I agree, the chance that your AST/ALT levels would indicate anything are about zero, save your 50%! Patience is the best medicine for now. Good luck!

Tig

You are right Tig, I've already paid for 2 VL tests out-of-pocket. Fortunately, however, my wife works at a hospital and their policy is to give employees and their immediate family members a 50% discount on every laboratory test, but even with the discount it is still expensive.

Another option and a much cheaper one would be just an ALT/AST test. Before treatment my ALT was always above 100 and even hit the 200 range several times, but now it is in single digits. I don't think the virus could come back and my ALT/AST remain so low, but I might be wrong. It just seems logical given my historical ALT/AST values that this would be an excellent indicator that the virus is still UND if the ALT/AST were as low as they are now: ALT 7, AST 15.

The test is an expensive one, but I understand the overwhelming curiosity that sometimes takes over! The time will drag unless you can find a way to forget about it. (Yah, right...) My doctor was good about testing when I requested something special. So you might get it approved if your doctor understands your desire! Afterall, it's just a test, albeit an important one!! Good luck Skewed, we'll all be pulling for you!

Tig

Thanks Isiscat and Tig. I'm scheduled for another VL test on 12/5/14 (BCBS pays 100% of the cost of the test), but I might get one done early (I would have to pay out-of-pocket) in about 1.5 weeks which would be EOT + 5 weeks if my obsessive curiosity gets the best of me.

Hi Skewed:

Sorry you had to stop early but I'm sure it was for the best under the circumstances.  The odds of SVR are still in your favor, assuming the S/O combo results are similar to the Harvoni results.  I know you like details so here are the Electron 2 results where 25 tx naives were tested with S/L (+riba) for 6 weeks:

Researchers also aimed to determine a minimum effective duration of sofosbuvir/ledipasvir/ribavirin for easier-to-treat patients. This analysis enrolled 25 genotype 1 treatment-naive participants with absent to moderate fibrosis (stage F0-F2). All were treated with the sofosbuvir/ledipasvir fixed-dose tablet plus ribavirin for six weeks and compared against previously studied patients.

Just over half of the treatment-naive group were men, most were white and the average age was 51 years. Most (84%) had HCV subtype 1a and 20% had the favourable IL28B variant.

Several people treated for only six weeks relapsed after the end of therapy, resulting in a SVR12 rate of just 68%, compared with 100% of patients previously treated with the same regimen for either eight or 12 weeks. Gane noted that no baseline factors predicted which individuals would relapse and all had good initial viral declines on treatment.

http://www.aidsmap.com/In-ELECTRON-trial-100-of-hard-to-treat-patients-cured-with-sofosbuvirledipasvir-plus-ribavirin-or-GS-9669/page/2787227/

Interestingly, if you add one of Gilead's third DAAs,  GS-9669 or GS-9145, the SVR rate shoots up to 95-100% in only 6 weeks, according to the SYNERGY study. 

http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/hcv-treatment/experimental-hcv-drugs/4627-easl-2014-sofosbuvirledipasvir-cures-more-than-90-of-first-time-and-retreated-genotype-1-patients

Hi Skewed,

I'm glad you're getting back on track! I imagine the heart problems were more than a little concerning, and I understand why you made the choice to stop treatment. But the good news is you're still undetectable and who knows, it may have been enough to kill the beast!! I'll keep my toes and fingers crossed. If you don't relapse by week 4, your chances keep improving. I'm praying for your success Brother! I hope you continue to improve. Be sure to stay in touch. Good luck...

Tig

Okay, for the mathematically inclined members you are right in thinking, "That does not compute!" Why? Because I stopped treatment at 6 weeks mainly because of the heart flutters. Before I started treatment I would have a flutter maybe once every 2 months. After the first 10 days of treatment, I started having multiple flutters almost on a daily basis. Probably a 20 fold increase. Since I have stopped treatment the flutters have drastically reduced, but I still have a slight ache around my heart area that comes and goes, but my health is returning to somewhat of a normal level. I can think clearly and I can now walk up 3 flights of stairs at a brisk pace like I could before I started treatment. As you may remember that I stated the drugs made me feel like I was on a bad LSD trip and I started taking Ativan to counter that weird feeling. Well, I became addicted to Ativan and could not stop by tapering off of it. So I did some research and found a method called the "Ashton Method". Here's how it works: Ativan and Xanax have a very short half-life and are very addictive. Valium (diazepam) has a much longer half-life and is easier to taper off of. So the Ashton method worked for me and now I'm drug free and UND and YES I know that I'm not out of the woods yet, but having an ALT level of 7 and an AST level of 15 and being UND 22 days after my last dose gives me great hope that I might attain SVR.

One final note: that terrible debilitating feeling that caused me to seek out treatment is gone! I don't feel like I did at 30 years of age, but I feel much better than I did before treatment.