I Can't Believe It!
CatNipped
test and the abdominal ultrasound. First he said he looked at the
ultrasound and everything looked really good - there was no evidence of any
damage or anything abnormal. Then he sat there reading the results from the
blood work, and he read, and he read, for about 5 or 10 minutes. Then he
said, "they sent about 10 pages of results on this so I'm going to go call
them and see if I'm reading this right." Then he walked out of the office
for about 20 minutes. DH and I were sitting there, nervous, wondering what
the heck was going on. Then he came back and said, "OK, I wanted to be
very, very sure I was reading this right before I gave you the news. You
have no sign of the Hepatitis C virus in your blood." I asked him if he was
absolutely sure, he said yes that's why he wanted to go double check - he
didn't want to tell me that and then have to say, no wait a minute I made a
mistake, you do have it. He said that of all people who come in contact
with the virus, 80% of them contract the virus and 20% of them "beat off"
the virus successfully and I was in that 20%! He guessed that the reason
that my antibody count was so high was because my body fought so hard to
kill the virus. He said he wants me to have one more blood test (a week
from next Wednesday when I have my semi-annually scheduled blood work done)
just to be doubly sure, but that he never tells a patient that they don't
have it if he isn't very damned sure of it.
So, I never thought I would be so glad to have *just* RSD!
Hugs,
CatNipped
dBo
naught.....glad to hear that is the case with you :)
Cactus Jammies
cactus jammies
"CatNipped" <CatN...@PossiblePlaces.com> wrote in message
news:7lufn3F...@mid.individual.net...
Dwight
Way to go, it's great to hear good news happening to good people.
Dwight
Thip
"CatNipped" <CatN...@PossiblePlaces.com> wrote in message
news:7lufn3F...@mid.individual.net...
Waterspider
huge sigh of relief! After all is said and done, I have to wonder about the
wisdom of telling the patient they have HCV antibodies before the presence
of the virus is established. Great news though, I'm really happy for you :-)
"CatNipped" <CatN...@PossiblePlaces.com> wrote in message
news:7lufn3F...@mid.individual.net...
CatEyes
news:AhEKm.51493$Db2.51391@edtnps83...
Thanks to you all! Yes, I AM so relieved - I practically had my funeral all
planned since I knew I was too much of a chicken to have the treatment and
still work. I had already decided to not have the treatment at all!
My friend, a nurse, told me that "just to be sure" I should have a "titer"
test? Anyone know what that is?
Hugs,
CatNipped
greyhackles
>Thanks to you all! Yes, I AM so relieved - I practically had my funeral all
>planned since I knew I was too much of a chicken to have the treatment and
>still work. I had already decided to not have the treatment at all!
>
>My friend, a nurse, told me that "just to be sure" I should have a "titer"
>test? Anyone know what that is?
>
>Hugs,
>
>CatNipped
First, good for you that your viral load test apparently came back
"undetectable". Your doctor is wise to plan on a second, confirmatory test,
and hopefully he's wise enough to use a highly sensitive version (as in
sensitive down to 5IU/ml) if the first test was using one of the less
sensitive tests.
As for your friend, the nurse: sorry, but she's utterly clueless. A "titer"
test involves successive dilutions of blood serum and testing the results for
the amount of HCV antibodies per volume of titer.
Besides the obvious fact that such a test is not germane to determining if you
have an active infection, there has been virtually no correlation between
titer tests and the degree of HCV activity...
Cheers
/greyhackles
Waterspider
"greyhackles" <greyh...@NOSPAMyahoo.com> wrote in message
news:71omf51dpe8rdq2ea...@4ax.com...
antibody volume.
In defence of Cat's nurse pal, she may have been referring to viral
concentration testing. My GP uses the same term, "titer," for viral load
testing (although he's often sloppy, or wrong, in discussing medical
issues).
greyhackles
While not one of my docs over the years ever used "titer" to describe an HCV
viral load test, the phrase "HCV RNA titer" does mean the same thing. But
"anti-HCV titer" is far more commonly used, and that describes a procedure
that is of little intrinsic value to any patient, and certainly zero value in
Cat's case.
And I was going with the context: presumably Cat had just told her friend the
nurse that her *viral load test* came back undetectable. If her friend's
response was literally "get a titer test", imo it's a bit of a stretch to
assume she actually meant *viral load test*. I would think the correct
response would be "get a second viral load test" - or even "get a second titer
test".
But, hey, if my conclusion is wrong, my apologies to said friend. It wouldn't
be the very first time in my life I was wrong about something ;-)
Cheers
/greyhackles
Waterspider
"greyhackles" <greyh...@NOSPAMyahoo.com> wrote in message
they whisper it to the person beside them, and so on until it goes around
the room and comes back with no resemblance to the original statement? You
and I may be getting caught up in that game here :-)
Cactus Jammies
"Waterspider" <nos...@all.com> wrote
>>(snipped)
> Thanks for clarifying, Grey. I was wondering about the significance of
> antibody volume.
>
> In defence of Cat's nurse pal, she may have been referring to viral
> concentration testing. My GP uses the same term, "titer," for viral load
> testing (although he's often sloppy, or wrong, in discussing medical
> issues).
////////////////////////////////
Actually my PCP first used the term when I was diagnosed back in '03. He
was referring to a PCR quantitative test which is either a VL test or a
titer. Depending on which of three sides of the bed you get out of in the
morning I suppose.
cactus jammies
//////////////////////////////////
CatNipped
news:71omf51dpe8rdq2ea...@4ax.com...
This is the results that he gave me from the test done on 10/27/2009...
HCV Genotype, LIPA TNP
Test not performed
We were not able to obtain a HVC genotype from this sample due to one of the
following:
Insufficient viral load, a mutation of the viral genome, or the presense of
inhibitors to the PCR Amplification. Please correlate this result with
recent viral load for this patient, and resubmit if warranted. Only an
extraction fee is being charged for this test.
Heptimax (TM) HCV RNA IU mL <5
Reference Range:
< 5
Heptimax (TM) HCV RNA LogIU/mL <0.70
Reference Range:
<0.7
The range of the HEPTIMAX (TM) assay is 5 IU/mL
to 69,000,000 IU/mL
Because the HCV RNA level was below 43 IU/mL using the Real-Time PCR method,
the samle was assayed using the Transcription-Mediated Amplification (TMA)
method. This test was performed using the COBAS (R) AmpliPrep/ COBAS (R)
TagMan (R) HCV Test Kit (Roche Molecular Systems, Inc.).
The next test he ordered will be done next Wednesday, 11/18/2009:
*HEPTIMAX (R) HCV RNA (Viral Load Quest)
Assessment(s): 070.54, Hepatitis C
I don't know what any of that means, and any explantions in layman's terms
would be very much appreciated.
Hugs,
CatNipped
greyhackles
wrote:
In layman's terms: you are clear! :-)
The HCV Genotype test was unable to identify a genotype because you don't have
enough/any virions to provide the necessary RNA. That's the first shoe to
drop.
The Heptimax TMA test is a qualitative viral load test - and it is currently
one of the most sensitive tests commercially available (an excellent selection
by your docs - give them a big wet kiss next time you see 'em :-) It is a
transcription mediated amplification test (TMA) sensitive down to 5
International Units per milliliter of blood, and in your case there weren't
enough virions to trigger a positive result. That's the second - and by far
the most important - shoe to hit the floor.
The COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS Taqman is a real-time PCR quantitative viral load
test. It is less sensitive than the Heptimax test, but has an excellent
dynamic range, hence its use to "quantify" viral loads. This test is very good
for baselining a patients viral load, and especially for determining
anti-viral drug kinetics once in treatment, but it is not as good for
determining whether a patient has cleared the virus or not, as the Heptimax
test. Because this test failed to detect the presence of HCV, the lab used
some of the same blood sample to run the more sensitive Heptimax TMA test.
Bottom line: that Heptimax TMA test is the one to key on, and in your case,
you are a clear and clean puppy! :-) A second test in a few weeks or even
months is a good idea in any case, but unless you had or have a recent
exposure risk, the odds are about as high as they can get that you are no
longer actively infected with HCV...
Cheers
/greyhackles
CatNipped
info but the time and effort you took to explain it to me, some stranger on
the internet. You're a kind and generous person, and I am very grateful.to
you.
Hugs,
CatNipped
"greyhackles" <greyh...@NOSPAMyahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1l9sf5p4pqlu044kt...@4ax.com...
Paul
<CatN...@PossiblePlaces.com>, in message ID
<7lufn3F...@mid.individual.net>, in the newsgroup
alt.support.hepatitis-c wrote:
I'm very pleased for you. Missing treatment is one of those things in
life than are good to miss.
Actually, the first thought that went through my head was "You lucky
bastard" :-) . It conjured up that scene from the film "Life of
Brian" when the spaceship crashed and he walked out alive :-)
CatNipped
news:ie32g5hav2nbki67c...@4ax.com...
Yeah, I had mixed emotions about posting this, I didn't want to sound like I
was bragging, but I wanted to follow up with the news of the test results.
However, I have RSD so I live in excruciating, constant pain (the highest on
the McGill pain chart - http://www.ozrsd.org/forum/kb.php?mode=article&k=4).
I don't want to be bitter or envious of others their joy in life. But when
I see a group of people running and playing, I have to wonder, why me and
not one of them instead. Hell, I even get jealous of my cats when they tear
through the house chasing one another - oh, to be that healthy and
pain-free, what I wouldn't give.
So, I apologize, but at least now you'll know I didn't get *all* the breaks
in the health department.
Hugs,
CatNipped <==== bitch, not bastard ;>
Waterspider
"CatNipped" <CatN...@PossiblePlaces.com> wrote in message
face a battle with the dragon. People are sympathetic about your RSD too,
but because this is a hepatitis C board, they either don't know enough about
it to discuss it, or prefer to keep the medical issue conversation limited
to liver disease. Most members here have health problems in addition to hep
C, but I'm not sure if anyone has RSD. I'm sure, if someone else shared that
with you, they would have mentioned it.
CatEyes
Sorry, didn't mean to break the group's protocol.
Hugs,
CatNipped
Waterspider
"CatEyes" <Cat...@GCMensa.org> wrote in message
news:7misg9F...@mid.individual.net...
suggesting, or even thinking, that you were bragging, or getting more *luck*
than you deserved, and that no one is unsympathetic about your RSD. Words on
a screen, lacking the help of body language, don't always convey the
intended message as intended. My intent was to reassure you rather than
lecture you.
CatNipped
Thank you, for both the explanation and the congratulations.
Hugs,
CatNipped