Re: liver biopsy question

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Hi Rita Well Im not a doc but it sounds very much like my biopsy did,, you have active hep c with damage to the portal tracts . It really sounds like a very good time to treat NOW.. well after the holidays,, I wouldnt ruin the holidays to treat now, but soon, you probably should.. you do have cirrhosis but many ppl live for years with cirrhosis as long as you get it stopped.. thats why you should treat,, to stop the cirrhosis from continuing and some of it may even reverse like mine did... its not the 'worst' biopsy I've heard but it is serious and needs to be addressed soon. The steato means you have fatty liver,, so if you are a geno 3, thats fairly common

with geno 3 but its NOT a good thing,, you need to reduce any excess weight you are carrying to help reduce the fat stored in your liver. But the main thing is that this is NO HOPELESS,, not at all, and treatment can and will help it if you are successful.. so if you start tx, you MUST remember that no matter how bad you may feel, that you gotta make it through the 24 weeks ( if geno 2 or 3, and 48 if geno 1)... We'll be here to help you,, take a deep breath and relax honey,, dont ruin your Christmas... hugs, jax Rita aka Spring wrote: I got mine 3 weeks ago. I got my liver biopsy by calling the pathologist and asking it be faxed to our doctors office {where I work}! I still haven't heard from my liver doc! GRRRR The nurse told me she had it faxed to her and asked me by e-mail if I wanted it. WELL OF COURSE AND I WANT IT EXPLAINED AS WELL PLEASE!I showed it to 2 docs at work and they both said it didn't look good but they really didn't understand it all. I needed to have it explained by the specialist. huh? Aren't they doctors? I read it and it doesn't sound so good to me either. It sounds worse than the last two I have

had. But different pathologists say things differently. So... I am still waiting for answers. Here is what it says:FINAL PATHOLOGIC DIAGNOSIS:Liver, needle biopsy:Cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis with moderate interface activity, clinically chronic hepatitis C infection. Concomitant steatosis and steatohepatitis (see NOTE).NOTE:The liver biopsy shows distortion of praenchymal acrchitecture due to formation fo fibrous septa and nodules. The portal tracts contain moderate to severe lymphocytic infammatory infiltrate including lymphoid aggregates. There is moderate interface hepatitis. In addition, there is mild macrovesicular steatosis and prominent ballooning change suggestive of concomitant steatohepatitis. Special stain for iron does not show pigment deposition. Trichrome and reticulin stains are consistaent with H & E findings.Some of these words are in my last 2 biopsies but this one has more things

that sound worse to me. The last 2 didn't mention cirrhosis.Does anyone here know what this might mean? I am finding that the ones with the disease know more about it than the doctors it seems. Rita CopeJuly 25, 1979 - August 12, 2000passenger single car accident http://www.angelfire.com/ab2/springshome/links.html Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. Jackie