Living Without HepC

Only recently I have been thinking about having an annual blood test to check the virus has not returned. I have no reason to suspect it has but of course testing is the only way to know for sure. I have been ambivalent about doing an annual check as it has now been three years last October since I completed treatment. And how long do I go on checking when the results are ‘no virus’?

But I have decided to have an LFT (Liver Function Test) as I have been observing the effects of a modest consumption of wine. Carol and I went to Italy for five days and shared a bottle of white wine with our dinner, several evenings in a row. And for several weekends we have shared a bottle of wine over two nights. I describe this in detail to say that this is not great consumption for most people. And to say I do enjoy a glass of wine particularly with good food. However I began to notice a kind of distended feeling in my stomach and feeling bloated. It seems like my liver is not really metabolising the drink and my system is struggling to cope. So I decided to stop the drinking completely and soon noticed these effects disappearing. Regretfully I am learning I really can’t cope with much wine – although I cannot see me giving up the very occasional glass – I do enjoy it at the time.

So booking in for a LFT blood tests I decided to add the PCR DNR as it seems a bit irresponsible not to check on the HepC virus too. I will have the tests on my next return to London (I’m working away from London at the moment) and then await the results.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 7:32 am 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.