Hello, Frogger. And welcome to our little dysfunctional group ;-)

I suppose top on my list of helpful words would be: you are young.

There are a lot more helpful words, but in the scheme of things, you're a
youngster in this business. Most people don't discover they've been infected
with HCV until much later in life - and in the meanwhile, the disease has been
slowly chomping its way along.

If you know the earliest time that you may have become infected, obviously the
more recent time is the better. While it is not absolute - there will always
be the cases that belie the favorable odds - there's reason to be optimistic
that any damage suffered has been on the low side of the scale. And youth is a
favorable factor in the odds of treatment being successful.

So you got that going for you ;-)

Although the odds are against it in the central USA, we'll hope you are
genotype 2. That'd give you two factors going for you wrt treatment.

I suppose everyone goes through something akin to a mourning period when they
first get the news, so the freak-out phase is probably not unusual. But don't
put yourself on the ledge quite yet - most folks not only live just fine with
this, some actually do kick it in the a.s for good.

Stick around. This group can help you get through the future.

Cheers

/greyhackles

Hi Frogger,
 Let me be the first to lamentably welcome you to this support newsgroup.
If you are only 35 and you have just had the diagnosis (dx), chances are
that unless something freaky has happened, your liver may not be damaged too
much.  One thing you should do is make sure to stop drinking, if you still
do, and try to lose a bit of weight if you are getting too chubby.  Your
doctor may have already told you these things.  It is pretty important.
Also you have to protect your family from infection, so blood to blood
contact including toothbrush, razors and and nail clippers should not be
shared.  Sex is not prohibited, but you may want to play that 'safe', too.
Remember, infection is transmitted blood to blood.
 You won't know about the damage to your liver unless you have a biopsy
(bx) that tells the doctor if the scarring in your liver has started or
reached a critical level, and anything in between.

You've made a good first start by coming to this place.  All kinds of advice
will pop up as soon as you get more information.  Remember.  Relax, Zen.
Hep C is very slow moving, and most people eventually die with the virus,
not because of it.

be well as you can be, Frogger

cactus jammies ===============

Don't panic.  Life goes on.  :-)

Nice to meet you, Frogger.
Are you scheduled for a liver biopsy? That, unfortunately, is the most
accurate (argueably the only) way to determine how much damage hcv has done
to your liver. Don't let anyone tell you that "liver function test" results
will indicate damage; that's bullshit.
Once you get the biopsy results, then you can make a decision about
treatment.
In the meantime, do NOT drink alcohol, that's like throwing gasoline on a
fire (fire being your liver). Eat well, too. Lots of fresh fruits and
veggies. Stay away from processed foods, high fat, high sugars, high salts
and all that. Iron is not going to do you any good either.
But, you must have questions, all kinds of them, so ask us questions and
we'll overwhelm you with information and reassurances. Remember, the only
stupid questions are the ones you don't ask. We know this, because we've all
been where you are right now, sitting right on a razor blade with freak on
one side and zen on the other <g>
Take care,
Waterspider

Hi Frogger. I'm fairly new here. Diagnosed last June and started
treatment in late January, so I am one month into a six month treatment.
I'm G3. If you are like me, you will be thanking your lucky stars for
finding this NG. I haven't posted here often, but when I have, I've
received very helpful advice and tons of support. A lot of what I have
learned about Hep C is thru here. Mostly I just follow the posts, read,
learn and know that I am not alone.

For me the treatment has not been that bad. I can't say there haven't
been lots of side affects, but I have been able to work most days and
live for me is normal under the circumstances. Since finding out last
June, I have been all over the map on how I feel about the whole thing.
Now that I am in treatment, I'm positive I can beat this thing.

Hang in there!

Welcome Frogger

Well there´s no reason to freak out and it wont help anyway. I guess
you´re on the right path already.....for me the solution was to learn
everything I could about hep-C and this is a good place to be, -get to
know the "bug" and you´re in control.

All the best

/H

Hey frogger......

Do you have any idea when you got it? I'm asking ,because it's generally
a very slow process. I have had it since about 1979. I have been through
treatment this past year and became a non-responder after 42 weeks . I'm
still pretty healthy. I freaked out big time when I was first diagnosed a
couple of years ago but then I'm a bit of an alarmist.. Don't worry too
much,there are new treatments on the horizon.

If you drink, stop completely , right now!!

take care