Finding Out More
Yesterday some interesting stuff arrived in the mail. It was the results of a blood test telling me which genotype of the Hepatitis C virus I have, and also the viral level.
I don’t understand either of these things properly yet, but have started researching them on the Internet, which is the only way I figure any of this stuff out.
My genotype is 3a. I researched that, and what I found out is that this genotype responds to the traditional treatment of Inferon/Ribavin with a better success rate than other genotypes. That poses a couple of questions. Firstly, I wonder if this genotype has less dramatic symptoms than others do, which would explain why I haven’t noticed too many (the only symptoms I’ve noticed are diarrhoea and fatigue). Secondly, should I be considering treatment after all? It would still take a lot of convincing to get me to go through with the treatment, but if it’s true that because of my genotype I may have a 75% chance of getting rid of this disease, then it’s rather tempting to look into it further.
Next, my “Hepatitis C Virus RNA Amplification”. In other words, the level of virus that’s in my blood. I think that’s what it means, anyway. It’s pretty hard to understand all this stuff and it normally becomes clearer, little bit by little bit, the more I search the Internet.
Anyway, mine’s “strong positive”, which, according to the printout, means over 90% viraemic. Which I’m translating to mean I’m 90% contaminated.
Now the question is, would I still be a good candidate for treatment when I’m so contaminated?
So the next step is to hit the Internet and search for the answers to those questions.
This would certainly be a hell of a lot harder without the Internet.
I don’t understand either of these things properly yet, but have started researching them on the Internet, which is the only way I figure any of this stuff out.
My genotype is 3a. I researched that, and what I found out is that this genotype responds to the traditional treatment of Inferon/Ribavin with a better success rate than other genotypes. That poses a couple of questions. Firstly, I wonder if this genotype has less dramatic symptoms than others do, which would explain why I haven’t noticed too many (the only symptoms I’ve noticed are diarrhoea and fatigue). Secondly, should I be considering treatment after all? It would still take a lot of convincing to get me to go through with the treatment, but if it’s true that because of my genotype I may have a 75% chance of getting rid of this disease, then it’s rather tempting to look into it further.
Next, my “Hepatitis C Virus RNA Amplification”. In other words, the level of virus that’s in my blood. I think that’s what it means, anyway. It’s pretty hard to understand all this stuff and it normally becomes clearer, little bit by little bit, the more I search the Internet.
Anyway, mine’s “strong positive”, which, according to the printout, means over 90% viraemic. Which I’m translating to mean I’m 90% contaminated.
Now the question is, would I still be a good candidate for treatment when I’m so contaminated?
So the next step is to hit the Internet and search for the answers to those questions.
This would certainly be a hell of a lot harder without the Internet.
posted by Filosofette at 3:12 pm
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