Living Without HepC

I had a very odd experience recently – I didn’t where to put myself or what to say. That in itself is unusual for me.

I took a potential business client out to lunch. A proper business lunch – attentive waiter service, menu with the provenance of the food clearly listed, etc. When it came to discussing the wine list I pointed out to my guest that, as he had seen on my CV, I have had HepC and now try to look after my liver by drinking only occasionally. (Yes I do list HepC on my CV as an explanation for only working part-time over that period and because I insist on being upfront about it.)

He replied that he had once had a letter from the National Blood Service after giving blood to say his donation hadn’t been accepted due to hepatitis. He added this was years ago but he’d never had a blood test since then. Immediately I was thinking, I know a number of people whose HepC was diagnosed from a letter from the National Blood Service. So I hear alarm bells going off in my head. He said he wasn’t sure what type of hepatitis it was but he felt well so it must have passed.

Lots of things were going through my mind. I felt quite shocked that someone would get a letter like that and not take the advice of getting further tests. I wanted to confront and challenge that one. I also felt acutely aware that this is someone I hardly know – certainly not someone I know well enough to be challenging self-care behaviours or giving them health advice. This is a potential business client and our relationship is fairly formal.

I also thought I don’t want to be the person to tackle the very real possibility that he could be ill and not know it. That is not my place just because I’ve had the virus, done the treatment, got the t-shirt and wrote the blog. But I could not leave the matter without saying anything.

All I could muster was a rather low-key “it could be a good idea to get a blood test”. When he asked me the symptoms of HepC and I said generalised fatigue, stomach or digestive problems, feelings of malaise or unwellness were amongst a diverse range of symptoms, he nodded and said he had some of those. They had offered some counselling he recalled. He added maybe he should get a test sometime. I wanted to say, “YES, sometime this week actually would be a good idea”. But again I felt constrained that this is not my place or the sort of relationship I have with this person. But I didn’t. I just again said it would be a good idea to get a blood test.

Since then I have felt I ought to have said more. Even as I write this I can feel this sense of responsibility, knowing what I do about HepC. However, if someone does not take the advice given to them in a letter from the National Blood Service, or chooses to deny its significance, should I be pressing them, giving them more advice, penetrating their armour of denial? Is that for me to do?

Just now I have been looking at the NBS website and seen their policy guidance on confirmed positive microbiological markers such as HepC. The NBS has a responsibility to inform donors confirmed positive, to contact them by letter and to follow up non-responses through TRACELINE to establish the name of the GP and request they contact the donor. There is quite a lot of detailed procedure and protocol in place. So I can see that clearly I do not have to feel responsible – the NBS is.

I also read on their site that their positive antibody test result does not necessarily indicate continuing infection with the hepatitis C virus.

So, I don’t know what happened in the case of my lunch guest. I am pleased to realise it really is not my business – or my responsibility to confront. I hope for his sake that he is well. But I now know I don’t have to keep weighing up if I have done the right thing. And I feel relieved about that.

Once again I find this living without HepC very odd – clear of the virus but not entirely clear of it in my life.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 9:24 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.