Glad to hear you'll be starting soon Shorty. It sounds like it was a fairly simple process to get the Harvoni.
I wonder if all of Kaiser is treating with Harvoni rather than the Viekira Pak for the GT 1's. I have always said that if I ever reach SVR, I will switch to Kaiser. And so, I think I will now. They sound more fair than some of the other plans.
shorty213 said
Feb 4, 2015
Well I have a start date of Feb 16 .harvoni for 12 weeks. Have to attend a class first I guess. V.L went from 13 mil. To 18 mil.in the last 2 years but have been told that doesn't matter. .although I would think the more the virus you have the more inflamed your liver would be? ?
Miss B said
Jan 25, 2015
In my case, I had terrible side effects from interferon, I was truly miserable.
But, I have had zero side effects from Harvoni. yay!
I did find the first few days on Harvoni really dehydrated me. Just a nuisance, I don't even count that as a side effect.
shorty213 said
Jan 25, 2015
thank you miss B, sounds like a lot of nonsense(that's Kaiser for us)!!lol... im hoping I don't have to go through all that... im just ready to get this done and over with... my thing is if the doc told me to schedule apt for treatment, lets do this!!.. thanks for the reply, we"ll find out wed..side effects sound minimal...went thru 8 weeks of peg/riba/vic in 2011after 6 had to take medical leave and stopped tx at 8 just because it drove me crazy and I was undectable for about 30 days after I quit!!
Miss B said
Jan 25, 2015
You should not need to have another biopsy. It's safe to say that your liver is no healthier now than it was 2 years ago when you had your biopsy. I had to get some labs done before they would fill my prescription.
Here is how the process worked for me at KP. I scheduled an appointment to see my doctor for the week after Harvoni was approved. I was surprised that he said he hadn't been informed yet about who would qualify for Harvoni. This shocked me since we all knew that Harvoni was scheduled for approval on 10/10/15. He called me 2 weeks later to say that they are asking all F1 & F2 patients to wait for treatment. I said ok, & hung up. I needed time to process this information. After I had time to think, I emailed him & said that I was not comfortable waiting for treatment & listed the reasons why. He presented this information to the Regional HCV Committee & I was approved within a week. One glitch I had was that they only approved me for 8 weeks of treatment. It took a while for me to convince them that my prior treatment with interferon meant that I needed 12 weeks. Once they approved me, I think I the first prescription was ready for pickup in about 2 weeks. The way it worked for me was that they filled the first prescription for 14 pills, the 2nd for 14 pills & the 3rd & 4th for 28 pills. It feels very weird to walk out of there with $31,000 worth of drugs! I had to agree to come in for labs after 2, 4, 8 & 12 weeks.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
shorty213 said
Jan 25, 2015
thank you tig56, much appreciated!!
shorty213 said
Jan 25, 2015
thank you for reply, my appt is this wed the 28. had biopsy 2 years ago with stage 1-2 scarring. will I be able to start meds this week or do I have to go through whole process again and wait a month to start? ready to get this done..any side effects I should know as far as continuing to work? thank you miss b
Tig said
Jan 24, 2015
Hi Shorty,
Glad to hear you're getting the opportunity to treat. I'm not familiar with KP, so I can't provide you that information. Sounds like Miss B is the one to ask. However, they aren't using Interferon like they were even a year ago. They are now treating or trying to treat, if the insurance carriers will approve it, with Harvoni. They have also approved Sovaldi and Olysio for GT1a, but isn't as widely used right now. Abbvie also offers a new protocol that is very good as well. The side effects from these protocols isn't near the issue that Interferon/Ribavirin were. We've got a lot of info you can review using our search function that will provide you with many discussions we've had on the subject. It really is a great time to treat and the new protocols offer very high SVR rates. Good luck!
