Our viral loads do naturally fluctuate anyway as old virus particles dye off and new ones are produced, and it sounds to me as though your immune system is vigorously fighting the infection and keeping your viral load under control.
I can understand you being anxious to start treatment as soon as possible while you`re a student but if your viral load is too low to genotype then I wouldn`t have thought treatment is at all urgent at this point. It`s very unlikely at your age that you have any liver damage and as long as your doctor continues to monitor your health and viral load on a regular basis then I don`t think you need to be too impatient to start treatment. There are new and much more effective `all-oral` treatments in the pipeline which will have minimal, if any, side effects and so if and when you do start treatment it shouldn`t cause much interruption to your daily routine, if any.
In the meantime, look after yourself, eat a healthy diet and avoid alcohol!
Best of luck!
Tig said
Mar 22, 2014
Hello Jessica,
Welcome to the forum, we're glad you're here! You have an unusual question and one I haven't heard of before. I have to ask, do you know what type of testing procedure was used to determine your viral load? It may be as simple as having your doctor request your sample be sent to a different lab. Many labs don't have the equipment required to perform some of these tests adequately and instead of pursuing additional information they settle for lesser results. We have some others here that will see this discussion and add their impression as well.
I understand your desire to get this part of your life behind you and rightfully so. This is a great time to enter into the treatment phase. If you've had the opportunity to read some of the information and posts here, you've seen that new methods have recently been released and they are very effective. I wish you luck in your treatment and invite you to introduce yourself in our new member section. We have a wonderful bunch of people here that will love to welcome you to our group! Be well....
Tig
roguebobby said
Mar 21, 2014
Hi, I'm a 25 year old who has had HCV for 4 years. I would really like to begin treatment, but for three years now every time I've gone in for testing, my initial round of blood work has fairly high viral load, but then each time my doctor has had me come in again to determine a genotype, hoping to begin treatment, and the viral load has become too low to find it. It is very frustrating, I'd like to try treatment while I am still a student and able to take time off to do so if necessary, but haven't been able to so far. Is there anything I should know? Has anyone had a similar experience?
Hi Jess, welcome from me too!
Our viral loads do naturally fluctuate anyway as old virus particles dye off and new ones are produced, and it sounds to me as though your immune system is vigorously fighting the infection and keeping your viral load under control.
I can understand you being anxious to start treatment as soon as possible while you`re a student but if your viral load is too low to genotype then I wouldn`t have thought treatment is at all urgent at this point. It`s very unlikely at your age that you have any liver damage and as long as your doctor continues to monitor your health and viral load on a regular basis then I don`t think you need to be too impatient to start treatment. There are new and much more effective `all-oral` treatments in the pipeline which will have minimal, if any, side effects and so if and when you do start treatment it shouldn`t cause much interruption to your daily routine, if any.
In the meantime, look after yourself, eat a healthy diet and avoid alcohol!
Best of luck!
Hello Jessica,
Welcome to the forum, we're glad you're here! You have an unusual question and one I haven't heard of before. I have to ask, do you know what type of testing procedure was used to determine your viral load? It may be as simple as having your doctor request your sample be sent to a different lab. Many labs don't have the equipment required to perform some of these tests adequately and instead of pursuing additional information they settle for lesser results. We have some others here that will see this discussion and add their impression as well.
I understand your desire to get this part of your life behind you and rightfully so. This is a great time to enter into the treatment phase. If you've had the opportunity to read some of the information and posts here, you've seen that new methods have recently been released and they are very effective. I wish you luck in your treatment and invite you to introduce yourself in our new member section. We have a wonderful bunch of people here that will love to welcome you to our group! Be well....
Tig
Hi, I'm a 25 year old who has had HCV for 4 years. I would really like to begin treatment, but for three years now every time I've gone in for testing, my initial round of blood work has fairly high viral load, but then each time my doctor has had me come in again to determine a genotype, hoping to begin treatment, and the viral load has become too low to find it. It is very frustrating, I'd like to try treatment while I am still a student and able to take time off to do so if necessary, but haven't been able to so far. Is there anything I should know? Has anyone had a similar experience?