Guest guest Posted April 1, 2005 Report Share Posted April 1, 2005 You have to test either salive or urine. I will go the urine route. I have no problems getting him to urinate in a cup. He actually likes it.... I will let you know how it goes. Thanks! Jean > It's funny you mentioned this. I just ordered yesterday a home kit to > test my son to see if he has any heavy metals in his system. The kit > costs $15.00 so I thought it was worth a try. I got it from > www.evenbetternow.com Maybe you can try that as well. > > Jean > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 15, 2006 Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Hi Bob Welcome to our group! Well in regards to your questions,, I can only give you my opinion,,only YOU can make the decision to treat or not... First off, remember that this disease moves in decades,, not months,,, so what we advise everyone is to get copies of everything your doc has in regards to your hep virus.. You need to know what your genotype is, what your viral load is, and how much damage you have or do not have in addition to the grade of inflammation( this tells how fast the virus is moving)... You also have to take into consideration what your life is like,, are you in a stable marriage, do you have good health insurance PLUS short term and long term disability in case you are unable to continue working if the treatment makes you really sick like it did me.. I had to stop work at week 12 I think because I became so anemic and the procrit only was helping me to hold my own, I was not getting a good response to the procrit,, then I needed neupogen too for white cells,, There is NO specific cut off that says on this side you dont treat and on this side you do,, its a personal thing.. but you really need to take into consideration what your life is like as well... I had to treat because I had grade 3 inflammation so it was moving along quickly and was at stage 3-4 with early cirrhosis,, I treated successfully and am now more than 3 years post tx and am still undetectible.. but with genotype 1 which is what I am,, the odds at the best are only 50/50,, my doc gave me only a 15% chance of responding to treatment,, but I did,, but I HAD to fight for every bit of help I needed.. MY gastro kept wanting to reduce my med's when I was becoming anemic instead of giving me procrit... and the studies show that you MUST take at least 80% of your meds 80% of the time in order to stand any chance of reponse to treatment... I fought with my doc and actually fired him when he was getting on my case about not reducing my meds, after all HE WAS the doc,, but I am an educated person and I LEARNED everything I could about this disease,, so I probably knew MORE than he did about this and HE DID NOT like that..I ended up going back to my PCP who had referred me to this gastro in the first place and he helped me to finish tx with all my meds and I MADE IT... but it was a battle,, First off,, as far as supplements,, I DO think that Milk Thistle is good,, but there are so many brands , its hard to know what to buy... I have done a lot of reading about it and what I have learned is that Siliphos bound milk thistle is the best,, it is proven to be 8-10times MORE effective than simple silymarin.. but any milk thistle is probably better than no milk thistle... I know of 2 good brands of siliphos bound milk thistle, they are Maximum Milk Thistle which you can find online and Unicity's Liver Essentials which is what I use and you can also find that online too.. Liver Essentials is a bit more expensive than MMT but it has a proprietary blend of other things that are also very good for the liver... I had my alt/ast numbers drop by HALF before I even started tx with using the Liver Essentials.. BUT thats NOT TO SAY that I can prove that the L.E. did that,, altho I do believe that.. My doc recommended that I take it all through tx and I did..I still take it.. but do NOT take anything until you have spoken to your physician as there may be reasons that he might not want you to take it.. I dont know why but some of the docs still dont advise it on treatment because heaven forbid that it would help the treatment work better..lol... As far as vitamins, YOU MUST be careful with anything that has IRON in it.. Iron is real bad for the liver, especially one that has hep c... Ok, thats probably enough info for you to consider at one time.. but please get copies OF EVERYTHING and keep it in a file at home.. I have copies of every lab, every pcr, every biopsy all in a file so I can asscess the info anytime I need too.. its important so you can research and help yourself to learn more about this disease.. please feel free to ask any questions,, we might not know the answers, but we will know where to find the answers! welcome,, jaxmackey82055 <mackey82055@...