That's EXACTLY how I feel. It is like, "oh, okay, now what...". I
thought that when I heard the news I would be jumping up and down and
screaming with joy but I am not and feel very weird about that. I just
heard yesterday so I guess maybe it just hasn't sunk in. I'm like
telling everyone I know and trying to act excited but...  must be the
drugs.

Ally

is not detectable. In your case now, the virus is undectable -- the lab
test cannot give you a better result than that!

"Undetectable" means the viral load in your blood is somewhere between
zero and 60 (or 600 or whatever). I guess that because the viruses are
so small that they essentially cannot be seen unless there are a bunch
of them, that the laboratory can't say for sure if the viruses are
entirely gone or not. All they can say is that they cannot see the
viruses, not even using their fancy, expensive, RNA-muliplying PCR
tests. Thus, it certainly appears that you have cleared the virus.

But science advises it would be premature to say the virus is gone for
good at this stage. There could still be some hiding out somewhere, and
the numbers therefore could be multiplied to detectable levels again.
Consequently, the most accurate conclusion is a simple statement of the
facts: The lab could not detect any virus in your blood serum.

Do you have a cure today? Of course not. What your really have, from
the statistical perspective (for genotype-1 patients such as yourself)
is what they call an Early Virological Response (EVR).

An EVR is a "virological response" because the virus has *responded* to
the battle by suffering an apparently total destruction. It is "early"
because" the response was attained *early* in treatment -- which is
defined for geno-1 as within the first 12 weeks.

Because patients who attain EVR prove more likely to attain the
hoped-for SVR in the long run, your lab results are good news. If you
started out with a 50-50 chance for attaining an SVR, then I think your
chances are now improved to be better than that, based on the available
research statistics and the fact that you have an EVR.

If the virus stays undetectable, then that will mean that somewhere
along the line you cleared it. Right now it appears from your labs that
you already cleared it, but the scientists caution us to understand
that we cannot be sure yet.

I'll say this for sure: When I got news of my EVR, I couldn't believe
it. At that time I was sure it was all some mistake. It took several
weeks for me to finally accept that I might be beating this thing after
all -- I think its the drugs. They are killing the virus, but they also
kill my spirit and my hope sometimes. Its a tough road to walk, but its
good to pay attention to those numbers when they are telling you that
things are looking pretty good.

Best wishes,

BG

My Dr left a message on my machine about my 12th week blood test. She
said that the count is less then 600 which is considered undetectable
(yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) but I read here that ppl are clearing the virus
completely so... this is a bit confusing to me. Is less the 600 enough
or do I need to be at 0. Well, the great thing is that because I am
considered undetectable, I can start counting my weeks till I am done
which means I have approxiamtely 45 weeks to go. She also said she is
still waiting for the "false negative" test to come in. I have no idea
what that is, I assume it means the virus is too low to be detected,
yes? So it would just be confirmation on the VL test. What if it comes
back positive? What does that mean?

Ally