Ah, I see (about the current good news LFT's, and the how and why they came about). Good! I am very glad you have these to savour. 

Very nice you are getting another fibroscan done pretty soon too. Hopefully we will also be seeing decreasing kPa's in future.  : )

How has life and the weather and everything been treating you otherwise down there? How's that little doggy of yours. 

Of any hep related things that were bothering you before treatment, have you noticed a lessening of any of these since cure?

For me my lab numbers were such good news, and such welcome handy affirmations/reflections of how I was doing, reinforcing how lovely cured I was - as well as small improvements I noticed along the way after cure, no matter how small these improvements may have appeared, all were re-confirming my newfound state of cure - I reveled in my labs and improvements, and still do! A most pleasing outcome.

I am so glad you got yourself cured too. Our hep c was velparized!  : ) C.

STL, When I was on treatment, I didn't believe I would ever be normal again.  But it does happen!  

Congratulations.  Enjoy normal and beyond. That's what you fought for, and you won.

Those are awesomely normal results, STL! It’s a special day when your healthcare team is able to tell you, you’re finished and give you your walking papers. Congrats!

Hurray for normal

hurray for not needing the specialist anymore.

The ones I had through the hospital for my Hep are a different lab so by the lab my doc uses I havent had a blood test in 2 years. I wont bother asking again till next year now. Since they didnt check any of that at SVR guess i was just curious....Liver nurses final words were you wont need to see us again unless your liver enzymes go up again.

I didnt get liver function in Oct C ....that was only the SVR....My last liver panel was EOT in July so I was curious how it was going. I feel good, but ehh. I have fibroscan in bout 6 weeks and guess I expect she may ask. I had to see doc for my blood pressure pills. I don't go often and since I was there I thought I should check my blood so I asked.

Beauty LFT's STL!

I was just going to ask why (after your UND lab in OCT) only (aprox) 4 months later your doc gave you LFT's again? 

Good tho, i'm glad he did. 

We will always welcome good news!

How is every little thing over your way, how are you feeling nowadays? C.  : )

Its darn abnormal 5. When I got the call Doctor would like a followup, I went into the usual ohohh whats wrong now, but no nothing is wrong. Me thinks it just amazing....LOL..... Guess I'll just have to get used to that.....Well all of us club zero's will

  i love boringly normal

Latest blood test results in All boringly normal. GGT 15 AST 23 ALT 13. WOW.....

Thanks everybody,

You are such a lovely group of people. I have sure appreciated your support. I am so grateful to have achieved this so relatively quickly and easily, compared to some of us who went through so much more than I did to achieve the same thing. So very fortunate indeed. Wonderful Magic Beans and a wonderful support crew.

WOW STL -- a beautiful thing...welcome to Club Zero...you are alive and UND,,,I'd say that you See The Light! teehee

Not Detected ....music to our ears

are you enjoying your new status?

It's a beautiful thing STL

Nothing better than reading it "in type", "in black and white", for yourself - those lovely words staring back up at you from the page, attesting to your good fortune!, I never did like the verbal-only's (although those were nice and necessary and appreciated), i did not completely rest nor celebrate, until i saw all my results "in writing" with my very own beady little eyes. I have a physical paper file and within it is lives everyone of my officious "on paper" lab reports! We are all so happy for you.  C.

Woot! Another one bites the dust! So happy for you, STL. Take care of that happy liver. There are good things to come!

Damn straight!  There ain't no more.  Now get on out there and live your HepC free life!!!!!  It just keeps getting better.

All the best from

Very happy Cheddy

Just back from the Doc, nothing else to report

Test Name - Microbiology NAT - Hepatitis C Virus NAT Qualitative

Collected 16/10/2018 08.25

Hepatitis C Virus RNA NAT Not Detected

Thats all there is, there aint no more ......LOL.

