When should I try agin?

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bob - 18 Jul 2007 19:53 GMT

Hello,

I became a non-responder after 42 weeks of the standard treatment. I
discontinued treatment about a month and a half ago. I have stage 2 liver
damage. How long should I wait to try again?

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greyhackles - 18 Jul 2007 23:07 GMT

>Hello,
>
>I became a non-responder after 42 weeks of the standard treatment. I
>discontinued treatment about a month and a half ago. I have stage 2 liver
>damage. How long should I wait to try again?

Sorry to hear about the treatment letting you down.

I'd spend at least a year recuperating from the last round and getting strong
for the next one. And I'd make sure not to aggravate the situation in the mean
time (ie: no drinking, no hard drugs, avoid poor dietary habits, get plenty of
rest, etc). Pretty much all the obvious stuff.

I'd also make sure to get an iron load test, and do whatever is necessary to
make sure iron load is low and stays low.

Finally, I'd get hold of every test run from pre-therapy through end of
therapy and hold onto them as reference material for the next round. In
particular, LFTs and VL tests...

Cheers

/greyhackles

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Di Di - 20 Jul 2007 13:50 GMT

> Hello,
>
> I became a non-responder after 42 weeks of the standard treatment. I
> discontinued treatment about a month and a half ago. I have stage 2 liver
> damage. How long should I wait to try again?

Hi Bob - What genotype are you? I just found out my treatment failed
on my 6 week post-treatment viral load test. I am stage 2 also. I'm
trying to decide whether to re-treat with the options I've been given
(all of which sound worse than the first 48 weeks), but I think I'm
going to wait. I'm still recuperating from the first round.

Good luck to you!
Di

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mawtuan - 22 Jul 2007 23:38 GMT

>> Hello,
>>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> Good luck to you!
> Di

I'm also a nonresponder after 48 weeks of combo tx (geno 1b). My BCLD
basically refused to try any other tx options for the 12 months after
finding out I was a nonresponder. Then I began a 72-week high-dose
Peg-intron / Rebetol tx regimen. It really sucks - due to the sides - but I
now have only 8 weeks left. Blood work is pretty good for the most part -
apart from the usual anemia and neutropenia. AST/ALT are actually in the
normal range. VL undetectable at 12 weeks and has stayed there.
I was quite angry with the BCLD for not allowing retreatment sooner. But
once I began round 2 I realized I needed that recuperation period to gain
strength for the year-and-a-half of extended tx.
My recommendation to you is to give it a year. No drugs or alcohol, and a
decent well-balanced diet. Literature is a bit contrary, but I also stayed
away from acetaminophen. Supposedly safe in moderate doses, but why risk
it?
Forget the myriad herbal options - they don't work and may potentially cause
a lot of harm. I also found it best to stay on the anti-d's during the no
tx period.
Give yourself a break and then reassess.
Good luck,
Thom
(AKA Firestar)

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