Those are some mighty fine figures Skimily.  A competition it is not, but just to put your week 2 results in context mine was 1000.

Emily,

That's excellent! <25, means it's too low to quantify. The last few stragglers were enough to be seen going down the drain. Next test, you'll be undetected. Just wait and see!

Update --

I'm currently at my week 4 visit. Blood will be drawn 3 times, in two hour intervals. 

past blood draw results are in , and as of Week 2, my viral load was "less than 25."

so what is left is Week 6 visit, Week 8 visit, and follow ups. 

That's great Howard. 

Syd

Congratulations Howard! That's fabulous. If your viral load has dropped significantly, the chance of it being undetected in another 4 weeks is very high. Keep it up!

3 trials, wow!  You must have kissed the Blarney stone and have the gift of the gab!

The duplicate threads on ABT-530 and ABT-493 have been merged with the Abbvie ABT 493/530 thread recently but something went wrong and it has reverted to seperate threads. I'm going to attempt it again and then close the copies so we don't have identical topics that are duplicating comments . Thanks.

I get blood draws every visit. I'm glad they do it. They will be able to monitor my progress well.

Lunch, snacks, coffee...what?  Why is service in north America always better than Europe?  I was on the same trial as Canuck (actually I'm still on it, she's finished) and there were no refreshments provided. Bah humbug!!!

I suppose I'm getting a x3 pill that costs a thousand dollars a tablet so I can't really complain.

Pablo

Hi skimily,

F 0-1 fibroscan, a falling ALT, and a nice early crashing VL!- really, really good!

Thanks for letting me grill you about the blood draws - and the time and effort it takes on your part to explain it all - but I find it very interesting how much work ABBY does to watch how their drugs perform. Reassuring due diligence in data gathering.

Unfortunately Tig is right with his depiction of the pin cushion - you get to contribute to the data by doing the hard part! Steel yourself for the draws by thinking nice thoughts, every drop (and every bit of data they gather) is helping you, it helps them, and thus in turn may help others in future. You say they gave you a wee snack and coffee while being their human pin cushion?? - hmph, I got you beat, Gilead kindly gives me a whole big lunch every draw!!! hee hee

If I have this right, you have had Week 1 and Week 2 draws done, and are now waiting for your Week 4 draws - perhaps they will tell you what your VL's and ALT's were (at Week One and Two) while you are waiting for Week 4?  That would be nice if they would let you know the results, as you may very well have some positive feedback there to be gloating over!

Yer doing good.  C.

Canuck - It is to my understanding that my blood is drawn in intervals to see how the medicine is metabolizing in my blood. Is metabolizing the right word..? I guess they want to see how long it takes my body to do something with it. They also want to see if my body is building a resistance to the medication.

To be very specific, the run down so far has been - 

Day 1 - fasted. blood drawn. medication given with a snack. coffee time!! :) 2 hours later, blood drawn. 2 hours later, blood drawn. 2 hours later, blood drawn.

Day 3 - did not fast. took medication at home. blood drawn.

Week 1 - did not fast. took medication at home. blood drawn.

Week 2 - did not fast. took medication at home. blood drawn.

Week 4 - asked to not take medication until I get there, after 1st blood draw. She said I don't have to fast, but if I can, I should.  So I probably will. 2 hours later, blood draw. And then I will receive my next month's worth of medication.

Also, my Day 3 results showed that my ALT level has lowered to a more normal range. But I thought that didn't really matter much? 

wmlj1960 - I'm not sure about my score on the "A" thing. What I do know, is that my liver seems to be in great shape currently. I had blood work done at GI office, that was supposed to tell me if I have liver scarring. Didn't hear anything negative there. I had a fibroscan; my score was very low - F0-F1 range. The results of my liver biopsy showed F1. There has been no mention of significant scarring of my liver. 

I'm taking ABT 493-ABT530 100mg/40mg tablets. I take 3 per day. I had to get my pill bottle to get the info. I have blood draws every visit plus a drug scan. I quit drinking & drugs in 87 so the drug test are not a problem. I have fatigue quite often & I itch a lot. I started 2 week visits now. I will get more info on my condition & what type Hep C I have. I know i have cirrhosis but not how much yet. I am getting a MRI soon to find out how bad it is. I had to have 6 months of HVC treatment to get in my study. I have osteoarthritis in most of my joints. This appeared after I had Lyme & Rocky Mountain Spotted fever in 02. It has gotten so bad I had to quit working & get in disability last year. I'm glad I found this site. I didn't know I had HVC till Feb of this year. I hope to learn from this site & hope to use it to help others. Lets get HVC free!

Skimily wrote:

---

they say when you get sober, your past might catch up to you and run you over like a train (or something lol).

---

 Being in recovery from a long history of drug abuse and alcoholism I have found this to be far from what I am experiencing. Today my #1 priority is staying sober and helping others to recover. My negative past has turned out to be a very valuable asset in doing both. I never got ran over by a train but I got ran over by a truck and as it turned out, living through that has given me a new appreciation for life and I enjoy every day of it now more than ever. You can deal with this and will come out of it cured of Hep C and with a new appreciation for living a healthy life and being able to raise your boy. 8 weeks is going to be done before you know it and you're going to be an example in the future for someone else fearful or doubtful facing treatment.

---

I can, and will, deal with this with strength. I won't let this bring me down. It's just an added reason as to why maintaining sobriety is important.

