Good Luck, Mother of a Dead Dragon! It has been our pleasure to witness your success and to be a part of it. Thanks for your input and shining a light of positivity among the group. It's so important to show those following us that this is a journey worth the cost of admission. The ending of this movie is the best!

Thank you Tig and Canuck for spreading positivity around and encouraging others in the same boat. I wanted to do my bit to tell everyone to be hopeful and let our bodies do its healing.

My AST and ALT levels  are 19 and 14 respectively.  Stark contrast from what it had been for several years before the treatment.. Wishing everyone good luck in their jouney

Hey MOD!

So glad you updated us! 

So it's true, that us GT3's are all just a great big bunch of "Zero's", hanging out now at that exclusive Club Zero! And all it took was a little magic "velparizing" by Gilead for your admission ticket in to this holiday (forever) from this nasty virus which caused you so much worry.

Big congrats on your SVR12!

Zero VL since week 4, gone from F1 to F0 now, and from A3 to A0 now, see ... resolutions and regressions really DO come true!

Just grand numbers. Good you share your story (such a successful one). Nice you keep us posted wth your good news.

Epclusa is wonderful stuff, I am so glad you got it. 

If at your SVR24 (or with further "followings" after that), if they ever suggest a fibroscan or a repeat U/S, in addition to the standard blood tests (like VL, liver panel, fibrotest and AFP), welcome it. It will only keep reinforcing the good news.

What's your current ALT and AST? They were already super-good and crashed at 4 weeks! ALT went from 182 to 22, and AST went from 124 to 28. Good enough for the girls I go with!

Isn't Club Zero grand!  C.

Hi MoD,

WOOHOO! Congratulations on the great news. These are amazing times for treatment and the new drugs are as close to a guarantee as we have ever witnessed. You had a lot of pre-treatment inflammation and that by itself causes pain and problems. Once that big ol chunk of liver calms down and returns to a normal size, good things happen. Once all of those supporting structures and surrounding tissues fall back into place, the pain is reduced quite rapidly. Sounds like yours resolved quickly, thats wonderful!

Thanks for sharing your most excellent results. Enjoy your new Hep C free future!

So, it has been 3 months since I completed my course. I went for post 3-month labs. My doctor says that the fibrosis and inflammation have been healed and I am at grade 0 now .

My fibrosis went from .29 to .13 and Necroinflammation went from .83 to .04 . I wanted to put this out there for anyone else who have wondered if the liver damage is reversible.

Happy for you that you got on trail.

No symptoms for me  in all these years, except in the past 2 months I got stomach-upsets more frequently. Not sure if it was related to Hep C but since starting treatment I haven't experienced it

MoD,

Good you had the pre-treatment abd. U/S and that it did not show steatosis or any other abnomalities, that coupled with your other assessments (estimations via your fibrotest), put you at a fairly firm guess that your fibrosis (the wear and tear that could have been occurring to your liver) is low. I assume all your other bloodwork is normal?

These things, as well as your young age and healthy lifestyle, puts you at a distinct advantage to doing very well indeed on the lovely new DAA's we have nowadays - as already shown by your super-stellar crash of your ALT and your 4 week UND!

We're tellin' ya! .... you should be VERY pleased with your response to epclusa. This is going to go well! 

That's great!, that you felt nothing untoward your first 4 weeks on epclusa!

So true, 6 years ago, your treatment choices were limited, even 2 years ago (as a GT 3) I could not even get my hands on sof/dac (Daklinza - even tho it was "out there" so to speak), at best I was looking at doing sof/riba! - lucky, lucky, lucky for me I pursued and got in a trial, the same sof/vel you are doing (Epclusa) but with a 3rd drug added (vox) - mine was a Vosevi trial.

You and I and all GT3's (and other GT's as well) are so lucky nowadays to have the likes of Epclusa and Vosevi - thank your lucky stars my dear, that as a GT3, you got Epclusa. Choice drug options for GT3's used to be quite limited/limiting not so very long ago. I agree with you, the sphere has improved drastically! (in the creation of good drugs for us GT3's, and as well in the creation of more good drugs, in general, for all GT's). It's a brand new and promising world now for folks with hepc.

