Hello. I am not very good at forums but I wanted to share my experience. I was diagnosed with hepatitis C Genotype 3 in March 2017 which was a massive shock that this had gone undetected for 30 years!!! I became extremely anxious having to break the news to my family and particularly my 19 year old son who had to be tested as I could have passed this on to him whilst I was pregnant. Thank god he was negative. Treatment for Hep C Genotype 3 is not funded in New Zealand unless you are nearly dead! My specialist referred me to these wonderful people at FixHepC whom I am extremely grateful to. A huge thanks to all the admin staff and of course Dr James Freeman. I have also been lucky to have wonderful support from my close friends and family.

I was started on a 12 week course of Sofosbuvir and Daclastavir. Initally it was ceased by NZ Customs for two weeks and I was charged customs, duty and GST! Unfortunately, 10 weeks into treatment I had a Fibroscan which showed a liver stiffness of 29.3 consistent with cirrhosis. Another shock for someone who has never consumed alcohol. How naive of me to think I have had this virus for decades and it wouldnt leave any damage. I was very positive that I would complete the 12 weeks treatment and I would be fine. Subsequently I contacted Dr James Freeman who suggested a change to my medications to Sofosbuvir and Velpatasvir to complete a total of 24 weeks of therapy, i.e. 16 weeks of Sof/Dac and 8 weeks Sof/Vel. My second lot of treatment got through Customs without any problems. Recently I had a CT scan which has confirmed the presence of cirrhosis. I have just completed treatment last week. In NZ they do not test viral loads throughout treatment only SVR at 3 months after treatment so after six months of treatment I have changed specialist and I am stoked my bloods came back negative for Hep C last week so fingers crossed it will stay this way!! The only side effect I experienced was extreme fatigue – so so tired I had to cut my hours down to 20 hours a week. I feel like I have been hibernating for six months and binge watched so many Netflix series I will never have to watch TV again! Since stopping treatment a week ago my energy levels have almost returned to normal.