gk, I'm that person - and I am afraid. I can't help it. I'm 65 years old - sx will be very tough on me; that's a given, it really is. My doctor has talked about this a lot. I could de-compensate from the drugs - happens rarely but happens, and it would be more likely to happen in an elderly person who has led a much less than healthy life style for decades - and had the virus just as long. I am working on the fear factor, but ... my fears are valid and so very real.

I THANK YOU for what you wrote. I do. I pray for the courage to do what's best for my husband, my animals... and myself.

Cat, did not come off as supportive as I wanted to. Sometimes people are afraid for no real reason they just are. I'm 58 and I honestly don't know how I could stand the treatment if I was 7 years older,. I did the 3 drug last time and to be honest,it was tough some days. Depends on where your liver is at. I'm at the start of stage 4 so I might have 6-8 years before it's shot if I'm lucky so I do whatever I can. If I had 20 years before it might go bad my choice might be different.

Whatever you do my thoughts and prayers are with you. Good Luck.

If I wasn't post-transplant, I probably wouldn't be as concerned about my upcoming treatments. There's not much known yet about how transplants patients will handle treatments, and at my age, I'm not sure it's worth it. Surely by Jan., God and the doctors will make things a little more clear to me. I want the right decisions to be made. Marilyn

I'm stage 3/4, gk. So, yes, w/o successful tx - maybe 5 years (less for me because I'm older) before my liver is toast. So that would mean in less time than that I'm going to start getting really sick. And if I tx, I will be sick REAL fast - and maybe get worse. Both my options - treat or not treat - mean serious consequences.

So I really have a VERY tough decision to make. I don't think it gets any harder - as Marilyn knows too. Like her, I'm not sure the tx is worth the increased very difficult sx that we older folks are gonna face (and her in case, almost uncharged territory being post transplant). In fact, there is actually no way that I CAN make this decision - I'm doing it Marilyn's way - God and my doctor will know what is best for me. I have wrestled with it for six months, and all that's done is stress me out, weaken my immune system, and made me depressed.

I never expected this to happen. My doctors all along, for the 10 years since my dx and being a Stage 0, I was practically promised that HCV would not cause my demise. But they neglected to do one thing, something I asked for and was talked out of - another biopsy after about 6 years. One was done in May - because, oh, okay, 10 years is the right time to do one, plus a CT scan showed steatosis and my AFP had doubled. And this nightmare began.

I have never known such internal conflict.

sorry for the typo above - meant "uncharted" territory relating to Marilyn's situation.