What you heard about "progression" being faster in GT3's has some truth to it, but it is NOT neccessarily so!, fatty livers/developing higher Fscores/cirrhosis might be found to be progressing more quickly in some GT3's, but these things can also happen in any GT, and in any GT this progression is best stopped early - best we ALL be treated early and well, with good drugs, before we have developed worsening and/or longer-standing problems. It is a very good and encouraging thing for you to know that you have a normal U/S, and are showing up as only F1!  

How did you feel (health/symptom-wise) during your 6 year wait for treatment? C.

Canuck, I had abdominal ultrasound done  before treatment but that came as normal. I exercise everyday and eat healthy, not sure if that had something to contribute. No other tests except Fibrosure that I mentioned.I am actually just starting to gather knowledge about this disease. After I was told that the treatment will have side effects and yet might not cure me, I refused treatment and went into denial mode. Glad that we have made progress in this sphere.Epclusa is a great drug, I have absolutely no side effects

MoD,

Thnaks, I can hardly believe it myself (my very good fortune) , but facts are facts, I am due for another checkup this week and looking forward to see the results of the fibroscan it will include - reconfirming my near F0 status that we think I am at!!  I think I have also reversed what was seen as a fatty liver (steaotosis) on my first pre-tretament ultrasound (U/S)!

That was why I was asking about if you have had any (or many) U/S's/imagings or any fibroscans during your 6 year wait for treatment, we GT3's are prone to having fatty livers (perhpas more so than other GT's) so, it is good to follow us with Fscores and U/S's (and addtionally other fibrosis deducing methods, such as blood tests, etc.), pre-treatment AND after, to be well assessed and better detect improvements/changes to the good post-treatment. 

I can just imagine the angst you went through getting a hep c diagnosis in the 7th month of carrying your little one. We have had quite a few here who can relate to that - (male and female and other family members, freinds to) can go through terrible worry and concern when the first shock/realization of this infection is diagnosed/known.

You have had quite some time to learn about hepc, I am betting you are already really quite knowledgable about things, but I always learned things (and still do!) by strolling through the knowledge sections (and many other sections) here on this site, Tig and the moderators and former people who worked diligently on this site, (and all of us who share and offer what we can) have amassed a really good bit of info here.

A nice group of people here around these parts too, you will not lack for company, opinions and info.  How are you feeling "on" the epclusa?. C.

Canuck, Congrats on a great recovery

Thank you all for your responses. The genotype is actually 3. I found this out 6 years back so I was unable to recollect correctly. Finding out that I had Hep C during 7th month of my pregnancy was very hard, more so as I was told that my child and husband had chances of getting it from me. I probably got it from blood transfusion during a minor surgery 12-13 years back. I have heard that Genotype 3 progresses faster than any other in terms of Liver damage but I had decided against treatment as they were not known to be effective at that time. Glad that we have come a long way since then.

Congrats, you Mother of Dragons! Welcome to your UND status and your pass to Club Zero! Glad you joined us.

Hello MoD and welcome to the forum! Congrats on all the good results from your week 4 labs. Those are all excellent and are proof things are working as they should! That’s an excellent sign of things to come!

Since Canuck went into detail, all I can add is, yes, you will see continuing improvement in your fibrosis and inflammatory scores once you’re clear of the virus (SVR). Just wait, good things are ahead, I’m sure of it!

Hi MotherOfDragons,

Welcome here! Glad you joined in. Always good to hear from another person doing epclusa, and everyone here will try to help with info or advice as we are able.

Glad to see you got epclusa for your treatment. Nice you provided good info AND a signature line - that's helpful.

Already 4 weeks under your belt eh? Good for you. Congrats of getting epculsa and for being 1/3 of the way through already, and wonderful lab results!!

