Hep C Discussion Forum

Hi Caroline, You are obviously being seen in Hepatology OPD in a Hospital. Cost is almost certainly an issue, particularly for the VL tests. Why don't you ask if you could get a referral for a Private Lab., and get an 8week VL there? I am seen Privately, and Medicare will only pay for 3 VL tests per year. I have told my Lab. that I will pay to have the Quantitative test done each time- so far they have not charged me.

Thanks everyone for your replies. 

I rang the hospital this morning to get some clarification.  The nurse mentioned that there was in fact supposed to be a week 4 VL done, but as the sample was lost due to the machine failure, a re-do was not going to be done as hubby has now started the Victrelis and the week 4 test was to show the response to inteferon.  A week 8 VL was not being done as hubby is classified as cirrhotic which excludes him from the test (in our hospital at least - as I know you had it done Malcolm at yours).  So we have to wait for the Week 12 one.

Next appointment we are going to request copies of test results for each visit also, so that we have our own copies.  Onward for now....

Yes T Bear some of are lucky that way

Thats a good question     who does make the policy and guideline? I know For Sure Trials are limited access and sometimes blind but you may be agreeing to their rules when you sign up  I was told in  my 1^st trial I won't see VL till the end 48 weeks

This a google about rights in USA  youll have to see what applies

https://www.google.com/search?q=patient+rights+to+medical+records&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

??? Ask your doctor who makes that rule?   A trial? /   study? /   Dr at their office?   Or your insurance allowance?????     If a doctor is not getting paid for the effort they may be able to opt out unless medically necessary ( but you may need a reason and test and maybe a visit for the script)  Everything about this can really be irritating as the rectal rashes  Its worth every effort  Its your health      Just dont get nasty about it  you need them to a point

A little about my case Note I have VG good insurance and ( I'm very blessed in that way so far )

Now that I'm off "The Trial" and in standard  treatment I demanded to get Viral load  1@ start date the baseline   - @2 weeks, @3 weeks and  @4 weeks  Dependent on results it will be every 4 weeks for VL ( numbers ) after that    And CBC is a Standing order as needed ( 1 a week if I need it ) They are doing it I just go      They gave me all the requisitions ( scripts ) in the beginning          

 I do my blood draws at a Labcore ( I don't bother them to do it ) They will also e-mail me a script if they want something done  as a precaution. BTW Labcore e-mails me to get my results online  and also sends it to my doc ( There are other labs that should do the same ) as T-Bear says

Bill S  I wish you luck hope you can straiten that out

I did not have a 4 week VL. My first after starting tx was at 8 weeks. I don't think the Response Guided Therapy (from the version when I as on tx) uses the 4 week results.

When we went in to see the specialist she actually referred to a document which stated that my husband was only meant to get the viral load done at 12 weeks.  She called the nurse in afterwards and she got into trouble (she told us afterwards) that she had given us the incorrect info.  I may call tomorrow to gain clarification around this.

Bloomster wrote:

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By the way, even though we really like our nurse and specialist, we have found that they don't really like you to ask questions on your results or heaven forbid read info in forums!!!  Anyway, each fortnight when we have the appointment, I usually try and get some extra info out of them. Today I asked for hubby's haemoglobin figure - she said 122 (so is this 12) and from other readings on this site, still very much in the ok range?  Caroline

 

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 That has been my experience as well, Caroline.   I guess you could compare this to talking to any technical person that is rendering services to you(computer repair, automotive, etc), they feel uncorfortable about the possibility of being "second guessed", or perhaps unfairly judged by someone that trusts Google more than their Dr.    

Construction & service pros that deal with homeowners  hate Angie's List, because such people can be brutally criticized there, and have no means to rebutt derrogatory statments made.