what score is .55 ?

i had a liver sonogram last year. it said i was 'normal.' yes, why don't you get one. it's can't hurt.

i'm sorry you're feeling discouraged. maybe your viral load just went up cause of age or stress. it also goes up if you're on antibiotics. have you been on any?

are you taking milk thistle?

i'm sure mak will have some good ideas and thoughts. she'll be along soon.

mucho hugs, q

Quasar,

Thanks for answering. No to the antibiotics. Not for 20 years. And I'm only 3 months older than I was when I had the last test!

My fibrosure test is actually .57 (Another line said anything higher than.55 is bad) What does this mean? FIbrosis or cirrhosis? And what stage?

BTW, I am CT, did I mention that? Will it help me in any way?

sure, being CT means you've had one parent who contracted a killer plague/flu virus and lived ! so you have a partial gene to fight virus's.

oh, only 3 months. mmmmmmm have you been getting more iron in your diet somehow? hep C replicates with iron. i would google 'foods high in iron.' stay away from those foods.

makiah lowered her viral load once by taking a lot of vitamin C. but you better ask her about that.

i don't know anything about the fibrosure test, fibrosis or cirrhosis. i never have had a biopsy so i dont know if i have cirrhosis or fibrosis? i guess you don't really need a sonogram if you've had a fibrosure test cause i've heard the the fibrosure is the most conclusive of the two.

i wish i could be of more help, brigid.

i'm doing yoga because it lowers stress. maybe you might try doing yoga. restorative, calm yoga. not power yoga! i take it at the senior center near my house and it's lovely and easy.

Thanks, Quasar. I'm actually trained as a yoga teacher. Don't teach anymore or go to class, but I do an hour every morning that I can get up at 5:55. Used to be ev ery day without fail but now some mornings I need sleep more.

I doubt I'm getting too much iron. I've always tended to be anemic.

I told my husband the killer flu thing, which you explained so clearly. He said that if my ancestors didn't survive it, I wouldn't be here, and I said, well, maybe it missed their village. And he said, Maybe they were on vacation during killer flu season. So at least it was good for a laugh.

I'm trying to decide if I should stay on Revici treatment. It's expensive, and the idea of trying to make my body more acidic seems nuts to me when everyone else is trying alkaline diets, alkaline water machines, etc. But I feel healthier, stronger, and more energetic since I've been taking these things. So I'm really confused.

hi brigid, that's funny! yeah, not everyone got the killer flu way back when. and a lot who got it died.

i don't know anything about revici treatment. yes, it seems strange to try to make your body more acidic?

that's wonderful your a yoga teacher! so you know how to lower your stress!

sounds to me like you're doing everything right?

That's what's more frustrating, in a way. For 20 plus years I've been eating healthy, doing yoga, working out, meditating (on and off), trying every alternative treatment I could find and afford, and I've ended up with a hardened liver and a high virus count. I feel like I've given it my best shot and maybe it's time to sign on as a lab rat for Big Pharma. But I feel a high resistance to that, as well.

She told me to start taking licorice. Do you know what that does?

I try to do "everything right". It hasn't killed the virus. Maybe its helping slow down the damage, maybe not.
I felt a twinge when my vl dropped some, but it does that anyway. It fluctuates.
Nobody has a sure thing here. We are simply trying to do "things" hoping to help, or delay.We feel frustrated because as much as we research & experiment, we are still hcv+.
I hope the discouragement is a quickly passing feeling. I get that way, too.

http://www.mayomedicallaboratories.com/test-catalog/print/91402
I googled Fibrosure test results, this was the top response.
here's the wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FibroTest
It looks like .57 compares to F1-3, depending on the comparison.
hmmm, I just found this:
http://homepage.mac.com/sholland/contrivances/childpugh.html
Evidently it scores for liver damage based on several labs and visual observations.
I scored a 5 or 6 which is good.

Licorice root extract, Wise Woman Herbals. Took it for a long time, couple of years, ran out and ran out of funds. Hope to get some again soon. It is reported to help prevent liver cancer, among other things.

