Your diabetes may present a challenge depending on how bad it is.  Are you
able to control it?  Your doctor will porbably want to keep a very close eye
on it.  I did have a friend with very bad Type II and the doctor refused to
treat until his numbers were within normal ranges for 30 days (he'd also had
2 heart attacks).  Also--and everyone else from ash-c chime in  if you
disagree!!!!--it's possible the diabetes came with the HCV.  I've heard of
it disappearing after successful treatment.

There's not much else to try except clinical trials.  There is one treatment
that is extremely rigorous and debilitating.  I didn't last very long on it
but several have made it all the way through with success.  And there are
several promising drugs coming down the pike.

I have stage 4/grade 4 liver disease, pre-cancerous lesions, high iron, and
lead a very full, rich life.  I have to be careful to manage the fatigue but
other than that, the dragon can go take a flying leap for all I care.  I
work full-time, am active in my church, and have 5 grandkids (I'm 56,
probably had this since '74).  For a long time, I let the HCV control my
life and I was frantic to get rid of it, but now it's become this unpleasant
thing I have to put up with, kinda like a wart.  If I go into liver failure
tomorrow, que sera sera, but I could rock on for 10 more years.  It was a
huge struggle to get here, but I'm ok with whatever happens.  Life is meant
to be enjoyed.

Yeah, me too!  When my husband died this was one of the first places I came
for support.  It's been a lifesaver in more ways than one.

Short answer: Yes!

Short answer: Yes!
"Other stuff" being perhaps another drug added to the normal treatment of
pegylated interferon and ribavirin. Or, they will repeat the treatment,
sometimes for a longer duration.

Short answer: Yes!
Doing treatment, even if it's unsuccessful, does good things for your liver
by holding the virus at bay. Some people even see a lessening of their stage
of liver damage.

Your genotype will reveal more information on the duration of your treatment
and your odds for SVR (sustained viral response or "whoopee, I'm cured!"

You are embarking on a most interesting, life-changing journey. The hardest
part of the treatment is getting yourself psyched up for it, but if you can
do that you can do the treatment.

Do take anti-depressants, and (ideally) begin a couple/few months before you
start treatment; they take a while to do their thing, and sometimes
prescription dosage and drug adjustments are necessary to get it right.

Do not stop asking questions here and remember that the only stupid
questions are the ones you don't ask. We're happy to help. Gives us a chance
to show off our knowledge, because we were all at exactly the same place as
you are today-- scared, bewildered and not knowing anything about hepatitis
c.

Welcome to the Dragon Slayers Club.

Waterspider

On May 23, 1:41 am, kipster <bassopho...@gmail.com> wrote:if the
treatment is NOT successful, do they try other stuff? <<

They have already told you about the iron level in your body.
They are targeting iron / iron reduction therapy in diabetes AND in
hepatitis C.

Treatment of iron reduction therapy / bloodletting for your conditions
is NOT a
treatment doctors and nurses use as much as they could.
They have shown one of the reasons iron reduction therapy is not used
as much
as it could be used is because doctors and nurses are afraid or simply
REFUSE
to use it because it is  "too much like work" ..

"Interferon-alfa-2a is very expensive to use and associated with
significant side
effects (severe weakness, altered mental status, and depression)."

Hepatitis is treated with bloodletting.
Hepatitis is treated with interferon.

One of the reasons phlebotomy isn't used as a treatment in hepatitis
is
.. staff enthusiasm.
They DO use interferon though with rapturous abandon.
The staff .. lack the enthusiasm to bloodlet .. the patients ..

This means people are being **forced** to pay for high priced drugs
because  nurses and doctors refuse to administer a medical
treatment ..

"I don't want to bloodlet people"

That sounds bizarre ..

"Interferon-alpha lowers red blood cells / erythrocytosis"

http://tinyurl.com/yfk2yp

Complaints of headache, dizziness, vertigo, tinnitus, and visual
disturbances are common. Another characteristic symptom is pruritus
(40-50% of PCV patients), especially after hot showers. Many patients
also experience an uncomfortable "burning" sensation in the fingers
and
toes called erythromelalgia.

b. Myelosuppressive Therapy - Interferon-alpha is also an effective
myelosuppressive agent but is very expensive to use and associated
with
significant side effects (severe weakness, altered mental status, and
depression).

-------------------

"Interferon-alpha inhibits erythropoiesis"

Interferon-alpha-induced apoptosis in human erythroid progenitors.
Exp Hematol. 1995 Nov;23(12):1310-8.
Tarumi T, Sawada K, Sato N, Kobayashi S, Takano H, Yasukouchi T,
Takashashi T, Sekiguchi S, Koike T.
Department of Internal Medicine II, Hokkaido University School of
Department of Internal Medicine II, Hokkaido University School of
Medicine, Japan.

Recombinant human interferon-alpha (rIFN-alpha) inhibits
erythropoiesis, in vivo and in vitro. In an attempt to clarify
mechanisms related to this inhibition, effects of rIFN-alpha on
highly
purified human peripheral blood burst-forming units-erythroid (BFU-E)
(20-60% purity) were compared with effects on erythroid progenitors
in
various stages of development. Day-1 and -7 cultured cells were
equivalent to primitive BFU-E and colony-forming units-erythroid
(CFU-E), respectively. Day-1 BFU-E supported by recombinant human
erythropoietin (rEpo) and interleukin-3 (rIL-3) was inhibited by
rIFN-alpha in a dose-dependent manner, and a significant inhibition
occurred at 2000 U/mL rIFN-alpha. Limiting dilution analysis
demonstrated that rIFN-alpha directly inhibits BFU-E rIFN-alpha
inhibited the proliferative capacity or the colony expression of
erythroid progenitors, with no relation to the stage of development,
but inhibition of differentiation was not apparent. This evidence
suggested that apoptosis of erythroid progenitors was induced by
IFN-alpha. When day-7 cells were incubated with IFN-alpha in the
presence of rEpo, there was an increased breakdown of total cellular
DNA into DNA fragments of less than 5 kb; hence, the inhibitory
effect
of IFN-alpha on erythroid progenitors may mediate apoptosis.

