Life presents a fork in the road

The strain of Hepatitis C that I contracted has proven to be resistant to the current standard chemo that is offered to HCV patients. That, along w/ the tales of horrific side affects and the length of treatment (more or less a year), is what convinced me to decline treatment up until this point.

Instead, for the past 11 years (since I first got the notice from the Blood Bank announcing that I had HCV), I've given up alcohol and tried to be be more aware of my liver and what it would like...and also became ever mindful of not exposing anyone to my blood.

Up until two weeks ago, my 'plan' was working out just fine. I'd truly accepted it. I even found that I had gotten to the point of sort of befriending this dragon who has taken up lodging in my body....we seemed to be co-existing pretty darned well. I had not had any symptoms (well, except for the occasional dead-bone tired days, which could also be attributable to my age :)so all was well.

My doctor has told me for years that I seemed one of those people whose body seemed to tolerate the disease pretty well - that the progression seemed very slow...that at my age (50ish) I'd most likely die of something totally unrelated to HCV. Okay - I could deal with that, I think. That last off-hand remark, along with persistently normal liver function tests that I've gotten all these years, gave me confidence in the course I'd chosen. I'd be just fine....or so I thought...

Then, about 2 weeks ago, I went in for my yearly blood work, expecting no surprises...boy was I wrong. Things appeared to have taken a huge turn. Although my liver enzymes were still, as always, normal....my vl (viral load - which measures the amount of virus in your blood) had jumped from 285,000 to 2.5 million! Whoa - what's that about?! Talk about a wake-up call! Turns out that the genotype ones are not only more resistant to treatment, but also can be more aggressive little buggers.

Anyway, as fate would have it, my doctor (Dr. Balart in New Orleans, who has written many papers and taken part in lots of these studies over the years since I've been his patient) is currently enrolling patients in a national trial that is aimed at - YES! - genotype 1, naive patients (naive means that you've not received prior treatment). Shering-Plough are in a phase 2 study with what Dr. Balart calls "a very, very exciting new drug that stops viral replication"....a protease inhibitor. This is the same sort of drug that proved to be the breakthrough treatment for HIV patients. Hmmm, you don't say? Yes, it sounds interesting...Well, how long do I have to think about it? A few days, you say??? Hmmm, I'll have to talk it over w/my dh, and will let you know...

I came home and discussed it all with my husband (and with lesser details, my almost 8 year old daughter). We spent a lot of time talking about the possible side affects, my chances of beating this thing (Dr. Balart said around 60%), about how living w/me during this time might be for both of them (I homeschool my daughter, so I'll need to line up lots of local support to help if I do have sides that impact us). After lots of talk, more research, and going with our gut instincts, we decided that we should go for it.

And just like that, our life has taken a totally unexpected turn.