Re: My week 24 & daughter's biopsy results

[Guest guest]

CherylI am so happy to hear about your daughter!! Absolutely, she's young and strong and will have an easier time on tx than even you have had. Yet, we sure don't hear you complain a whole lot.By the way - I hope that was just a misunderstanding about your daughters readings. She can't be grade 1 and stage 1 - cirrhosis!! I am trusting that she had NO cirrhosis yet and it seems that maybe she doesn't even have much Fibrosis, which is really good.Gloria

Cheryl,Thank you so much for the update on your daughter. I especially have been waiting on pins and needles to hear this and it is good news. Her damage is low enough that it can be reversed once she gets rid of the virus. The great news is she has time..

As for you, what you are describing is COMPLETELY NORMAL during treatment and not anything to get very alarmed about. I have no clue why your doc would consider stopping treatment. My WBC's were completely wiped out during tx for almost all of my 48 weeks and then for some time afterwards. Hell, they are still usually pretty low. The fever is partially due to dehydration.., DRINK MORE WATER. Nothing you are describing though is indicative of tx needing to be stopped. You are only halfway thru treatment, early responder or not, chances are you are going to rebound if you stop treatment at this point. It almost seems like a lot of doctors right now are leaning towards stopping tx for people when symptoms get a little rough... I am thinking this is because of the new drugs coming out and their thinking is to stop treatment now and start people again on the new regimen. What many

doctors are mis-understanding is that stopping treatment on this regimen does not help the patient on the next go around. If you were to stop now and relapse, your chances of clearing on the next round with the new drugs is only about 40 to 50%... same odds as you have now. If you were to be a rapid responder again, you would only have to go thru 24 weeks of tx, but you would have to test out at undetectable at week 4 and again at week 8. Otherwise you're in it for 48 weeks again. Because these drugs are not out yet, and there are two different ones that do similar things, some doctors are very confused about how these drugs will be working.

In any case I am sure you need to drink more water... it will help the fever. Hugs,TeriOn Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 11:37 AM, <Honey1962@...> wrote:

Hello all, hope everyone is doing well. I just got back from my week 24 doctor's visit, she said my white blood cells are really low and she is concerned about that. She said if it keeps going low she would cut back the interferon dose. I told her that the last 2 or 3 shots, I have run a fever for a day or two or three after the shot. She was concerned about that also and told me to call her if my fever goes above 101. If that keeps happening, she said she may pull me off tx. I sure hope not She said if it comes to that, I have a good shot at SVR because I was an early responder and have remained undectable since my first labs. I don't know what to think about all that? She will be checking my iron with my next labs so I need to fast before my week 28 blood work. I am still on the procrit also and she said everything else looked normal with my labs.

My daughter's biopsy results are grade 1 and stage 1 cirrhosis. The doctor is happy with that and said she could start tx now or put it off for a bit. I really want her to wait for the new tx so she would only have to do 24 weeks if she responds well. The doctor said she could safely wait for that or she could try for a clinical trial since she is a good candidate, young, never done tx etc. We are weighing all the options, now that I know what the results are I can contact the insurance company that is offered through her job to see what they will cover for tx. She is a nursing assistant and has 2 years to get her RN, we are also thinking of letting her get that out of the way and then get into a hospital and then start tx. A lot to think about, but I wanted to update everyone like I said I would.

Thanks to everyone who keeps us in their thoughts and prayers, I do the same for all you out there.

Hugs

Cheryl