Hey STL,

Thanks for the details. Glad you are home from all that moving work and busy-ness. Good to know where people are in their improvements after cure - it is still very early days for you, but I am glad of that little bit of hopeful sounding relief you are getting now, mainly just knowing you are now forever-free of that vile health-robbing virus, and perhaps gleaning some good effects from being virus free and perhaps gleaning some good from the sups as well. We shall see how you get to feeling better, but you do need some more time and distance between your old virus-packing self and this new virus-free version of you, to see what benefits befall you because you are hepcfree now. Just imagine all that busy work we were forced to do, for so long, our poor old bodies working overtime, always trying to mop up that hep c, imagine how much more lovely spare time our bodies have now, to concentrate on other more ordinary, but important repairs to deal with. 

Surely being hepcfree is ONLY going to help you going forward. 

Good for you that you are still achieving such good exercise effort despite discomforts.

Funny your story about getting expensive sups on-line shipped to you in Aus from abroad! Me too, haha, from my side of the pond, in Canada, paying big bucks to a sup company in New Zealand! (they wanted US dollars), so converting from Canadian dollars, I found it expensive too! We should shop local eh?! But same as you, i couldn't seem to find what i wanted in the homeland.

Know that I am waving my magic long and healing deep-sleep wand over you tonight.  C.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kgYquX6H8g

Thanks Cheddy,

I guess that came about from my nurse as she was explaining that with the DAA treatment, I would be entering a six month journey, the journey would be a trip of faith as we have no way of knowing the outcome. We cannot know if the journey would bring a cure for me until SVR12. She explained it as being nothing in the big picture given that I had lived in limbo with this dragon for nearly 40 years so a six month journey was nothing but a blink of the eye, and if my treatment was as successful as she expected it would be an extremely productive blink.

Thank you so much for caring. My friends here have been a wonderful support.

Thanks Tig, I saw you were on hols so no prob. I am grateful for the chance of a Hep Free life. Thanks to my wonderful magic beans.

Hey Canuck,

No I don't have my full results yet, only what the nurse said on phone. I only got home last night so will see my doctor next week and ask for a copy.

Don't really know if the Sam-e is helping much with the arthritis but I do feel more relaxed, so have ordered another packet from America. Thinking it was cheap at 40 odd bucks, ordered a Mag of same brand too, didnt realise it seemed cheap because it was American Dollars, once conversion happened it cost me 90 odd bucks so will see if that has arrived yet next week. I am certain the Mag is helping with the cramps but as summer is coming even that is a little hard to be sure. I have been so busy of late some days doing 20,000 steps and notice particularly when I am really tired and go to bed my legs almost start to cramp ( like restless leggy) but don't cramp and dont go full on into restless leg) I have been taking one of the Chelate I got locally and 2 of these Glycinate I sourced online - American Brand Solaray (Mag Glycinate 400 mg)  I am turned off them though when I found the 400mg is per dose 4 caps so dont think I will get them again. The Neuropathy still a constant, but ehh at least the cramps seem to have stopped so small things lol.

My sleep prob not much diff. My Fitbit averages me at 5 hours something per night. Sometimes in one sleep sometimes in 2 with 2 or 3 hours awake in middle. Take last night, very busy day in town, up before 6 traveled home put shopping away, rushed  to dogs, home by 8,  watched teli till about 11.30 went to bed but didnt really get to sleep till 3.13. at least I slept in till 8.18 and fitty gave me 4 hours 15 mins after a 20,000 step day, so who can figure.

All in all I would say I feel OK considering I'm 66.

Oops, I see I left this hanging several days ago. I didn't hit submit. ...

Oh boy!  You are seeing the light!  This is a really a great confirmation. 

How incredible it is that the last 6 months can become a blink.  They are so intense when you're moving through all of this. You did it!

Yes, yes, yes - The road to good health is ahead!!!

I am genuinely happy ever time I hear "CURED."  It's like hearing it for myself over and over again.  I feel it very personally.

