liver biopsy

[debs]

Cleared hep c in jan 2011. Went for my annual hepatology appointment the other day and the doctor suggested i have a biopsy as i turn 40 this year. Never had one before interferon-just had a liver scan which seemed ok. I asked why I needed one and she said just for my information really. I dont drink and dont inject at all these days and consider myself to have a damaged liver so I really dont see point of having biopsy and indeed, I have cancelled the appt for it. What do you guys think?
Also, she did the viral load test to see if any hep c in blood. I asked how could it return if i haven't put myself at risk? She said the methotroxeate i take for my arthritis can sometimes bring back the virus as it suppresses immune system. Nobody ever mentioned that to me before being prescribed methotroxeate so i was quite pissed off as i only got arthritis after interferon treatment finished and now they tell me the hep c could rear its ugly head again because of it.
How can a virus return if it has cleared? (assuming no dodgy injecting practice inbetween)It's done my head in.

[sapphire]

Have you had a recent liver function test? That may be why they want the biopsy, to confirm something they found in the bloods.

If not, I'd question the validity of it, if you have indeed cleared the virus, and a recent blood work backs that up.

[OP8S]

I'm sure Simon will be the man to ask once he's sobered up off the Thai whiskey. Man that stuff makes your head pound ! 

[simon]

I'm sure Simon will be the man to ask once he's sobered up off the Thai whiskey. Man that stuff makes your head pound ! 

It's the beer Chang at 6.4% that's making my holiday bearable.
As for the poster I'd give the gastroenterologist a call or write him/her a letter.

[froude]

debs ,Hope this is of some help,All the best Froude

http://www.nras.org.uk/about_rheumatoid_arthritis/newly_diagnosed/which_drugs_are_used/methotrexate_in_rheumatoid_arthritis.aspx


Sorry i dont know how to do the link.

[froude]

Yeah the link is there ,so i do know how to do the link,hope it helps ,All the best Froude

[John RUF]

Hi Debs,

I cleared hep c in 2005 but the treatment brought on psoriatic arthritis. I've been on methotrexate for several years with no abnormal liver functions. Do you have regular blood tests? I'm pretty sure mtx can't bring back the hep c but the liver needs to kept an eye on in general whilst on it. I was also on adalimumab (humira) and that has been known to reactivate hep b and perhaps hep c but my liver was fine on that too.

I'd be interested to know how many other people got different types of arthritis after combination therapy.

Take care

John

[froude]

Hi John, me and the misses did the interferon in 2006 and now cleared ,still carrying the Antibodies though.Still have blinding headaches from the treatment and have Arthritis,All the best Froude

[BKiddo]

I self cleared HepC----------but I had a scan today and I have an enlarged liver with fatty deposits------need to have a dye  put in to make it glow and see wtf is goin on as 18mnths ago my scan was clear--------I have no viral load and NO-ONE seems to know the answers
??/

[derek d j]

 NO-ONE seems to know the answers

That's it in a nutshell. The liver is as mysterious an organ as life is a condition. I was 'sold' a biopsy and, perhaps unintentionally, given the impression any treatment somehow depended on the results. It doesn't; from infection to cirrhosis, the interferon/ribavarin treatment is pretty standard. A biopsy makes it easier for the doctor to tell you the extent of the damage and that's about it. Even if as it's skillfully done as mine was, it's still a shock to the system to have a foreign object intrude and snip off a piece of living tissue. Unless you're very curious or your doctor comes up with a better reason, I think you were right to cancel.

I'm fascinated by people who 'self clear'. How you do that? Beautiful thoughts? Good luck?  Nobody knows why some victims stay asymptomatic until death while others suffer early liver failure. Abstention from alcohol improves your chances but teetotalism is far from certain to keep you off the heptology ward. As sufferers know, Hep C symtoms are hard to pin down and their cause easily confused with other maladies. And, of course, the link between body and mind is another mysterious area. The live-r is what you make it, perhaps. 

[BKiddo]

 
Like button...tick

[derek d j]

Thankyou kindly, Mysteron, is there anybody out there?  It's utterly logical drug users are in the vanguard of the mind game..maybe we either lack the confidence to play or shy the hassle of laying on hands, so to speak. Addicts all wonder what they're going to do when they grow up. What will become of us then? Mind waits for us to catch up and among drug users are found the most honest folk on the planet. In a way, it's a shame we don't fancy ourselves a little more. The bleak spirituality of narcotics makes faith a special effort; when we can do the positive as well as we do the negative, we will be close to self-healing. Of course, if you try to heal faithless cannibals, they'll eat you and the 'self-clear your virus' manual will be a while yet.

[OP8S]

It's very easy for your average user to have any confidence that they have stripped away. If you tell a child that it's a bad child enough times then they will think that they are a bad child. If you tell somebody that their choice of substance is illeagal & somehow morally wrong then even the most confidente of users will contemplate the fact, that somehow they maybe are in the wrong & shouldn't be doing it.
If you accept society's ideology that substance use is wrong then you are admitting to yourself that you're part of that wrong.
If you look around & can see all the other thing's in life that are morally wrong but carried out on a day to day basis quite openly & see that you do no harm to anybody around you then you can at least hold onto the idea that what you are doing is not wrong in the slightest.
Since being a young 'un I've never thought that something as personal as changing my consciousness could be wrong as I harmed nobody. Maybe myself at the worst of times. The act of taking a drug harms nobody if done responsibly, the way the system is constructed to distribute these substances can & does cause harm. They do not differentiate these two matters in the media, planting the seed in any user of an illeagal substance that simply by taking an illeagal substance is as wrong as mugging an OAP.
If substance use was not illeagal & demonised by the powers that be imagine the benefit of having so many more people in society who haven't had their self-confidence stripped away by the media, keys & the niave population.
Unlikely to happen I know, but that would be real progress.

[simon]

That's it in a nutshell. The liver is as mysterious an organ as life is a condition. I was 'sold' a biopsy and, perhaps unintentionally, given the impression any treatment somehow depended on the results. It doesn't; from infection to cirrhosis, the interferon/ribavarin treatment is pretty standard. A biopsy makes it easier for the doctor to tell you the extent of the damage and that's about it. Even if as it's skillfully done as mine was, it's still a shock to the system to have a foreign object intrude and snip off a piece of living tissue. Unless you're very curious or your doctor comes up with a better reason, I think you were right to cancel.

I'm fascinated by people who 'self clear'. How you do that? Beautiful thoughts? Good luck?  Nobody knows why some victims stay asymptomatic until death while others suffer early liver failure. Abstention from alcohol improves your chances but teetotalism is far from certain to keep you off the heptology ward. As sufferers know, Hep C symtoms are hard to pin down and their cause easily confused with other maladies. And, of course, the link between body and mind is another mysterious area. The live-r is what you make it, perhaps. 

Hi Derek a small number I think about 10% clear the virus as you'd clear a cold.

[derek d j]

10-15%, depending on your source. But I can find no research into what distinguishes this lucky minority from the rest. Would be nice to know if there's a way victims can improve their chances or whether it's just a matter of chance.