You have obviously had a very good response to the epclusa (being "UND" already) and with a very substantial drop in your ALT/AST like that! We call those large drops "crashes" and your ALT/AST and viral load (VL) have crashed very nicely indeed. Crashes (such as yours) are good indicators that you have started to respond to the therapy quickly and should be less inflammed already.

Please do keep us posted, on how you are doing, how you feel and your labs. We'll be all ears

There are multiple methods of determining your levels of fibrosis and necroinflammation - your "fibrotest" is just one common blood test method way, there are various other blood tests and assessments that can be done to judge fibrosis/inflammation levels - it is sometimes helpful to have mutliple methods of assessments - such as an easy to perform fibroSCAN that also estimates your levels of fibrosis. Your ALT is a good easy indicator of inflammation.

I will put some links here for you to check out about other methods they use to try to ascertain your fibrosis/inflammation levels, including about the fibroSCAN.

By your pre-treatment fibrotest results, it sounds VERY good that you may only be at a F1 range, not a high level of fibrosis to resolve. Your higher A3 level of necroinflammation makes sense given your fairly high (prior/pre-treatment) ALT - you were in a more active/inflammed state then. Your next fibrotest will very likely show less than A3 I will guess.

The thinking (generally) is that (hopefully), most people WILL start gaining the normal ability to self-heal their livers once we are rid of the insult the hepc virus provides to our livers and bodies. Fibrosis is part of our bodies response to the cycle of inflammation the hepc virus has created while infecting us and our livers) - regression of fibrosis and resolution of the inflammation response to the infection can start to occur as soon the viral infecton has been wiped out. Depending on your levels of fibrosis and inflammation, how much damage has occurred to your liver, it would be hard for you (or us) to estimate how long it will take your liver to fully recover from the insult of carrying this virus, but it is VERY good you are starting out with a low level of fibrosis (F1), that bodes VERY well for you! 

Many people do recover from liver infections/conditions astounding well and quickly, others have experienced extensive damage to the liver by harbouring liver disease over long periods of time and may not resolve their liver damage/conditions as well or as quickly - it just hard to say. I am a good example - I unknowingly had hepc for over 4++decades, and was not doing too good just before treatment, went from F3 to F4 - and I have had a simply amazing recovery and regeneration occurring in my liver post-cure!

It is good to follow your labs, through your treatment and post-treatment to watch your good low ALT's, improving fibrotests, or, to see good changes in your U/S's or fibroSCANS (if you have had those done, it is good to have these repeated over time post-cure). 

I have questions for you! I am guessing you have had a (or some) pre-treatment abdominal ultrasound(s) - do you know what the result of any U/S's showed? Also, you do not seem too sure of what "sub-type" (a or b) you are, but do you know (for sure) whether you are a "genotype" (GT) 2 or 3?? In the post you mention GT2, but in signature line I think you wrote GT3? How many more VL's will you get through treatment and when?

Welcome to the group here, and fire away if you have any questions or just want to talk - hope you have been drinking lots of water and are feeling OK. I think things are going to go VERY well for you from the sounds of things so far!  C.

 Fibro-sure (also called Fibro-test), the Acti-test, and the Apri-test

About Fibroscans - or VCTE - (Vibration Controlled Transient Elastrography)

Welcome Mother of Dragons 

Congrats on becoming UND. The zeroclub loves to have new members. Your liver function numbers look pretty darn good.

I dont know the answers to your question but...Livers do regenerate, so if the HCV is no longer killing liver cells, hopefully there will be some healing of the fibrosis. I have cirrhosis and am really hoping it will reverse/heal somewhat, but even with it I do feel a whole lot better without HCV . 

Im sure Canuck or Tig will have some answers/opinions about it .

Alison

Hi Everyone,

I was diagnosed with HepC  GenType 2(b?) about 6 years back but I sought treatment only 1 month back. 2 months back these were my lab results

AST: 124

ALT: 184

F score: .29 F1

A Score: .83 A3

I have completed 4 weeks of Epclusa and these are my current enzyme levels:

AST:28

ALT:22

NO HCV detected.

My question is, will the fibrosis and necroinflammation get healed over time or is that something I have to be always wary about?