Thanks you for being a friend along the way, by sharing your experience and helping others through.  I continue to enjoy being an advocate, although I did take time away to shed the identity of a HepC victim, and to resume life without it. 

Keep up apprised and updated. CONGRATULALTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey STL,

I was on vacation and missed your celebration! Congratulations on your great victory! Incredible stuff  

Welcome to your new Hep C free life...  

STL,

Did you say what your SVR12 LFTs were? (aside from that beauty UND!).

So, you are trying the SAM-e, I guess it's way too soon to discern if you feel any dif?

And is that correct, that you said you have found the mag chelate IS helping? (to decrease your leg cramps and pedal neuropathy)?? If so, I am VERY grateful for that! It was sounding quite dreadful what you were putting up with a while back, rolling about in heating pad and bed in distress and forcing yourself out for walk-abouts on your painful feet. 

How MUCH better are some of these painful leg cramp and foot neuro-pain things now?

Gee, I hope you steadily start to feel more and more improvements - my improvements were slow to come. I am very glad I am STILL improving!, sometimes it is my partner who has to point out some small improvements that i haven't even really noticed much at first, then i see he is right, they can accumulate quite slowly in being noticable, but they ultimately do keep occurring, in fits and starts, and sometimes in tiny increments. Some pains I packed for decades vanished, the profound debilitating fatigue has improved so drastically (in comparison to where i was!) -  there were not enough hours in the day to sleep and crash-nap! The large or small changes to the good had no rhyme or reason to them, sometimes things took a long time to resolve. But I am really liking this, that even now, so long after my cure i am still finding things that are improving!  I am hoping you will see more improvements too. 

Let us know how you are making out and how you are feeling. C.

Oh Thank you Iris. So Sweet. You will soon be joining me. Our wonderful DAA's truly are Real Magic Beans. They Work.

Hip Hip HUZZAH !!! Best news ever.!!!

Do let us know how you are feeling as time goes by.

Your new avatar is wonderful, you hold the light of hope and wellness. Blessed healing to you.

Iris

Thank You Canuck and Observer.......I'm still trying to focus on it being for real. My Magic Beans really were Magic.

YAY 

congrats , enjoy your good health.

Oh, wonderful STL - the news we have all been waiting for. I am so, so glad this day has finally arrived for you. I felt a big smile well up inside me when i saw the first mention of your news today in passing on another thread, so, I had to rush right over here to give you a big ole congratulatory cyber-hug!

Who says us 3's are hard to cure! Not any more. Not with the likes of Epclusa for us. Very happy for you. Feels great doesn't it.

Welcome to Club zero ... nice you have arrived. Such a journey you have had to get here, but finally, you are here!

Assume the position!  C.

yes, it was a great journey we shared to the UND

and compared to some treatments this was indeed short and easy for what it did... even with the hard times, and those memories are fading away too... or i've lost my mind. hahaha

it was nice to have a treatment buddy, i'm glad we met here and found out we started on the same day. 

the memories i remember are the precious memories of support and love from our community here

and yes, it keeps getting better now

Thanks 5. It really is so good to know that this last 6 months was just a short blink in the rest of my life. It has been lovely to share the journey with you. We can now both enjoy the rest of our lives. The road to good health lies ahead.

My Nurse just rang me as soon as my results were in with the news.

The Virus is

UNDETECTED

You are cured  ..........

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

so happy for you STL, yay! another geno3 on the cured list

Thanks lamassu. You certainly seem to be living a wonderful life after Hep

Congrats SeeTheLight so happy for you!

Thats Hoodie. I am over the moon! Have to admit that as positive as I tried to be I still tended to be a little plagued by the old doom and gloom "what if's" (particularly as a gen 3)  but now I can leave them behind and move forward in this wonderful opportunity I have been given of a hep free future.

The certainly is shining.

I can now see the light My world will be a better place

CONGRATS SEE THE LIGHT!!!  

