheer bloody stupidity. I doubt you need to guess which I think fits your GP.

I’m not sure of your location given your comment about an island but can I suggest you find yourself a new GP long term if at all possible as obviously your current one does not have your health or best interests at heart. And certainly consider GP2U for your monitoring in the meantime.

And please try not to worry about this, it will all work out fine in the end.

on calming down and further reflection, I doubt your GP is uninformed, misinformed or stupid. However I do believe that she is trying to punish you for not doing as she told you by making you travel to Brisbane for monitoring. Given that you are an adult making an informed decision about your health this is really unacceptable behaviour in this day and age so my recommendations stand.

dtdwfhpc,

Apology for username accepted.

There is no need to apologise for your questions creating this debate. As Mike says, debate is healthy and these issues need to be discussed. And this site, unlike most, allows the discussions to occur in public so that everyone can see and understand what is at stake. (Although, at the end of the day the site owner gets to decide what the site’s policy is with regard to recommending sources, as does Greg for his sources.) Sometimes the debate will get heated because there are a lot of passionate people involved here but despite the differing views of how to achieve it we are all committed to helping people to treat their HCV with these new DAA medications, at an affordable price rather than the extortionate levels that big pharma has attempted to apply.

As in any passionate debate it may sometimes be advisable to step back and take a breath away from the heat of the moment but I think that as long as we can keep our focus on working through the issues and not resort to name calling and insults then we are all good!

Congratulations on seeking Tx rather than waiting. With your previous labs it sounds like you will require very little monitoring but please do let us know how you progress.

Hi Ariel,

I’m on Sof/Dac rather than Sof/Led so take that into account. A keen angler I have been getting out in the sun a bit lately. Always with covering and sunscreen but have been out for several hours on some very bright days without any issues. I wear sunnies for most of that time but do notice my eyes seemed to be a little more sensitive than usual. Perhaps time your sessions to avoid periods of highest UV? So early or late in day, and keep them short?

Keep well and know we are here if you want to chat.

Maybe…..I’ve stated previously that I will wait and see. If nothing else, this virus has taught me how to wait and in my lifetime I have seen many a slip twixt politician’s press statement and outcome. And don’t forget the stated “within a generation”.

True, and while this site was started by a Tasmanian doctor, it isn’t just for Australians and is reaching more and more people around the world everyday.

I do understand and accept the wish of people after treatment, to put this disease behind them and move on with the rest of their life. That is a natural inclination and necessary for many. I may well find myself feeling the same in 4 or 10 months time, another case of wait and see.

But for now if I can contribute to helping others seeking treatment for HCV then I am glad to do so. And that includes pointing out the excessive greed of Gilead and better ways that our government, and others, could work to extinguish this virus much as former generations did with polio, smallpox and many other diseases.

over.