Living Without HepC

Now that I’m in charge of my own HepC medical care I thought over whether I needed a one year post treatment test to monitor if the virus had returned. I decided it would be useful to set the pattern with my GP surgery while the memory of the letter to them from my Consultant Hepatologist is still fresh.

So I requested LFT and HCV PCR blood tests and these were taken on November 6. Always a chat with the nurse whose youngest daughter and my son went to primary school together. And this time a huge bloody bruise on my arm. Ten days till the HCV PCR results were due. Three days for the LFT’s.

Since I’ve been tracking LFT’s over the past four years it is always the ALT’s (the enzyme that indicates inflammation of the liver and the amount) which have been problematic. 0-40 being the normal range, mine were anything from 200 to 400 (well, 399). The other elements have been ok so I don’t really pay much attention to them. So I only asked for the ALT’s when I rang for the results. She said all the LFT was normal – and the ALT’s are 14.

So I knew there is no inflammation of the liver – and likely, therefore, the virus hasn’t returned. However the PCR tests results didn’t turn up till 23 November – 17 days after being done. Good thing I wasn’t in a panic about the results then. In fact I think the surgery had to chase the lab to get these results. When I rang I was told the results show “nothing detected” but the GP hadn’t seen the results so this is not definitive. I reassured the receptionist that when the GP saw the result of “nothing detected” she would conclude that the test was negative for HepC and I wouldn’t really need the confirmation.

Despite my somewhat “know-all” attitude, which I think I can’t help because I’ve lived with all this for so long, I couldn’t help but notice the wave of relief sweep through me when she said “nothing detected”. Even though I had a normal LFT result I obviously harboured some small doubt somewhere in me.

That’s because I still regularly and frequently can feel my liver. Sometimes it’s a physical sensation of tenderness as I twist my body, sometimes it’s just an ache. And I still get a pain in my right shoulder – the one associated with the liver. (Sometimes stirred up after a liver biopsy, etc.)

It is a reminder. Yes, I have defeated the virus successfully – with the help of some very nasty medications. And I have sustained that victory and remain in good health. My liver, however, reminds me that it still compromised and needs continuing care to maintain my good health. So my journey, now one without HepC, continues.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 26th, 2006 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.