This year I participated in a twelve-week clinical trial for hepatitis C. I am overjoyed to announce my 12-week post-treatment follow-up results: hepatitis C is nondetectable. I have a 98% chance of remaining this way until the official 24-week post-treatment follow-up date.
My stats when I began: I had hepatitis C for 25 years, genotype 1a, viral load greater than 8 million, and stage 2 fibrosis. This was my third treatment. The first was interferon monotherapy in 1997. I did not respond and stopped after three months. The second was 48 weeks of peginterferon and ribavirin in 2003. I relapsed in the post-treatment stage. This time I underwent 12 weeks of triple therapy with Gilead’s sofosbuvir (formerly GS-7977), ledipasvir (formerly GS-5885), and ribavirin.
Although this was easier than the two previous hepatitis C treatments, it was not without challenges. The rash and headache were easy to deal with. Sleep was impossible without the aid of modern chemistry. I was fatigued; my head was cloudy. I thought I handled treatment well, but my husband would testify in court that I was “difficult to be around.” Fortunately, I didn’t do anything illegal that would force him to testify in court.
The recovery period was swift and nearly immediately noticeable. Unlike peginterferon’s tedious aftermath of two-steps forward, one-step back, I felt better every day. I feel wonderful now.
Perhaps I am being overconfident, but 98% sounds like darn good odds to me. I will post final results in November.
(This post first appeared at www.LucindaPorterRN.com)
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