So you wanna know about treatment for Hep C. You found out that you have Hepatitis C and need answers. Most people who have tested positive for hepatitis C are offered the option to treat. In the past, the options were few and offered very low statistics regarding sustained viral response (SVR). It usually consists of Ribavirin in pill form and Interferon injections. In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of protease inhibitors. This totally changed all the rules of the game. Finally the odds were in the patients favor!
There are two major brand names of protease inhibitors. One brand name is Incivik, which is the drug Telaprevir. The other is Victrelis, which is the drug Boceprevir. By adding a 3rd medication to the treatment that was already in place, patients were able to boost the ability to rid themselves of the virus. The good news is that once you have reached a sustained viral response for a length of time, the virus is actually gone. It is not in remission. It is gone!!! I remember hearing those words and feeling incredulous. Now that I am living proof, I know that it is nothing short of a medical miracle.
Check here for nausea relief.
Each person must decide what the best course of action is for their personal health history. Your gastroenterologist, hepatologist, or transplant team will help in choosing the best course of action for you. There are so many factors to be considered and questions that you alone can answer. From your doctor’s perspective, the condition of your liver, your age, and overall health in general will be a deciding factor. I consider that there are roughly 3 categories you can fall into.
For example, if you are young and your liver is not scarred too much from the viral inflammation, you may opt to wait on new all oral treatments that are now being tested. If you do treat now, the duration of triple therapy is roughly 6 months. One the other hand, if you have scarring and your liver biopsy shows that you have developed cirrhosis, your options to treat are different.
Update: The Sovaldi has been approved. It will still require Ribavirin but will be much easier to treat with. The side effects are much less and patients have been able to stay on treatment for the duration! More news will be coming out as patients actually begin the treatment, but the trials were great!
With low scarring or early stage cirrhosis you can expect to get started fairly soon before more damage occurs. The duration of treatment may be about 6 months also. If you have grade 3 or 4 cirrhosis there are a lot of considerations. The side effects of treatment may be harder and the duration may be up to 48 weeks, or roughly a year. The triple therapy cocktail is lethal to the virus, but it is also hard on all vital organs, including the liver.
That was my case, and my doctor would not treat me. He sent me to a transplant hospital in a nearby city. I worked hard to get my MELD score down. (That’s the number assigned to physical factors that determine if you need a transplant.) I begged for the treatment. I knew if I did not get rid of the virus, that my liver wouldn’t last more than a year or 2 at the most. I was at the end stage. The transplant team gave me the green light and I agreed to adhere to a strict diet and to do everything I was told. I’ll talk in another blog about my liver saving nutrition and lifestyle. I knew that the treatment could cause my health to decline quickly. It did. My stubbornness came in handy when it came to being compliant with every order my doctor made. It’s easy to give control to a doctor when you realize that you have NO control over anything anymore. The lessons I learned were hard, came fast, and will never be forgotten. Lest you faint now thinking about it – I’m beyond joyful at what I learned and experienced. Haha! That’s easy to say after it’s all over with. But I digress…
You must take into account such issues as:
How will it be paid for? Your doctor’s billing office can find out how much your insurance covers. Even though I had insurance, there was a lot of out of pocket expense that I didn’t plan on. I’m still paying for extra “rescue drugs” that I needed that were not fully covered. I also had hospitalizations and blood transfusions that were costly. Was it worth it? Raising my hand I’m saying “Yipper!” Every last dime of money I scrimped on cannot compare to the life I’ve gained as a result. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I did the mental work of planning on being broke, and I knew I would have to work to keep insurance. Once that decision was made, there was no wavering.
Who will be my support during treatment? You will need help with daily care, dietary needs, someone to run errands, and basically be there if you need help. If you have children at home, or are trying to work you will need a back up system in place before you start. It’s not easy for most people. The side effects can be rough. I ended up moving in with my daughter, and her family. Gosh, there’s a lot to write about that experience. Ultimately, the little girl I gave life to saved my own. I also had sisters, family, and friends who did a lot of leg work, bought and cooked liver loving food, and listened when I cried. My hep c network were my lifesavers mentally and emotionally in more ways than I can count.
Please remember, I’m a survivor, not a medical expert. Check back often for more info about side effects and how to manage them, questions to ask the doctor, how to’s on finances, etc. Basically, I’ll tell you what I needed to know when I was going through it. If my experience helps even one person who is considering treatment, then it’s worth it to blog my story.
I hope you’ll consider me as your friend. You can think of this blog as if you had a fairly 
healthy best friend who was diagnosed with End Stage Liver Disease as a result of hepatitis c. She’s going to tell you everything you need to know and hold your hand through cyberspace while you navigate your own experience with hepatitis c. Peace Out for now, Karen 🙂 So you wanna know about treatment for Hep C