---

 With an attitude like that you cannot fail!

---

"we got your results back, and your liver does show chronic hepatitis C."

---

 The liver biopsy provides information on both the grade (degree of inflammation that reflects ongoing liver disease injury) and the stage (amount of currently established fibrosis).

The main determinants of inflammatory activity are lymphocytic piecemeal necrosis, lobular necroinflammation, and portal inflammation, which are graded 0 to 4. These grades will be reported as A0, A1, A2, A3, A4 on your biopsy results.

The main determinants of fibrosis are the length in expansion of fibrotic areas between portal tracts and these changes are staged 0 to 4 in the classification systems.  These stages will be reported as F0, F1, F2, F3, F4

Do you have the biopsy results termed in this way?

Welcome to the forum Emily!

Your trial is named "Expedition 1" and is a 12 week open trial of ABT 493/530. The protocol is pan genotypic and has proven very effective thus far. I'll dig up some specifics when I can, but the high SVR rates for this drug combo are listed in several articles online and here. Use our search function above and you'll find our discussions.

Here is the Clinicaltrial.gov link:

Expedition-1

Hi nra,

So, you are 3 weeks into a trial? of abt493/530 . Would love to hear more! Like - what is the length of your treatment, your GT, your VL, your history. If i have read your entries correctly thus far, and you are 3 weeks into these drugs, that is very nice, that we now know 3 of you here, who are now on this regime. Hope to hear more from you. Thanks for posting.  C.

Hey NRA,

What are you looking for? This trial or trying to share a link? Welcome to the forum!

Hi Skimily

By compounds I meant medications in the trial so thanks for the info.  So many new DAAs on the market/coming to market soon; it's exciting.  Now all we need is for a CEO/board of directors of one of the big pharma making these DAAs to make a moral decision to price them so they are affordable.

Pablo

Hi Emily and welcome to this family.   These new generation DAA's are the ticket.  You will do fine.  Best wishes and thanks for sharing your story.  Chris

Good morning! Thank you so much for the positivity and support :) I am trying my best to keep a positive mindset about all this. Perhaps I am in some kind of disbelief that I could get so lucky, so fast after dx, to have been referred to participate in this study. I feel incredibly grateful for the chance to eventually put all this behind me, and to be in connection with some really amazing healthcare professionals. In the beginning, I wasn't expecting for them to care as much as they do. The doctor at the hospital research center said to me - "You will be cured. That is my dedication to you." I was like wow. But at the same time, there is a lot of fear. For years, possibly having hepc was in the back of my mind. I want to have more children and eventually get married to the man I am dating - so I up and decided one day that I wanted to know for sure. As sad as the news made me, I don't regret the choice to take control of my health. In the rooms, they say when you get sober, your past might catch up to you and run you over like a train (or something lol). I can, and will, deal with this with strength. I won't let this bring me down. It's just an added reason as to why maintaining sobriety is important.

In regards to Pablito's request on info about the compounds and trial - I have no idea what you mean by compound lol. I pulled out my super thick trial paperwork, though, so I could look up what you would like to know. You are all very much more versed than me on all this! I have only been reading about it all since December. What I can tell you, though, is that it is Surveyor II. Every morning, I take three 100mg/40mg ABT493/ABT530 pills. My phase receives no RBV. It will last 8 weeks, unless the participants in general seem to need to be extended to 12. In earlier phases (?) participants have reported fatigue, dizziness, nausea, headaches. I have not experienced any of those, besides what is normal for me. I'm a mother of a 7 yr old boy, and also a waitress - so I'm used to fatigue and headaches lol. And i believe I am Arm S, but don't hold me to that. My blood was drawn on Day 1, 4 times, in 2 hour intervals. Again on Day 3, Week 1, Week 2, and in two weeks I go back for Week 4's 2 blood draws spaced out between 2 hours.

To get into the study, I needed to either have had been diagnosed with chronic hepc for at least 6 months, or a liver biopsy showing so. Since I was officially diagnosed in December, I needed to have the biopsy to participate. That part was a little terrifying, but I figured hey, I'm in pretty deep already, might as well just go for it. It's pretty weird to be excited to hear "we got your results back, and your liver does show chronic hepatitis C."

The research they did with animals + pregnancy showed no adverse effects. But I am asked to used two forms of birth control up until 6 months after EOT. They're not sure of adverse effects of the meds + pregnancy in humans, so better safe than sorry, for sure.

And I will try to drink more water! I run entirely too much on just coffee. But I recently read coffee is good for the liver, so thats my new excuse for drinking it so much ;)

-- Edited by Skimily on Friday 27th of May 2016 08:09:39 AM

This 493-530 combo added to Viekira PAK Would just about get all hcv types. It will be effective .    I was offered this trial, turned it down for the Polaris trial, and that didn't  go so well.  Both of you made it onto a good trial, and I think your both doing well.  RC

This is exiting stuff really. Congrats all you people, it is making a much brighter future for a lot of people. I used to dread reading some of the threads a few years back , people really had a rough ride. Now new people will read these threads and think, yes please, me next!

Yay for trials and you brave people on them. :D

This thread has been merged together with the Abbvie 493/530 thread. Better to keep one thread going instead of starting multiples of the same thing. Thank you!

I think we have dueling threads going on here ... much easier to follow if one or the other is used to discuss this if possible.

Dave