PMID: 7589287

-------------------------

Iron reduction therapy in hepatitis C
EDITOR,—Three papers in the July issue
report on the possible association between
iron and tissue damage in conditions other
than haemochromatosis. Tan et al (Gut
1997;41:14–18) found that gastric cancer
cells are more susceptible to photodynamic
therapy when iron is removed. Boucher et al
(Gut 1997;41:115–20) found that treatment
of hepatitis C with interferon leads to a
decrease in liver iron content. Bacon (Gut
1997;41:127–8) briefly commented on the
association between iron and hepatitis C,
including some evidence that iron depletion
may be beneficial in patients who fail to
respond to interferon á.
Shortly after Bacon et al’s pioneering
report in 1993 on iron reduction therapy in
hepatitis C,1 and mainly because of a lack of
any other option at the time, we started
applying this form of therapy in our growing
population of patients who had failed to
respond to interferon and who had the unfavourable
1b genotype.
The simplest and cheapest way to reduce
body iron stores is repeated drawing of one
unit of whole blood (as for haemochromatosis).
However, we encountered several unexpected
difficulties in our attempts to implement
a phlebotomy programme for patients
with chronic hepatitis C. A small group of
patients are reluctant to undergo repeated
phlebotomy because of ethnic or psychological
reasons (there is a belief that blood equals
life and therefore that blood loss depletes the
body of life giving power). A second group
cannot tolerate blood loss because of recurrent
episodes of faintness and presyncope.
These patients need several hours’ observation,
a chaperone, and sometimes intravenous
fluid before they can be discharged home. In
a third group venous access is a problem. The
large bore needles of standard phlebotomy
bags can be inserted into large straight veins
only. Most female and some male patients do
not have suitable veins and this problem
becomes more serious with age. This obstacle
can be overcome by improvisation with
smaller bore needles but this has the
disadvantage of slower flow, increased stasis
and coagulation within the tubing, sometimes
necessitating reinsertion of the iv line. A
fourth impediment in a busy gastroenterology/
hepatology department is lack of
enthusiasm among nursing staff and a shortage
of beds and space in the recovery room. It
also seems unwise to place patients with
chronic hepatitis C undergoing phlebotomy
and large quantities of potentially hazardous
blood alongside uninfected patients recovering
from endoscopy. This also limits the time
available for phlebotomy.
We devised a simple way to circumvent all
of these difficulties: all new patients with
chronic hepatitis C (unless they have an iron
deficiency) are shown a 50 ml syringe as early
as possible in their workup. They are told that
from now on they should ask for all blood
tests to be taken only with such syringes and
that any surplus blood should be discarded
with the syringe in the biohazard containers.
This also applies when vacutainer tubes are
used. As iron overload in these patients is not
as great as in those with haemochromatosis,
iron depletion can be accomplished in 20–40
phlebotomy sessions (a 50 ml syringe can
contain ~70 ml blood). Thus iron reduction
therapy is achieved more slowly than with
conventional phlebotomy but is integrated
into the routine workup and is accepted by
both patients and staff alike.
We hope that our method may be useful to
other clinicians in the field.
Y LURIE
M BEER GABEL
I LAMBORT
T SOUMATZKY
S D H MALNICK
D D BASS
Kaplan Medical Center,Affiliated to the
Hebrew University Medical School and Hadassah,
PO Box 1, Rehovot 76100, Israel

Who loves ya.
Tom

Jesus Was A Vegetarian!
http://tinyurl.com/634q5a

Man Is A Herbivore!
http://tinyurl.com/4rq595

DEAD PEOPLE WALKING
http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk

I used to try playing a lot of guitar from the mid to late 60's to mid
80's. To say I wasn't any good would be an understatement. I started
playing again in 2004 during my last round of tx. Trying to learn
correctly and have been getting better. Music helped me get through the
last round of tx and I have Elmo, Russ, and Shawn to thank for getting
me back into playing. I wish they were still around. I did talk to Russ
a few days ago on his birthday, but haven't heard from Elmo or Shawn in
a while. I believe CJ is still involved in playing, but I don't know of
anyone else here.

I'm 53 as of yesterday and I feel pretty much like thip about the hep-c.
I've decided to enjoy my life and quit worrying so much about the hep,
if something comes along that has a good chance of getting rid of the
dragon I'll probably try again. I'm not going to let it run my life
anymore and I'm much happier.

If you ever make it down to the Dallas/Ft.Worth area give me a shout and
I'll bring a group to come hear you play.

Dwight

The most sensitive qualitative test that was used during/after my treatment
was sensitive down to 5 IU/ml. This was used at end-of-therapy and at my 3, 6
and 12 month post-treatment checks. It was apparently considerably more
expensive than the one that was usually used, which bottomed out at 50 IU/ml.

That was four years ago, so it would not surprise me if there was a test that
is even more sensitive...

Cheers

/greyhackles