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Alan Smithee - 25 May 2007 05:36 GMT

After getting the results via phone from the doc, paperwork came back
& had a few things I didn't understand.
What is "hepatitis c quantitation", "hepatitis c genotype" & what do
the numbers mean?

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Waterspider - 25 May 2007 06:13 GMT

> After getting the results via phone from the doc, paperwork came back
> & had a few things I didn't understand.
> What is "hepatitis c quantitation", "hepatitis c genotype" & what do
> the numbers mean?

Quantitation = how many of the little virus buggers there are per million or
thousand or whatever that are happily living in you bloodstream (and
replicating in your liver, even if you don't have symptoms and your LFTs are
normal. LFT + liver function test; ALTs and all that stuff). Don't worry,
they can be up in the millions and you can still have successful treatment.

Genotype = the sub-category of hep C that your virus belongs to. Most people
have 1 but you should hope for 2 or 3 because they're easier to cure and
only require about half the time of treatment, 24 vs 48 weeks.

Numbers? What numbers? Post them and we'll tell you.

Waterspider

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Kozure Ookami - 25 May 2007 07:00 GMT

>After getting the results via phone from the doc, paperwork came back
>& had a few things I didn't understand.
>What is "hepatitis c quantitation", "hepatitis c genotype" & what do
>the numbers mean?

Sounds like they are talking about the quantity of the virus in your
blood per ml and which genotype or "family" of the hcv virus. Usually
after an antibody blood test shows you have antibodies in your blood
stream to hcv they run tests to see if they can actually find the
virus in your blood and quanitify it and identify which genotype it
is. The quantity is often used as a baseline to measure improvement
if you decide to treat the infection and the genotype helps to decide
how long treatment should be and your probabilty for success.

You didn't mention what the numbers were but if you were genotype 1
you are like most Americans and have a tough to treat variant. 2 or 3
and you got one of the easier variants. Other genotypes are somewhat
rare around these parts.

If you would like to mention some of the details of what they told you
somebody around here would probably be glad to go over that with you.
What your numbers were, did they run liver function tests, blood
counts, albumin, iron, etc.

If you do have chronic hepatitis c they often will want to do some
more tests like an ultrasound or CAT scan of your abdomen and possibly
take a small sample of your liver to see what kind of shape it is in.

They didn't explain anything to you? Hope this helps.

Don

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Alan Smithee - 25 May 2007 13:44 GMT

> >After getting the results via phone from the doc, paperwork came back
> >& had a few things I didn't understand.
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
>
> Don

hepatitis c quantitation - 3,584,640
hepatitis c genotype - 1a
Will be going to another doc for liver biopsy (ouch?), but can't see
him for 2 weeks.
Just trying to see what's on the road ahead.
And this stuff could have been lurking for nearly 30 yrs with no
apparent symptoms, etc?

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greyhackles - 25 May 2007 13:57 GMT

>> >After getting the results via phone from the doc, paperwork came back
>> >& had a few things I didn't understand.
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
>And this stuff could have been lurking for nearly 30 yrs with no
>apparent symptoms, etc?

Sure it could. The same thing has happened to millions of folks.
Hence the tag "silent killer".

You're in the right place to get answers. Just post the questions and folks
here will help...

Cheers

/greyhackles

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Cactus Jammies - 25 May 2007 14:20 GMT

Hey Don,
So sorry to see you have to come to our group of 'sick-os' for answers.
You are geno 1a, your quantitative count is over three million bad guys per
freckle. You will be getting a biopsy soon before you head into an almost
certain treatment regime over at least 48 weeks if you respond properly in
the first 12. Your specialist is probably encouraging you to go ahead and
plan to treat regardless of the results of the biopsy at this point, because
of your age (I lost that datum, but I am sure you are over 50 yrs. Type 1's
are harder to successfully treat later in life). So... anything out there
gonna give you complications when you do start your treatment? Like jobs,
medical condition, weight, skin or other complications, family or household
situation, medical and pharmaceutical coverage, and other, big details?

cactus jammies ---- geno 1a relapser in '06 after 48 combo tx in '04 - '05.

>>> >After getting the results via phone from the doc, paperwork came back
>>> >& had a few things I didn't understand.
[quoted text clipped - 46 lines]
>
> /greyhackles

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Alan Smithee - 25 May 2007 14:34 GMT

On May 25, 8:20 am, "Cactus Jammies" <cactusjamm...@retinalcircus.orb>
wrote:

> Hey Don,
> So sorry to see you have to come to our group of 'sick-os' for answers.
[quoted text clipped - 63 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -

47 to be exact.
What do I have to look forward to in the way of treatments?
Shots/pills? Side effects? Costs?
The way insurance sucks these days, I'm worried about the last one.
How can this complicate my otherwise uncomplicated (ha!) life?
I understand the occasional cocktails will have to go by the wayside,
too.
I know alot of these answers are out there, but I figure these will
come from the horse's mouth(s).

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Paul - 25 May 2007 22:25 GMT

On 25 May 2007 06:34:14 -0700, Alan Smithee <texan767@hotmail.com>, in
message ID <1180100054.131244.88660@p47g2000hsd.googlegroups.com>, in
the newsgroup alt.support.hepatitis-c wrote:

>47 to be exact.
>What do I have to look forward to in the way of treatments?
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>I know alot of these answers are out there, but I figure these will
>come from the horse's mouth(s).

Well the standard treatment for you is 48 (not sure where 47 came
from) weeks consisting of one injection per week of a pegylated
interferon into stomach or thigh usually (the needles are only little
buggers) plus taking between 4 and 6 ribavirin pills per day in two
split doses.
Side effects vary considerably from person to person and are a bit of
a lottery. However, the extreme bad end is fairly unusual and the
little or no side effects is also unusual. Most people complete the
treatment and experience varying degrees of thirst, fatigue, anger
management problems, gastric problems, sometimes broken sleep, perhaps
skin irritation, possible mouth sores, and dry cough. If you read an
official list of all the potential side effects, it would probably
scare the sh.t out of you. What needs to be realised is that the list
isn't something that everyone will get all the way through their
treatment. Often a side effect just won't happen. Then one may crop
up to disappear within a few weeks to be replaced by another. There
are well documented ways of helping yourself though - some more
succesful than others.
I experienced a fair bit of nauseous feeling in tx without actually
vomiting. Sipping (not gulping) water helped me a great deal with
that. Drinking lots of water was a huge plus generally with the
persistent thirst. There are medicines and skin creams that people
swear by too that help with side effects. I don't know about skin
cream names though as I was lucky not to be affected by itchy skin. I
was also blessed with plenty of sleep on tx - in fact I slept very
long hours. I always reckoned that if I could sleep OK then it would
make the rest of it a little easier and so it proved (I don't think my
former manager would agree though after I came within a whisker of
ripping his head off for accusing me of malingering while I was very
ill).
Stick around. Tons of great info on here and elsewhere on the web.
Just one thing though. Don't believe everything you read. You will
learn to filter the garbage from the good info.

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