Hi everyone,

I got an email from my doctor, after I saw him 2 weeks ago for my
6-month post-Tx follow up. He wrote me that viral load remains
undetectable and liver enzymes normal. Wooo-hooo!

It's been a year--almost to the day--since I started treatment. I
don't know if they have a name for people who respond very fast, but
at Week 2 my liver enzymes were normal (after several years of being
3-5 times the upper limit), and the first VL test after beginning
treatment, at Week 4, came back undetectable--and then came back
undetectable again, as they first do a less expensive test that is
sensitive to <50 IU/ml, and if that test shows nothing, they do a more
sensitive test which is <5 IU/ml. I've had normal liver panel and
undetectable VL ever since they returned to normal/undetectable in my
first month of Tx...btw, I was genotype 3a, with VL ~2.7 million IU/ml
before starting Tx.

Of course, I was nervous when waiting for results of my first test
after finishing Tx, next week after my last Peg-Intron shot. Then came
the waiting for my 3 months post-Tx follow-up. I've been told by the
good people here that I had nothing to worry about, having responded
so quickly, but I couldn't help being nervous, to say the least. I was
trying to imagine how I'd cope if the test found that bloody virus
again.

(My Dr told me that a patient who responded to Tx very well, like me,
all of a sudden tested positive--only about 200 IU/ml, or something.
The guy had gotten very depressed, but the next test, and ones
thereafter, showed that he was clear--so it might have been a false
positive, or a glitch that his immune system corrected.)

So I was preparing myself for something like that. And now, that
fateful 6-months follow-up. It's definitely been worth it, I feel a
great weight off my shoulders. If you are considering whether to take
treatment or not, I urge you to talk about it--get more info, discuss
it with your doctors, etc.--because until I came here and was told to
get my arse and seek a good specialist, I'd still probably be with my
head buried in the sand, telling myself about some magical drug that
would certainly come out in a few years, or repeating the stories of
people who've had HepC for decades without suffering any symptoms.
Everyone is different, and I am happy I began asking questions about
it. The euphoria after finding out today that I was 90%+ in the clear
is incomparable. Thank you, everyone, who's helped me out--you know
who you are, Grey and all the rest of you, guys and girls!

One question...I didn't have a biopsy before I started Tx, for a
couple of reasons, so I don't know where I was, with regard to liver
damage. I've had some sensitivity in the area, some pain even, over
the past few years. I haven't had HepC for longer than 7-8 years, I am
certain of it. Regardless of that, if I had a degree of fibrosis
(which I think I ought to, because my AST and ALT figures used to
hover above 100 and 200, respectively). Maybe I am mistaken...but what
I am asking is this--should I expect whatever damage had been done to
my liver to decrease over time?

Whew...I can breathe now. It's been a strange trip, nowhere near as
bad as I'd imagined, but something I hope I'll never have to go
through again. Now I am a bit paranoid about going to a dentist, etc.
We all know how little it takes to get infected. I read that piece of
news about some medical office that infected a few dozen patients with
HCV due to lax sterility procedures, and I suspect that many more
patients become infected each year, because their
doctors/nurses/dentists are too lazy or ignorant. This is f.cking
criminal, if you ask me. At the same time, I don't want to tell my
dentist that I'm a HepC risk, because I've seen how people react to
that. Of course, they all should treat us as if we all have
blood-bourne diseases. And yet, I don't know how to tell my dentist to
please take care and use sterile equipment (if he's not doing it),
because I don't want to get reinfected--it would probably insult him,
LOL. Enough rambling, I'm still giddy with excitement. Thank you all!
Cheers,
Sick Boy