Any encouraging news re treatments for Hep-C? Upcoming clinical trials? International research?

[warren pease]

I've provided a good home to millions of these murderous little viral bastards for maybe 35 years. In return, the little killers have worked 24/7 without pause, and they've been successful enough to have destroyed, damaged or impaired maybe 20 percent of my liver functions. Which sounds worse than it actually is, the liver being a multiple redundant system. But it has limits.

Cirrhosis is now present, although it's at the "child stage," the least deadly in the cirrhosis hierarchy. But things tend to go south from there in far too many cases.

So I'm just curious if anyone's aware of any new research into therapies that may finally eliminate the virus and/or, even better, reversing the effects. Last big deal that I know of is the Peg interferon/ribovirin combination therapy.

I went through that program in 2002 while it was still in clinical trials but, unfortunately, after a year of fevers, sweats, sore joints, brutal attitude and near-divorce, the viruses just thumbed their noses and went back to work.

So I'm just curious if anybody's heard of any new approaches that show some initial promise. Anything naturopathic, homeopathic, eastern or western medicine, international research...

I just want a few more years watching grandkids grow and indulge in general screwing around. I'd also like enough time to watch the Bushies, hundreds of the vipers, crawl around in their undersized dog cages, resplendent in bright orange, faces burned beyond a tropical tan to near melanoma, spirits broken into so many microscopic pieces that recovery is impossible, fortunes seized and distributed to the poor and former middle class.

That really doesn't seem too much to ask after the past eight years.


Thanks in advance,

wp

[Warpy]

1. There's a lot of info out there

Find a clinical trial: http://www.clinicalconnection.com/?gclid=COT7l5WHkpgCFRYiagodDXDYng

Hep C trial ongoing: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/67937.php

Drugs and treatments in the pipeline: http://www.hcvadvocate.org/hepatitis/hepC/HCVDrugs.html

Human Genome interferon trial: http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2008/12/09/human-genomes-hep-c-drug-is-halfway-home.aspx

Works in the test tube: http://www.xconomy.com/san-diego/2009/01/08/anadys-hepatitis-c-drug-shows-quick-virus-killing-punch-in-small-study/

Albuferon late stage trial: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/08/AR2008120803424.html

Hep C is a priority these days because it's a silent killer that people often don't know they have until it's transplant time. There's a tremendous amount of work going on out there.

I hope some of it helps.

[warren pease]

2. Thank you, Warpy...

I really appreciate these links and references. It's been a pretty lousy week and a little hope is very welcome at the moment.

I've had some irritating but minor abnormalities crop up over the past few weeks but I didn't really have the time or sense of urgency to bother with them.

I'd been working ridiculous hours for a couple of months, usually starting around 7 am and often continuing well past midnight. But I felt healthy, energetic, mentally acute and my sense of humor was in decent shape, too.

The symptoms persisted and increased until they became impossible to ignore. First, both legs swelled up and got pretty puffy after a couple of weeks. I started getting exhausted by mid-afternoon. I'd take a break on the couch, slump lower and lower, ending up horizontal and falling asleep for hours.

From Tuesday noon to just about noon today, I didn't do much except sleep, try to read, then sleep another 10 hours. Much improved now, fortunately, and for no apparent reason, but I'll take it.

I should mention the final insult, growing day by day to obscene dimensions. A couple of weeks ago I apparently got knocked up, impossible though that should be. By this morning, my abdomen was comparable to that of a woman about six or seven months pregnant -- with twins.

So my gastroenterologist called last night and, after I failed the minimal coherence test, he talked with my wife for quite some time. After hearing the whole sorry tale, he set me up for an ultrasound, which I had earlier today. The display showed pools of fluid where it's not supposed to be.

The nurses pumped out just over 5 liters of some stuff that looked exactly like amber ale, foamy head and all. Unbelievable.

I'm aware that this whole mess probably means liver damage has increased beyond the "child" level. No idea why, although my typical diet is somewhere between poor and fatal, so that's got to change right away. Could be that period of working abnormal hours, although I was thriving on those conditions for months -- until I wasn't.

