1.5 MILLION "AND IT'S NOT THE LOTTERY"

Welcome to the forum,

We are a group of patients and caregivers affected by liver disease and tthis is where to come for Hep C news.

It is not good that you have Hep C 1a. Do you know how you were infected?  How long ago.

It was years and years before my partner KNEW he had Hep C and by that time he was SICK.

There are treatments available and that may be the way to go for you, because 1.5 Million is significant.  However, viral load can go up and down over time.

You are doing your body the best favor it could get....laying off the alcohol and cleaning up your diet.

Folks with liver disease can go many many years relatively healthy if they are sober and live a healthy lifestyle.  Even folks with mild cirrhosis can get by for a long time.

We have posters here who have been very ill, cleaned up their act, and see many calm years before liver disease moves to its last stages.

There is some good information about liver disease and some good links in the top 3 posts on this site...take a peek at them.

Let us know how your appointment goes.  And come often, folks share their stories and often there are folks who have about the same symptoms you do.

Having a party with booze was brave. Some just don't have it around. But you did well...except for the bbq.

Keep it real,

Carol

 

Sugar! No sugar! No red meat! No salt! I have always kept an eye on my sodium intake or my edema and ascities acts up and have limited the red meat, lately. My hepatologist said to eat what you want when it comes to meat, but watch the sodium intake. No sausage or ham or pork, processed food, etc.... Not once did I hear anything from the docs about sugar. I probably have been eating too many eggs to substitute for the red meat. I have popsicles all the time because of my constant dry mouth and they are not sugar free. Sometimes I have 4 to 6 a day.

Congrats on your weight loss, 15-2! You must be doing something right!

Hugs,
Connie

Thanks Connie, Due to the fact I am not drinking alcohol has dropped a lot of weight. Everyday when I wake in the a.m. I have 2 things on my mind. 1st, I give thanks for another day. 2nd is I wonder what sobriety is going to bring me today. Having gone 26 years of adulthood drunk. I missed a lot in my life. I am amazed when I think about the past how I pulled it off completely smashed. I am still married to high school sweetheart. It will be 25 yrs in Sept. I somehow started and built a very successful property development company. Which I sold last year when the health issue's started multiplying. Looking at life through the glass's of sobriety I am able to focus now. My ability to listen and actually care when some one is talking to me. My 14 yr old son has been talking to me for years. I looked at him and would smile but I never heard a dang thing he was telling me. My wife and I go for walks now, we even hold hands. My son and I go everywhere too. Hep might be trying to take me out, but in a weird way it has made me a great husband and a awesome dad. Thanks Cary Hey Connie are you from Jax, Fl. I am from Orange Park......

Hey Connie, Jax Beach. I have had some good times there. My dad was stationed at Cecil Field 63-71. My mom and dad were born and raised in Tx. While my dad was stationed at Cecil he was gone fighting the war. Since I am the oldest it was just my mom and I. My grand parents (dad side) moved to Jax. There plan was to help my mom with me. Plus she was pregnate again. We lived off base in OP. Right by the mall on Blanding Blvd. My sister was born and my mom being only 17 split. Never to be seen or heard from again. With computers now days I tracked her down only to find out she died of a heart attack at 42. Anyway my grandparents started raising us. They bought a house across the river in Manderin. They are still there. When my dad was discharged we moved back into the OP house. We stayed about a year and moved back to Tx. When I finished high school in 83 I was offered a golf scholarship to several universities. I had this girlfriend I had been with since the 8th grade. My parents and hers were trying to get us apart. She had academic scholarships also. We wanted to go University of Texas together. But NOOOO they said if we went to same school she would get pregnant and we would end up dropping out. Her dad told her if we went to same school, he would cut her off financially. So we played his bluff. Wendy and I went to the library and spent all day looking at schools as faw away from our parents as we could. We were 18 and adults. They can't tell us what to do. We said nothing to them until we were both accepted at the University of Washington in Seattle. We both finished with a degree. We did have that kid too. We married and still live here..... I ramble being sober...

David, did you have a dietician before the transplant list or after? I take it was after. That is what I really need right now. I have Medicare as primary and Medicaid as secondary health insurance. I have asked my hepatologist about the dietician before when I had Medicaid. I will look into this with my PCP to see if I am eligible. 15-2 The weight loss you have made is like the opposite of mine. Last Memorial day I was 187 LBS. that was down from over 250 from the year before when diagnosed with ESLD or Cirrhosis. Today my weight is fluctuating between 211 & 215 LBS. I have not any alcohol in over 3 years. I have gained more muscle mass in my arms and shoulers, neck, etc., but I have a weakness too. It is called PIZZA. It is so easy to talk yourself into it. I would get gourmet pizza with goat cheese which has less sodium with fresh cut tomatoes, basil, olive oil amd arugala not thinking about the crust because I would tell the pizza maker my dilemma and thought if it was very thin it would be O.K. Plus I stopped counting how much daily sodium intake. Today i am watching everthing only eating fresh fruits and vegetables for awhile then just fish and chicken and cutting out the sugar.

What a beautiful story.. I agree after Mike got sober... our relationship deepened. Thank you for your love story. Sandia

Mike saw a dietician at the Mayo Clinic. She made suggestions which we implemented. The diet changes helped with energy levels and to control his diabetes. In fact, in direct response to Mike's following the dietician's diet plan, Mike was no longer insulin dependent and eventually took no insulin. He also lost a fair amount of weight. Sandia

15-2 , Glad to see you are adjusting well to sobriety . Hopefully the way things sound you will " level out " as I have . Honestly I got so used to the unpredictable up's and down of this disease and thought I would never lead a normal life again , It took forever to get to this point .
I had TIPS surgery to help with Ascites build up and that's what started my actual leveling out . As you obviously know medications , proper diet and good overall health is a must and is a key contributor to turning things around .

My wife caught hell from every which direction for years in my initial days of diagnosis , Between Encephalopathy and all else that comes as part of this disease it's a wonder she stuck by me . Factor in being a chronic drunk trying to stay sober uped my level of obnoxiousness 10 times . Guess we kinda got blessed with saintly ladies or at least that's what my wife says anyhow .
Anyhow I totally agree with you about there being a positive lining in this dark cloud . Relationships , Thinking and priorities all improved dramatically since this disease took it's toll . Would I want to go through the pain again ? NO !!! But sometimes it takes the removal of " little things " we take for granted everyday for us to see whats really important . I Salute you sir on your current success and here's to many years of happiness .

A. Ziffle