Just bumped something on licorice and other supps for Hep C.
Said this:
Licorice extract contains glycyrrhetinic acid, the active component that has been shown to protect the liver from damage, enhance the immune system, potentiate the effect of the immune-enhancing agent interferon, and to aid the liver in detoxification reactions. Clinical studies with a glycyrrhetinic acid product in Japan have shown excellent results in supporting individuals with both acute and chronic hepatitis.

Brigid, unless you plan on doing Tx, no sense in getting a liver sonogram or biopsy. I had a biopsy because I was trying to get into a study of Fuzheng Huayu, Chinese herbs for Liver protection. I think the biopsy did more damage than good. I came back at stage 4 fibrosis with early cirrhosis, and personally, I don't believe it. I think it was a conspiracy and I'm going to live to be 100. :-)

The best thing you can do is smile! Sing! Dance! Laugh! Don't worry, be happy! Stress makes your body destroy itself, so destress. Remember, Stressed is desserts spelled backwards! Oh, avocado choc mousse is great as a dip with nice crispy apples!

I do plan on doing treatment. I am doing a treatment. If it doesn't work, I hope I'll find another treatment. maybe that's why I'm so frustrated and discouraged -- I expected alternative medicine to produce the same results as conventional but without the sides. Maybe this is naiive and unrealistic, but when someone with cancer does natural med. and it works, the cancer goes away; conventional tests show this. Same with heart disease.
I kow this roller coster isn't working for me. I try a new treatment, feel anxious waiting for test results, then either elated or miserable depending on the results. But I'm not able (yet) to say well I'll just have to coexist with this as well as possible. I was thinking of that before, and if my fibrosure had been low, then I'd believe I'd found a way to be allies w/the virus (as Mak said). But I haven't found a way to do that, since it's destroying my liver.

Not sure what to do next. I'm giving the Revici treatment two more months. She said the first blood test often gets worse, and (this is the carrot keeping me going) that she has gotten people to Undie. I want to be one of them. If this doesn't work, I don't know what to try next.
Of course I'll keep trying for joy, peace, laughter, etc . while I'm trying. Thanks for that reminder.
BTW, the biggest reason I'm continuing the Revici treatment is that I feel stronger and healthier on it. So my body is saying Yes even though my blood tests are saying no.

I still don't get what a sonogram shows, though. Yogis are against it 'cause it disturbs the subtle body, but I'm more concerned with my gross body at the moment.

Does anyone else here think we can eradicate thi naturall?

Some people clear the virus no matter what. It makes you wonder, doesn't it, if some people will not clear the virus, no matter what....yet I think that there are people who have lived with this without knowing and are doing fine. I'm not sure what makes the difference. I think being diagnosed was awful, having my blood rejected and the nurse telling me I had HCV antibodies in my blood was awful. Why? Because both times I was treated as an outcast, rejected as a "bad person" and that was upsetting to me. There are some real a**holes working in the health industry that judge and condemn people who have HCV.
We are pioneers on the frontier of understanding this virus and how to eradicate it. Our work will help us and help others who are coming in the future.

One thing I'm hoping we can do as a group is when we find pieces of the puzzle (which we're doing) share them, and also share ineffective or dangerous things. If I get to Undie w/Revici, I can't wait to send everyone there. Though, Mak, I think you and Elena would butt heads big time! You don't seem like a "just take these pills and trust me" kind of woman.

Yes, there is a nice sharing of info here. We're free to say what works, what doesn't, for us individually.
I've really turned my diet around with inspiration from this group.
Diagnosed 4 yrs ago.
You all have saved me some $$$ by telling side effects and now I have to dig up that chocolate avocado mousse recipe.

thank you everyone

you're right, Brigid, I learned from Don Miguel Ruiz not to believe anyone without studying it out for myself.

I just watched The Miracle Worker, Disney's version from 2000 of the Helen Keller story. Wow.