Tig
Miss B said
Jan 24, 2015
Hi Shorty,
I have KP & am doing Harvoni for 12 weeks. I would be happy to try to answer any KP questions.
shorty213 said
Jan 24, 2015
hello just received email from hep c specialist asking if im ready to start new hep c tx... she didn't mention what medication was called.. does anybody happen to know? is there interferon included? did tx for 8 weeks 2011 and dropped due to side fx.was undetected but returned 3 months later.. any info helps thank you
Glad to hear you'll be starting soon Shorty. It sounds like it was a fairly simple process to get the Harvoni.
I wonder if all of Kaiser is treating with Harvoni rather than the Viekira Pak for the GT 1's. I have always said that if I ever reach SVR, I will switch to Kaiser. And so, I think I will now. They sound more fair than some of the other plans.
In my case, I had terrible side effects from interferon, I was truly miserable.
But, I have had zero side effects from Harvoni. yay!
I did find the first few days on Harvoni really dehydrated me. Just a nuisance, I don't even count that as a side effect.
thank you miss B, sounds like a lot of nonsense(that's Kaiser for us)!!lol... im hoping I don't have to go through all that... im just ready to get this done and over with... my thing is if the doc told me to schedule apt for treatment, lets do this!!.. thanks for the reply, we"ll find out wed..side effects sound minimal...went thru 8 weeks of peg/riba/vic in 2011after 6 had to take medical leave and stopped tx at 8 just because it drove me crazy and I was undectable for about 30 days after I quit!!
You should not need to have another biopsy. It's safe to say that your liver is no healthier now than it was 2 years ago when you had your biopsy. I had to get some labs done before they would fill my prescription.
Here is how the process worked for me at KP. I scheduled an appointment to see my doctor for the week after Harvoni was approved. I was surprised that he said he hadn't been informed yet about who would qualify for Harvoni. This shocked me since we all knew that Harvoni was scheduled for approval on 10/10/15. He called me 2 weeks later to say that they are asking all F1 & F2 patients to wait for treatment. I said ok, & hung up. I needed time to process this information. After I had time to think, I emailed him & said that I was not comfortable waiting for treatment & listed the reasons why. He presented this information to the Regional HCV Committee & I was approved within a week. One glitch I had was that they only approved me for 8 weeks of treatment. It took a while for me to convince them that my prior treatment with interferon meant that I needed 12 weeks. Once they approved me, I think I the first prescription was ready for pickup in about 2 weeks. The way it worked for me was that they filled the first prescription for 14 pills, the 2nd for 14 pills & the 3rd & 4th for 28 pills. It feels very weird to walk out of there with $31,000 worth of drugs! I had to agree to come in for labs after 2, 4, 8 & 12 weeks.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
thank you tig56, much appreciated!!
thank you for reply, my appt is this wed the 28. had biopsy 2 years ago with stage 1-2 scarring. will I be able to start meds this week or do I have to go through whole process again and wait a month to start? ready to get this done..any side effects I should know as far as continuing to work? thank you miss b
Hi Shorty,
Glad to hear you're getting the opportunity to treat. I'm not familiar with KP, so I can't provide you that information. Sounds like Miss B is the one to ask. However, they aren't using Interferon like they were even a year ago. They are now treating or trying to treat, if the insurance carriers will approve it, with Harvoni. They have also approved Sovaldi and Olysio for GT1a, but isn't as widely used right now. Abbvie also offers a new protocol that is very good as well. The side effects from these protocols isn't near the issue that Interferon/Ribavirin were. We've got a lot of info you can review using our search function that will provide you with many discussions we've had on the subject. It really is a great time to treat and the new protocols offer very high SVR rates. Good luck!
Tig
I have KP & am doing Harvoni for 12 weeks. I would be happy to try to answer any KP questions.
hello just received email from hep c specialist asking if im ready to start new hep c tx... she didn't mention what medication was called.. does anybody happen to know? is there interferon included? did tx for 8 weeks 2011 and dropped due to side fx.was undetected but returned 3 months later.. any info helps thank you