Jane - Hello!

[Guest guest]

Jane,Welcome! This is a great group, and very informed.Don does an amazing job with research and links to, and there's other medical professionals here that can augment and/or enhance our knowledge base.Personally, I was where you are about 2 1/2 years ago, dazed and confused. Went through treatment (interferon and ribavirin), currently SVR, there's light at the end of the tunnel!SteveLife is much more fun when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party. Jimmy Buffett [ ] Hello Everyone

Hi everyone, Nice to meet all of you. I was diagnosed with HepC about a month ago after going through a ton of test. I am still in shock and really having a hard time accepting the diagnoses but I guess labs don't lie. It all started with low wbc at 2.2, low rbc at 3.0 and low platelets at 30-50 and horrible pain. I have had ultrasounds, CT scan and dopplers study. The first thing they found was I have a very enlarged spleen at 20.2cm and portal hyptertension with the portal vein very enlarged also. The pain sometimes is unbearable. The CT shows numerous varices around the esophagus and the splenic hilum and several varices in the left renal vein and the central portion of the left renal vein enlarge suggesting splenorenal shunt. Varicies are also seen deep in the

midline of the adbomen and pelvis.

Now, I was referred to a gastro for eval and he is wanting to do a procedure to band the varicies in my throat before any other treatment. Has anyone had this procedure or know anything about it? He also says there is no need for liver biopsy he already knows what it will show, which is a damaged liver. Should I insist on liver biopsy anyway? oh yea my labs show I have type 1b whatever that means, other than that is the worst type to have and treat. My viral load count was 137020 which the gastro was surprised, he thought would be much higher.

Thank God I am a Positive thinking person otherwise I would be freaking out.

The first day I walked out of the Dr office with this diagnosis I went straight to the bookstore and started reading. I left there and went and bought me a Jack la Lane juicer and started juicing every thing that I could that had an antioxident in it. I have felt better so I checked my labs (advantage of working in medical field) and my blood levels was up to almost normal. I repeated my CT scan of my spleen and it had shrunk down to 18.0cm, which doesn't seem like a lot but pain wise I can feel the difference.

Thanks for listening

Jane