Long Term Survivor with New Diagnosis

[BigDaneDogs]

There comes a time when you want to say enough is enough and this is just that time.  I aquired AIDS in 1993 and have had a great and successful life.  Over the past 4 years my health has started to be a bit more chaleengin but more on the mental side (pardon my typing, my parrot is sitting here biting my fingers).  About 2 months ago I was diagnosed with Chronic HCV.  Was the Aids not enough?  What I know as of today is that it is type 1 HCV and my viral load is 3 million +.  They are not addressing my HCV until they can get my AIDS back under control.  I have NO idea what to expect from the HCV treatment but NOTHING I've read so far gives me ANY encouragement.  Any words of wisdom?   

[Ann]

Sorry to hear about your additional diagnosis. I was also coinfected, but I did the treatment and cleared it nearly ten years ago.

Unfortunately, you have one of the harder to treat genotypes. But please don't despair, there are new drugs coming out that are increasing the success rate of treating type 1.

Don't let that 3 million+ VL scare you. High VLs for hep C are common. Mine was similar - somewhere over 3 million.

I won't lie to you - it's not an easy treatment. I did it in '02-'03. What kept me going was knowing it wasn't forever and also knowing that if I successfully cleared the virus (and I did) that it would be of great benefit to my health.

Do you know about one of our sister-sites - HepMag? The lessons there on hep C are more in-depth than they are here (although Tim Horn is in the process of expanding on our own hep C lessons here).

Our sister-site also has their own Forum. While they're not as busy as these forums, there are people there who are also dealing with a hep diagnosis. I'm a member there myself. Please check it out!

Another site you may find helpful is HIVandHepatitis.com. I would suggest you read through the Lessons at HepMag first before tackling HIVandHepatitis.com. The lessons at HepMag are written in plain English and I for one find them easier to understand than the ones at HIVandHepatitis.com.

You sound like you need a hug right about now..... ((((((((((BigDaneDogs))))))))))

If you have any more specific questions, don't hesitate to ask either here or at the HepMag forums. I'll keep an eye out for you over there.

Ann
xxx