A Hep C Survivor Story

Almost every day I get an email from someone who I have helped to get Hepatitis C treatment. Sometimes they have just completed treatment and they are sharing the news of their cure with me and sometimes it may have been years ago that we last communicated and something prodded them to write to me with an update on their health.

Over the next week or so I will share some of their stories with you.

Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion

Dear Greg,

I have finally received my ‘all clear’ status from my doctor, SVR 12 achieved!

My liver enzymes look better than I can ever remember them looking, and my Hep C markers are all listed as Undetectable. Such a beautiful word…Undetectable.

I am so happy and hopeful for the future.
How can I thank you enough??

When I emailed you, you immediately responded. You said yes, at every turn, and made each step simple and swift.

It always takes months to get in to see the infectious disease specialist where I live. At first I thought that I should really run my plan to get the Hep C medicine from you past my specialist…
but then the pandemic hit. My gut reaction was to DO IT NOW.
And I’m so glad I listened to my gut, and to you.

By the time my doctor was finally able to see me (by Zoom appointment), I was already halfway through my 84 day regimen.
He was surprised to hear what I was doing, about where I’d gotten my medicine, but he was not negative. He told me to wait till I finished taking the medicine plus 90 more days, before getting ANY blood work done.
If it hadn’t been for the pandemic, I would have ignored him and would have gotten it after the 84 days just to put my mind at ease that something was happening.
But with the pandemic brewing, it seemed prudent to stay home. I was so nervous by the time I finally got the blood work results back online, that I had to spend hours working up the courage to look at the results!  And yet it had worked. The viral load result was ” Undetectable”.

I’ve probably had hep c since a blood transfusion at birth. So this virus has been with me for a very long time. To be free of it, to feel the peace of knowing it’s gone…as you know, that’s immeasurable. I found out I had it about 16 years ago when I was doing tests to figure out why I was so unwell. I remember so clearly the sense of dread and even shame upon finding out that I had Hep C. The stigma of this disease is powerful and I believe manufactured by a medical industry that failed to keep us safe.

How funny that for all the mistrust I’ve had for the pharmaceutical industry, that they are the ones that produced this cure.
And you, my friend, are the angel who got it into my hands and the hands of so many people. You really are a life saver.

I am so very grateful.

On this evening here in the US, as I stress over the outcome of this historic election, in the midst of a pandemic, I can honestly say, despite all the craziness that 2020 has been good for me overall.
I can finally live knowing I’m free of this disease.

A thousand thank you’s.

I hope you are happy and well.

If by some weird twist of fate you and your wife ever end up on the lovely Oregon Coast, do let me know and I’ll let you stay in my air bnb room.
Though it’s laughable to think you’d leave that lovely place to come to the USA for any reason.

Forever in your debt,

G.
Otter Rock, Oregon

Hep C Survivor Stories, How Is Hep C Transmitted, How To Detect Hep C, How To Help Hep C

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