Super happy for you!

My Nurse just rang me as soon as my results were in with the news.

The Virus is

UNDETECTED

You are cured

I will not need to see you again unless your liver enzymes go up again. Congratulations....... You will always carry the antibodies but you are cured. I asked about further testing and she has agreed to another fibroscan in 6 months. They don't usually bother unless you are over 10. I was 8.7. I will hear from the ultrasound people when they want to see me again - she feels soon as they usually do them 6 monthly. Yearly normal bloods with my GP and unless my enzymes go up drastically. Thats it.

I will try to get the blood results from my GP when I get home, but for now that is all I know.

STL good call getting the 400 MGs. Take them on an empty stomach and give them a chance to build up in your system, it takes about a week. See if you notice a difference, I sure did. I was taking 800 mg per day. They go on sale for buy one get one free at the pharmacy near my house several times per year and I take that opportunity to stock up. They used to say that SAM-e was good for the liver which is why I started taking it in the first place a while ago. But I really noticed a big improvement in my hand pain from typing all day at work so that became my primary reason for taking it. Hope it helps you

5, thanks for the tip on the zinc orotate. Will look into that at SVR12. 

STL, i'm sure it's UND but yes it's good to know; i did have to wait 13 weeks to get my lab tests so that was an extra week i had to wait too. good luck with hearing sooner rather than later tho

i started taking the zinc orotate {sp} , supposed to be good for liver health.

also take d3 and b12. will add the milk thistle back in soon.

i also got some magnesium citrate; that has the added bonus of moving things along too. not sure how i'll do on that, will start that next days off 

i may order the glycinate if the citrate is too much for my GI tract.

eventually i want to add in the luetien for the eyes.

Hi Hoodie, funny you mention SAM-e the first I saw mention of that one was on here. I now have a box of 400mg ones. Didn't know if I should get the 200s or the 400s but thought more is best and maybe I can break them in half if I need to and it will be cheaper than 2 months supply of 200s, I now see they cant be broken anyway so heres hoping. I found them very hard to source here but I found but as usual Mr Ebay helped lol. I was waiting for SVR12 to try them. Hope I will know quickly if they help so I can order more if required. As you say they are very expensive, particularly on top of my other sups. Prescription meds are subsidised here but alas for supplements we are on our own. I am only a pensioner so don't want to be wasting my money on supplements that do nothing of course.

Cheddy, lovely to hear from you also. I have been taking Calcium and Vit D for some 25 years since I learnt I was not absorbing calcium and had the bones of a 70 year old. (unaware of the hep then of course) I didn't think magnesium was much help a few years ago when I tried it but am now trying it again and my leg cramps have stopped and the neuropathy has eased in my feet so will keep that up. I have not tried a powder form, still trying to find one that works. Observer recommended Clycinate which I have a hard time locating. I did get a good Chelate from my local pharmacy, which I think is the same thing. I eventually ordered clycinate online 400m but when it arrived I found that was a dose which is 4 caps so an expensive bottle. I think the chelate may be better and only two of those needed. I seem to have so many bone, joint, mussel, nerve issues unfortunately. I plan to speak to my GP about them in the near future, one issue at a time and my major focus has been to first rid myself of this plague I have carried for way too many years .

Thank you all for your kind thoughts its lovely to have you following my journey.

5, I know how quick you got yours. That was amazing. My nurse is watching for the results. She knows I am keen to know if it has worked. She will ring me as soon as she hears. She only works Wed Thurs Fri so if they don't come through by tomorrow, I will be waiting till at least next wed. I hope she was wrong with the up to two weeks thing but will have to wait and see. I did sign on for 6 months of not knowing so by my reckoning they have under two weeks to go ROFL. I don't have an office I can call. I will have to wait on her call. She is my contact through my treatment provider. My local GP will get the results also. If she gets them I will get a phone call inviting me to come in for them, but she wont give out results over the phone and I am 160km from her (100 miles)

