After reading the numerous posts to you and your responses in the For The
Newbies thread, I've come to some conclusions...
1. You do not want to undergo a biopsy to determine the extent of your
liver
damage.
2. You do not want to even attempt peg-interferon/ribavirin treatment for
your hepatitis c.
3. You believe that colloidal silver and other "alternative treatments"
will, if not erradicate the hepatitis c virus, make you healthy.
4. You do not believe that you are critically ill.
You blame your doctors for not giving you sufficient information, but I
suspect they may have simply given up trying to educate you. You have been
defensive and arguementive with people here who have attempted to correct
your wrong assumptions and misinformation, along with trying to educate
you
about hepatitis c. If you continue to appear so close-minded and
pig-headed,
they'll give up on you too.
You told us that you are depressed, and that you are self-medicating with
St. John's wort, but you have decided that you're not a good candidate for
treatment because you're depressed. I have to wonder what other types of
self-medicating you do (and sincerely hope it doesn't include the odd
glass
of chardonnay, but nothing would surprise me at this point). Anyway,
here's
something to think about: if the St. John's wort is working for your
depression, then you shouldn't worry about undertaking treatment with
depression. Otherwise, you must admit that it's not working, and we're
back
to stop wasting your money on the stuff. Talk to your doctor about
depression. Get a referral to Mental Health or get a prescription for a
low-dose antidepressant. Or both. Depression is a symptom of liver
disease,
hepatitis c in particular. Curing hepatitis c will go a long way in
dealing
with your depression (and your fatigue, which is also a symptom). Another
symptom of more advanced liver disease is mental confusion, and I have to
say that your posts would lead at least a few people to wonder about your
mental state.
You say that you know people who have cured their hepatitis c with
alternative treatments. I call bull**** on this one. Maybe you've talked
to
people who tell you that a friend of a friend cured their hep c with
colloidal silver or milkthistle or whatever, but that's simply not true.
Maybe you talked to someone directly who told you that they cured their
hep
c with an alternative treatment. Guess what? They didn't. Ask to see the
most recent results of their viral load test, and you'll hear that their
liver function tests are within normal range. Liver function tests may or
MAY NOT relate to hepatitis c viral load. Don't even bother reading
testimonials on cheesy websites trying to peddle a book or a dose of
colloidal silver. You ask us to show evidence that colloidal silver cannot
cure hepatitis c, but it's impossible to prove a negative. However, there
is
not one (I repeat, not even one) legitimate, do***ented case of hepatitis
c
being cured by colloidal siver or any other alternative treatment. Not
one.
Ever.
I read the "study" for which you provided a link. This is not a legitimate
study, it is a private experiment on only three patients. Nowhere in the
text did the good doctor claim to cure hepatitis c, he only said his
patients felt better, looked better and lowered their liver function test
results. None of this relates to extent of liver damage. Remember, most
people with hep c do not show or feel any symptoms until the disease has
progressed to end stage, transplant time, and a liver transplant will not
cure hepatitis c.
The "information" in this "study" is outdated at best and by today's
knowledge about the disease, it's inaccurate. Here's a quote from the
article: "There are no remarkably effective treatments for chronic
hepatitis
C in general use. Interferon and antivirals have less than a 30% response
rate." WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! When this was written, it was debatable but
today it's incorrect. When this was written, pegylated interferon wasn't
even to the clinical trial stage, but today it's the standard and
successful
treatment rates have roughly doubled. As well, the side-effects from the
"new" pegylated-interferon with ribavirin treatment are substantially less
and the peg-ifn is injected weekly instead of every three days. Treatment
is
weight-based today, which also contributes to the higher success rate.
You're genotype 2, which is the easiest to cure (along with geno 3).
Genotypes 2 and 3 undergo treatment for 26 weeks, rather than the 52 weeks
that Geno 1 (the most common type) undergoes.
Unlike your doctors and a few people here, I haven't given up on you yet.
I
think that, deep down, you really do want to get rid of this virus that's
destroying your liver 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that you'd
like
to go back to living a healthy, happy life (which you probably can't even
remember at this point). I'm here to tell you that you can do it, that you
should do it, and that you're not only killing yourself but ruining the
quality of what life you have left by playing around with alternatives.
Go back to your doctor. Ask for antidepressants and ask for peg/ifn
treatment. If you can't get it without the biopsy, great! And do some good
research to find out what you should be including and avoiding in your
diet,
and follow it religiously.
You've either had your head up in the clouds, or in the sand like an
ostrich, or stuck up your arse like an idiot. Time to move on and start
looking after yourself. You've only got one life, honey, might as well
make
it as good as you can. Good luck.
Waterspider
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