Tested positive for HepC; viral load 104,000. Not sure what that means. Now I have to be vaccinated for HepB and return for genotype (?) testing. he also told me my test for diabetes is borderline (this blood was drawn 5/8) and yet the blood drawn on 5/1 shows I have no indication of diabetes at all. I'm losing my mind. Liver enzymes are slightly elevated but the night before these bloods were drawn I was in hospital with older daughter who had a seizure (first one) at age 32 while leaving a movie in NYC, then had another one week later. My plate is FULL! I need to lose weight - fast and no one can figure out why that can't happen on 1300 calories a day and exercise. :mad:

neena if you start the TX for HCV you WILL lose weight. I lost 30 lbs

not exactly the way I planned to lose weight! lol But I have one other test to take to see if I actually have HepC or am just a carrier. What's the difference?? Also the doctor mentioned that my weight will cause elevated liver enzymes and that stress would. The night before my visit to hepatologist my oldest daughter had her first seizure - I was an absolute wreck.

Does one still need treatment if they are only a carrier? I have so much to learn about this monster... like i don't have enough others: COPD, thyroid issues, panic disorder, being fat, asthma, being fat, depression, being fat. See a thread developing here...

Trying to keep my spirits up. :)

Hi Neena,

I am curious about the other test that you need to take to determine if you are a carrier or if you actually have hep C? The viral load test seems to indicate a large number of the virus in your blood.

The genotype test determines wich strain of the virus is active in your body. The best that I can figure is that the doctor is trying to determine if the disease is actively doing damage to your liver or if it is just moving through the blood stream.

Good Luck!

Chuck

I actually don't know the answer. He was giving me other numbers over the phone but I went numb after the first sentence. He did say usually he sees viral loads in the the range upward of 50 million when the infection is chronic and he did say the viral load being so low might indicate I'm a carrier. At this point, I really don't know! sucked alot of blood out of me if he were just looking for regular liver panel but I have to tell you I had a liver profile done not two weeks before where the results were very different - the lab my insurance asks us to use must have bigger faulty results than I thought - two weeks ago I had absolutely no indication of being pre diabetic but now the numbers show just that. All labs will be run at the local hospital from now on and if my insurance has anything to say I will let them know I am prepared to take action over their 3+ mistakes over the last two years might convince them where the blood needs to be drawn. Did I mention I'm scared out of my mind?

Hello,

I remember when I was diagnosed that they took a gallon of blood from me as well. I remember the nurse saying, "Dang! This doctor wants everything!". As for the viral load, yours really is low compaired to mine which was 3.2M and my doctor said that mine was low as well. But I was still chronic.

The thing I hated the most when I was diagnosed was all of the waiting between tests! It gave my mind time to come up with all kinds of crazy scenario's. I think that I imagined every possible outcome. One time I even called the hopital that was doing the lab work and talked to the tech that was running my test. He told me it would take another two days and that he would get it out right away when it was complete.

But still, I couldn't get my mind to stop thinking about all that was happening and what might happen in the future.

Don't let this get you down to much until all of the facts are in. Once you know exactly what you are dealing with, then you can focus on what you need to do about it. I know exactly how scary this can be, having had to deal with it myself and the best advice that I can give you at the moment is to try to keep your mind focused on something else.

Easy for me to say, I know!!

Also, it can take a little time to determine if the hepatitis is acute or chronic. If it is chronic then try to keep it clear in your mind that there are treatments and that it was probably caught early which means that it hasn't had much time to do any real damage. And if it's not chronic then the next step will be learning how to deal with it and what you need to know to keep from infecting others. Only time will tell, I'm afraid.

Hang in there!!

Chuck