I do try not to worry about failure but it is hard at times when I really don't feel any different than before treatment. Wont be long now. Sometimes it is hard not to think that even with the high success rate, with my luck, I will be the rare failure. At least I am busy here at the mo, so I'm not home alone dwelling. Small mercies.

hye stl, call the dr's office before the weekend for sure, they might have it. i let my dr know i was anxious to know the results after all the time on tx.

i was surprised how quick it came back.... not sure why sometimes the test comes sooner and sometimes later

STL

Yep, we'll be celebrating.  There's nothing quite like the actual SVR12 report, for sure (big time).  At last you will be starting your HepC Free life. 

What does your doctor have to say about your neuropathy?  Did you have it before treatment? If not, it may resolve as you recover from treatment. If so, continue to pursue help whether it be medical or through supplements.  Keep massaging for increased circulation.

Sleep and muscle issues can both be helped by taking calcium magnesium.  There are powdered mixes that taste just fine in your continued water consumption, especially before bedtime.  Also, electrolytes can get depleted with massive water intake.  Since you are finished with treatment, you can start adding stuff until you find the right combo.

After all, you have to be ready for a happy dance when those tests come back!

I hope you will be doing something to celebrate. Whether it's big or small, do something meaningful to mark the distinction between past illness and future outlook.  You're on a whole new leg of your journey.

I can't wait!

I'm here with the rest of the crowd waiting to cheer for you.

blessings, Iris

Hey STL,

I already know, we’ll be celebrating your SVR this week!

The magnesium helps my neuropathy, as does the gabapentin I’ve been taking for years. I have a lot of cervical and lumbar spine damage, so I’m never sure what’s going to hurt next, lol! It’s amazing how some of these mineral supplements work. Often better than all of these prescriptions combined. I hope you find the right combination soon. I believe with time, SVR will help to reduce a lot of these problems. Even with my self destructing spine, I have noticed improvements. We all have reason to expect improvements. I like believing that is possible for everyone!

Yay STL!! Please be sure to check back so we can congratulate you on your SVR12!!

Hey, what's your doggies name? Such a sweet little friend

I found the supplement SAM-e to be sooo helpful for my joints and mood. Had to stop taking on treatment but after SVR12 (Approximately 12 weeks from now for me) I will resume this miracle supplement which sadly is quite expensive but easily accessible over the counter. 

Wonder if that could help you too? I know that neuropathy is different from actual joint pain but it did wonders for my hands and feet, and the depression too!

Great to hear your update please check back soon

Hi Harry,

Lovely top see a fellow Aussie on board. From what I understand the Epclusa should not effect your immune system as it only targets the Hep. As you can see I am a fellow Aussie. 66 years old. I had my flu shot early in treatment - guessing with emphysema you would have too. I reached EOT+12 weeks yesterday and had my SVR12 test done. I was not tested during treatment, as we don't do that here, makes sense to me, since earlier testing has no bearing on the end result (but not for others here )

Hoping I will hear that I am finally free of this thing soon. If it hasn't worked we will try something different so its not the end of the road. I am geno 3a.  I do not have Emphysema Harry, but constipation did plague me even after EOT. It was different as with my diet I do not normally suffer. Seemed my colon was drying out even with all the water I was drinking. At times I found the need for ememas. Things seem to be getting back to normal in that department finally thankfully.

Anyway Mate, your on the home straight so all the best, on your journey.

Hey yay, it's STL! So good to hear from you. Well, this business with the moving, all we can hope for is that you get so tuckered out you will just naturally sleep more/deeper/longer/better. Glad to hear your news/update (well ... except for the hard to take bits - neurop/sleep etc), but the rest sounds grand, good you are trying the mag again - exciting times of transition coming right up  (these moves and milestones) to say the least - people on the move and an imminent long-awaited celebration is about to occur! Yes, we want labs and pics of pups.  C.