[blam]

My wife that I divorced in 1985 has given up treatment and has gone home to die of hepatitis C, the treatment was not working. (My hepatitis C test was negative)

[Flavius]

man thats awful

[af_vet_1981]

My wife that I divorced in 1985 has given up treatment and has gone home to die of hepatitis C, the treatment was not working. (My hepatitis C test was negative)

May G-d have mercy on her.

[Cindy]

I'm sorry to hear that blam regarding your ex-wife.
Glad your tests came out ok.

[FITZ]

That's sad --- it's an awful disease. Also that so many don't know how they got it --- I suspect non-sterilized dental equipment prior to HIV precautions spread plenty of blood-bourne diseases.

[irv]

My wife and I have a friend who apparently got Hepatitis C in a transfusion 20 years ago. She was diagnosed about 5 years ago.

I ordinarily take dire warnings about a "silent epidemic" with a grain or 12 of salt (there's always a demand for more money attached), but in this case there's at least some evidence to back up the idea that we should be concerned.

Our friend is probably not going to live to the end of 2004, which will be a great loss. It's a relatively slow and harrowing way to go, besides. My heart goes out to anyone who has it.

[AppyPappy]

My cousin has it. It can be very bad.

[SJSAMPLE]

My wife's aunt is close to death from complications from Hep C. She's been on interfuron and other drugs, but suddenly her organs started failing. Hopefully they can pull her back, but she's been fighting this for years and it's taken its toll on her.

[DLfromthedesert]

Naomi Judd got infected from a patient's needle she accidentally stuck herself with. My sister also has it.

Both of them are taking herbs that seem to be working, not to cure the disease, but to lessen the severity.

[tortoise]

My wife that I divorced in 1985 has given up treatment and has gone home to die of hepatitis C, the treatment was not working.

My girlfriend's father was cured a few years ago using an experimental biotech therapy at Stanford University. He had "terminal" liver cancer at the time caused by the HepC, which incidentally was cured by another experimental therapy at the same time. He was the perfect guinea pig; he was terminal with only a couple months to live and had two incurable diseases, so they could try some exotic stuff that they normally wouldn't use on a healthy human. Two-for-two is either phenomenally lucky for experimental medicine, or our technology is getting better fast.

Anyway, there is hope. The woman's father is perfectly healthy today a few years later, with neither a trace of HepC nor liver cancer.