So that's the context, and that's why I'm so very grateful for your reply and for all those links.

Are you by chance in the medical research field? Or are you among the millions of walking wounded, aware or not that they've got Hep-C? Hopefully not the latter.


Again, deepest thanks and my very best to you.

wp

[mopinko]

3. warpy is a retired nurse

and a fountain of both knowledge and support to all us sickies. she also has lupus, with all the fun stuff that that brings.

[tainted_chimp]

4. im so scared...

my husband and love ove my lifejust began his treatment,

[tainted_chimp]

5. i cant breathe

cant stop crying

[sandnsea]

6. Mine just finished his

He's been clear since about 4 weeks in. He had horrible headaches, but that was the worst of it. It doesn't affect everyone the same. Hang in there!

[tainted_chimp]

7. Thank you for responding, sandnsea.

It's very frightening, not knowing how he'll respond. But your words {and experience) do help!

I'm so happy for you both that your husband has finished his treatment, and is doing so well!


:hug:

[warren pease]

8. Things have gotten a little too interesting...

I've almost died three times since my initial 1/15/09 post. Details are boring, but these episodes indicate advancing cirrhosis and I'm now on the transplant list at OHSU here in Portland, OR.

Still, I feel pretty decent physically, although I suppose I look like shit personified. In fact, I had to renew my drivers license the other day and the photo looked as if I'd been recently exhumed after at least six months in the grave. Really shocking deterioration that, of course, I don't see in the mirror.

Anyway, I'm wondering if some of the more debilitating and infuriating symptoms -- the kind that rot your brain and eat your memory -- are shared by all those with advancing cirrhosis, or if it's just a great big menu and, absent choice, you get a subset of that menu as your personal curse.

I went quite some time without taking that vile laxative -- lactulose -- which pulls excess ammonia gas out of the blood stream, the surplus a failing liver can no longer handle, and um... sort of like... well, dumps it down the sewer, for lack of a better term.

I was able to lose the laxative by replacing it with a re-purposed antibiotic called Rifaximin (one of several spellings used for the same drug), which seemed to restore higher brain functions almost immediately -- in just a couple of days, anyway.

But my concentration level still sucks. I used to read three or more books a week -- at least two of them fairly serious non-fictions, usually political or historical -- and now I literally can't get through a 10-page short story. I can't watch a full length movie on DVD without either falling asleep or stopping the movie several times to go stir-crazy and finally settle back down.

My writing now officially sucks, which is a little career-threatening for a writer. I've played guitar for the past 40-some years -- except the last three, when I haven't wanted to bother. Which now means my playing and writing both suck, and those are the two skills I have that the world seems willing to pay me to do.

So no work, no income = no house, no car, no credit. Now, having exhausted all forms of my savings, we're living in a rental off my wife's meager income. That and the extreme kindness of friends who have volunteered to at least pay the monthly BC/BC premiums because, absent medical insurance, there's no possibility of staying on the transplant program.

Another of those great examples that prove the old adage: Only in the US is lack of medical insurance a capital crime.

So I'm wondering about my initial posting seven months back: Is anyone aware of any progress anywhere in the world that may result in any improvements in the prospects for a successful transplant or alternative treatment? Stem cell research with an eight-year head start over this bible-thumping jerkwater country?

(And may the great forces of atheism and agnosticism come as avenging angels in the night and smite the goddamn Bushies for their stupidity, ignorance and pathological lack of concern for those without the money to self-insure and travel to the corners of the earth on "medical tourism" junkets.)

Anyway, just curious. The docs I'm seeing now seem very much on top of the latest research into transplantation, but I'm wondering if there are alternatives out there -- in clinical trial or still on white boards -- that will revolutionize the process of treating and stopping further degradation of liver functions?

Thanks for reading this screed and for your thoughts and insights. This stuff really helps get me through the darker of days.


Best to all,

sf

(The keyboard commando formerly known as Warren Pease now writing as Steven Franklin cuz that's kinda like 2/3 of my real name, eh? Close enough for gummint work.)

[mopinko]

9. nothing to say except

hang in there. hope your transplant comes through and you can get back to living a full and productive life.
:hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: