Congrats: you have the clue your coordinator apparently lacks.

A "clean" ultrasound means damned little with chronic HCV...

/greyhackles

I'm surprised any 'decent' specialist would start you in tx without a
biopsy.  Seems like it borders on malpractice, to me.  Are you sure
you've got the right doctor?
elmo

http://community.webtv.net/elmoemerson/DocElmosHepFile

http://community.webtv.net/elmoemerson/TheFamilyAlbum

Which tells the doc pretty much nothing other than that you don't have a
significantly enlarged liver or liver cancer.

And there you have one reason for going into treatment now instead of in
five years. Your liver may be fine, but the virus seems to be causing
other symptoms.

Well... you certainly are correct that a biopsy will give you a better
base for a decision about treatment. But given that the liver is not the
only organ HCV attacks, it may be shortsighted to cancel treatment just
because your liver is fine when there are signs of other damage.

Again, if it were only the liver, you would have a very good reason to
delay treatment until the results are in, and if the results show no
damage wait for better meds to appear on the market. But in your case it
may not be just the liver. With all the problems diabetes brings with
it, delaying treatment for five years or more may not be wise.

Given that you obviously have serious problems with accepting the need
for treatment, it certainly isn't worthwhile to start now. Take your
time to make a decision, but don't base your decision on the biopsy
results alone. Diabetes isn't fun, and there's no guarantee that it will
disappear with successful treatment. But if you're unsure, and are
worrying about each and every possible side effect (as your posts seem
to show), it does not make sense to start. Without a clear commitment to
treatment, you're a lot more likely to abort it prematurely, and then
you'll have gone through the whole mess without much benefit.

Just MAO
Thomas

Well,
 actually you are right, if you feel the need to do it for your own
serenity then go on.
You know, taking control (keeping myself informed, talking and talking
with doctors and nurses about my doubts, understanding things and
taking my own decisions) over my health condition was a great help for
me during treatment.
More important, most people (doctors included) think that having a
biopsy is the best way to know in which condition the liver is.

Anyway I'd like to tell you about my experience as it was similar to
yours and different from what happened to most of people here (and with
HepC in general).

In fact, I've had my treatment managed by very competent doctors, I've
been feeling very confortable with them through the whole duration of
it, and looking back, one month after the last Ribavirin pill I can say
they actually always took the right decision about me.
But guess what, like it happened to you, the same doctors said that a
biopsy was not needed in my case. Just before starting treatment, I
asked them more than once about this fact.
I mean I was reading here every day and looking at all these guys
showing up and saying the same old thing about the need for a biopsy
before starting, so I just *wanted* to have a biopsy, but the doctors
don't. Weird isn't it?
They just kept on answering: "If you want, you just can have one, but
why? We know your liver is quite all right, we've all the indicators
saying you should treat, you don't have chirrosis for sure, so you can
and you SHOULD treat, period. Now it's up to you.".

Then, once you have your biopsy done, take your decision and go for it.

I'll tell you that I was not so sure about starting treatment, but once
that I solved all my doubts and my mind was clear, I felt really
motivated and, once again, later on, this acted as a really great
psychological HELP.

Cheers,
Jeeb.

You have interferon and riba in your fridge and medicine cabinet and you
don't know if your going to use it or not. Are you a flake or what?
Sounds like game playing.  Most people are quite serious about dong tx
they already know if they are going to do it by the time the meds
arrive. Since you have diabetes coming on isn't that enough to give you
a message? Maybe you a flake cause your dr. is a flake by not doing a
biopsy already.                                   Juanita  

The drugs are sitting in my refrigerator and medicine chest.
Today I asked the co-ordinator about my ultra sound tests and she said
my ultrasound was normal. I may have had this virus for 25-30 years but
I am pretty much symptom free (except for a tendency towards Type 2
diabetes which may be a result of the virus).
Anyway I cancelled the orientation and said I wanted to have a biopsy
done. It seems to me that I have to know the state of my liver before I
can know what to do.
With all these promising treatments on the horizon maybe I can wait
while. Then again maybe this is something my liver needs.
How can I know without a biopsy? I dont think I can.

Have the biopsy done, Don't pay attention to people who tell you it's
not neccesarry or  it's not relevant. Do it. It's not that bad and the
sugeons advice can save your life.You want to learn more about the
condition of your liver. Have the doc get a close peek. It only hurts
for a few seconds. Then you roll over on your side and get a blast of
demoral and they send u packing 4 hours later. Do it.  Brian