> wrote: I was recently diagnosed with HCV. I had a liver biopsy and according to my DR the results were not very good. He said that I should begin treatment within the next few months. Now for my questions? Should I or should I not begin treatment. At what levels is it advised. and there are two studies that are available to me 1)peginterferon alfa and ribavirin. Peg intron plus rebetol or pegasys plus copegus2)pegalated-interferon alfa-2b plus viamidineBoth treatment are fully paid forbut I also have insurance if ther is a better treatment Does anyone have any info that may be useful in making my decision and is there any better treatment for me to reviewThanksBobJackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 15, 2006 Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Welcome Bob! I see that jax has already given you much to consider. If you are only considering Western medicine, then I can only add what I think and know about the current trials there. I believe that the current treatment is often worse than the disease; due to the severity of side effects and that they can be permanent. There are companies that are running trials right now using technologies/drugs that have far less or no side effects. I would not recommend being a guinea pig for anyone unless you feel you are very desperate. If you are going to be a guinea pig, then I recommend that you do your homework very well. One company that I would consider volunteering for their trials is AVI Biopharma Inc. in Portland Oregon. Their trials are showing no sides, and efficacy data is due very soon. There are other companies, but this one is the only one I¡¯ve found that is trying something new, and not relying on Interferon or Ribavirin. You can search for them on the web, or post questions to me if you are interested. Further, you may be interested to know that I recently tested ¡°undetectable¡± after only being treated with Chinese herbals. But I¡¯m doing it in China, which may not be suitable for you. All my best, Eat well, sleep well, be well! mackey82055 <mackey82055@...> wrote: I was recently diagnosed with HCV. I had a liver biopsy and according to my DR the results were not very good. He said that I should begin treatment within the next few months. Now for my questions? Should I or should I not begin treatment. At what levels is it advised. and there are two studies that are available to me 1)peginterferon alfa and ribavirin. Peg intron plus rebetol or pegasys plus copegus2)pegalated-interferon alfa-2b plus viamidineBoth treatment are fully paid forbut I also have insurance if ther is a better treatment Does anyone have any info that may be useful in making my decision and is there any better treatment for me to reviewThanksBobIt's a pleasure having you join in our conversations. We hope you have found the support you need with us. If you are using email for your posts, for easy access to our group, just click the link-- Hepatitis C/Happy Posting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 16, 2006 Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 > I was recently diagnosed with HCV. I had a liver biopsy and according > to my DR the results were not very good. He said that I should begin > treatment within the next few months. Now for my questions? Should I > or should I not begin treatment. At what levels is it advised. and > there are two studies that are available to me 1)peginterferon alfa > and ribavirin. Peg intron plus rebetol or pegasys plus copegus > 2)pegalated-interferon alfa-2b plus viamidine > Both treatment are fully paid for > but I also have insurance if ther is a better treatment Does anyone > have any info that may be useful in making my decision and is there > any better treatment for me to review > Thanks > Bob > > > > > > > > > It's a pleasure having you join in our conversations. We hope you have found the support you need with us. > > If you are using email for your posts, for easy access to our group, just click the link-- Hepatitis C/ > > Happy Posting > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 17, 2006 Report Share Posted March 17, 2006 hey bob i have been down the rd u are on now let me tell u about side effects i took the redipen the second time around my count was up to 7 million got it dn to 88 i still have the virus though if u are not sick now and u are still in your 30,s i would hold off until your numbers go up hell it all depends on how old u are and hiow long u have had the DRAGON but i lost a lot of weight and some of my eyesight and the trtment is so long...e mail me back to let me now how u are doing and if u have anymore questions -pls feel free to e mail me ....good luck man .....jody Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 9, 2011 Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 Hi all, I'm . Been out of contact for qa while. zdoes anyone know when the " new " treatment which augments the Peg-interferon + Ribavirin? This new drug is some kind of " inhibitor " I think. I do my medical through the VA and last year my doc mentioned maybe this year it might be available outside trials. Any info on that I would greatly appreciate. Thanx, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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