Trudy - 17 weeks

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Trudy,OK, gotta do this, remember I'm only a doctor in my own mind!Here's my understanding...1. Type-2's (you and I) are some of the best responders. The odds I got were 80-85%, whereas type-1's currently are 40-45%, hence the shorter treatment time for type 2's.2. You've responded well to the treatment from the beginning. By that I mean your viral load showed a significant early drop and stayed undetectable after that. This is a very good indicator.3. Doctors and nurses do wonderful things overall, but we assign them godhood sometimes. The 26 and 48 weeks regimens aren't something Moses picked up on the mount carved in stone. The medical community has established those timeframes because the majority of people treated have achieved SVR by then...if they're going to. Some type 2's may be able to stop well short of 26 weeks and stay clear...but the medical community requires that 26 weeks to be sure. They want to do everything they can to insure the little bastard critters all died.4. All that being said, you stand a good chance of having cleared, in my opinion. Even if you haven't, you've done substantial damage to the virus, and will have given your liver a breather to help it regroup. It's so weird to say we're giving the liver a break by beating the hell out of it with more poison, but that's treatment...Obviously your body's not enjoying this ride, and if your doctor thinks it's best overall to stop treatment, with what we've heard here of the extent of your side effects, I'd have to agree with him. Here's how I see your future, in my murky crystal ball I got at K-mart...Worst case, you stop treatment and like ny, give your body a chance to recuperate. The virus comes back, you get yourself back to 100% and you re-treat with the new drugs pending approval now. The cure rate is higher, and the timeline can be shorter. Now I think the new drugs have only been tested on type 1's 'cause they have the lowest SVR rate, but if it works better on type 1's, I'd logically think it'll be much more effective against type 2's also. I could be totally off on that, but that's what my gut says.Or...You stop treatment on your doctors recommendation, and six months later you're still SVR 'cause the 17 weeks you had for treatment were enough in your case.Your doctor's looking at the big picture, and your overall health, as well as treatment issues. He's walking a fine line of treating you successfully or possibly doing further damage by completing treatment. This has to kill doctors who believe in their oath, because they're having to do harm to fix harm...in your case he's seeing the effects of the drugs starting to tip over into the "more harm than good" side of the scale. I don't think he's blowing smoke, he's salvaging what he can given the odds he's working with, and the way you've responded against the hep-c so far.Whatever you and your doctor decide, we're always here to help wherever we can. Something Don said to ny stuck in my head..."You might have lost this battle, but you haven't lost the war..." However, you may have won the war and don't know it yet.My heart goes out to you, and if there's anything I can do...SteveLife is much more fun when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party. Jimmy Buffett [ ] Rapid Responder

Guys, I need eveyones input on a serious subject. I was undetectable

at 5 weeks. Just did my 12 week labs including VL. HDoc says if I am

still undetectable we will probably stop tx at my next Dr visit which

will be at week 17.

I have read where many of you did post-tx labs and VL was back. I'm

confused and worried. Dr says there is better than 99% chance that I

will remain clear. It's because of new health concerns ( which I don't

want to even give credance to by saying outloud ) that he is thinking

we should stop and that we will have achieved the goal of no HCV.

Whatmakes my situation different ? Type 2b,? Or is the Doc painting a

" picture " of unrealistic odds?

I am really cconfused. I don't want to stop early and then find

that I did this for nothing.

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