I Gotta 50/50 Chance

My testing and physical today went well. But, I don't have the viral count yet. Boo. I'll know if I'm an "Undie" on Monday. Monday?  Not today? Nope... It takes at least a day to get the results for HCV (Hepatitis C) viral copies.

Grr...They didn't tell me that. They should have told me that before now. I was expecting to know today. They should have told me that. Don't you think that's some information I'd like to know? Boo hiss...



I did get some results back though:
My liver enzymes are normal! This means my liver is less inflamed - less stressed. They've never been normal! They've been high because of HCV and the inflammation it causes in the liver. Like I said, I don't know if the virus is undetectable yet, but since the enzymes are normal, it's a good indicator that the virus is being killed. My viral count was over 5,510,000 copies back in February.

My Physician's Assistant (PA) said, based on the preliminary results, I have a 50/50 chance that the test will come back saying the virus is undetectable.  If the test still detects the virus, we hope it's less than 43 copies.  If there are more than 1000 copies remaining, then they usually stop treatment.  But that's rare.  This PA only knows of one occurrence of a patient with 1000 copies or more after 4 weeks in triple therapy.

Wow.  To kill over 5.5 million copies of this stingy virus in 4 weeks seems quick to me.  And pretty amazing.  Modern medicine really is somethin'...

Stay tuned...