Dear Dr James,
Thank you for your kind reply.
I stopped the Ribavirin this am. Thank you! I already feel better.
Just for background, I am a 50 kg 63 year old woman. I am very fit and from a generally long lived family. I had a blood transfusion when I was 13 after a (undoubtedly unnecessary) tonsillectomy and some unprotected sex in my early 20s.
Recent pretreatment labs:
I didn’t have a viral load before starting.
EGFR 74, creat 0.84
Na 141 alb 4.3
AST 84 ALT 92 Bili 0.8 Alk phos 69
PT 10.8 INR 1
WBC 4.1 Hb 13.4 HCT 39.3 PLT 149
AFP 2.8 (normal <6
I pretty stressed when I had these done.
A week later on a less stressful day I had a Fibrotest 0.53 F2 and a Metavir score 0.56 A2.
I believe I am probably more fibrotic than F2 despite these latter results.
I had a liver biopsy when first diagnosed 1988 with inflammation and one in the late 1990s with some fibrosis already. I don’t have the reports.
I have been through two rounds of IFN. The first was really not a problem. The second was extremely difficult. I had high fevers with each injection. My weight dropped to 44 kg and I was nearly suicidal. I responded both times and relapsed. The second relapse was devastating.
I’d rather take a DAA for longer than I absolutely need to right now than relapse. I was even wondering about taking generic Epclusa for the second 12 weeks because it seems marginally better than Harvoni.
I can’t thank you enough for your help and for everything you are doing to help people with Hep C.
