Great news

Shecka1121 said:

This calls for a celebration.

This calls for a celebration.  Wonderful news for you and just another move in the right direction to a LONG and healthy life.  Enjoy your beautiful family.

Thank you! :-)

Jan, unfortunately standard, more or less affordable treatment is not that advanced :-( it lasts for a year, has terrible side effects (crazier than chemotherapy, as I've heard), and gives only 50-60% cure rate. We were very lucky to be able to afford newer therapy, which lasts only 3 months, minimal side effects and very high cure rates. It is sad that this cool medicine is not yet available for every Hep C patient due to its price. And insurance in our country doesn't cover it . But I'm sure that in several years it will be much cheaper and thus avbl for all who need it. It is just the matter of time, und luckily most Hep C patients without cirrhosis can wait a bit... Hep is not cancer, when every month counts.

mrou50 said:

Good news

Congratulations time to relax a little and enjoy life again.

 

Mark

Thank you all! Yes, time for small celebration, and I'll be waiting for you all to report more celebration causes - your NEDs or stable conditions! :-)

todd121 said:

Yay - Great news!

One of my good friends just went through this. His insurance paid for it. I guess it depends on your insurance.

There's a debate about whether everyone should automatically get this expensive treatment. I read about it recently in the newspaper. From the article I read, many people have it for years and it never causes a problem, so it might make sense to delay the expensive treatment until it starts to cause a problem. (I'm paraphrasing and probably clobbering the original idea to the point of maybe being wrong?).

But I think it's awesome they have this treatment. My sister suffers from this. She has no insurance and can't afford the treatment and lives in a state that refused to expand medicaid (I think there are 17 of them?).

Todd

In my country  (Latvia) insurance is rather cheap, but due to this coversmostly basic treatments only. Something more expensive like oncological treatments or basic therapies for Hep C or multiple sclerosis, for example, are covered by the state (from 75% to 100 %). So we have completely different healthcare system here. It works fine when you have no insurance or need smth basic. For more advanced things you have to pay out of your pocket.

you are absolutsly right, for some people it is never a Problem. They have no or minor symptoms and never develop cirrhosis. My partner most probably had it more than for 10 years, judging by thr condition of his liver. He had some unpleasant symptoms - constant fatigue, insomnia, joint pains from time to time. And we never knew why, just thought of being overworked, or stressed out. It all affected his quality of life, but, being a very positive person, he never complained. He also had liver biopsy, and after results his hepathologist recommended to start treatment in the near future.

first we also thought about standard therapy compensated by the state, but its length and side effects and effectivity are far from great. Plus the additional "load" - kidney cancer, starting a new job and having newborn at home :-). So we opted for advanced therapy version, and luckily at that time thr manufacturer offered one month of treatment free of charge to slaughter their competitors :-)

Sorry to hear about your sister.  These drugs will become cheaper and cheaper, as it usually happens, and most Hep C patients can wait for some years with no problems. I hope she has no symptoms and very slow progression of disease, and I'm sure in some 5 years new therapies will be rather affordable. More and more manufacturers are working on their versions, so ee 'll benefit from competition. Good health to your sister and NED to you next week!