I am a 57-year-old white American male infected with Hepatitis C. I am involved in a controlled medical research study by Roche Pharmaceuticals of an experimental Polymerase Inhibitor (RO5024048 also known as RG7128) drug therapy for the virus. This document is the story of my illness and the experience of treatment. My lovely and pretty damn wonderful wife will be contributing her take on the experience as well.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Week 6 Results

I went in yesterday for a blood redraw to redo testing for my Absolute Neutrophil count. The level of neutrophils in my blood is in the mid 500 range which is approaching the lowest number (500) they allow before they start adjusting or removing medications.

Because of going in for a retest, I was able to see my Week 6 lab results 7 days before my next official testing appointment.

First of all, my viral load is now less than 15 IU per milliliter. That number means that they can no longer detect the actual count of virus in the blood. They label this state "Undetectable" and it is the goal we are all striving for. It is great news.

This means that I have gone from 12,900,000 IU per ml. to under 15 IU per ml. in 6 WEEKS. This response continues to reinforce AVB’s (and my) belief that I am on the RG 7128 Polymerase Inhibitor as she has never seen a viral response like this on the standard therapy. If this stuff works this well on the other folks in this study and does not have side effects that are any more (and hopefully less) serious than the standard therapy, this is great news for those of us with Hep C. The study may also confirm that this new drug (combined with the Standard of Care) can achieve a Sustained Viral Response (SVR) in 24 weeks instead of the 48 weeks that is the current standard.

Let’s face it, any reduction in the length of time we endure the side effects from all this combined with a potential higher Sustained Viral Response (SVR) percentage, is the best news possible.
Secondly, AVB and I went over the total lab results package in serious detail. This is something I cannot recommend more highly. No matter what therapy you are on, go over the test results thoroughly and ask lots of questions about what the various numbers mean in terms of your general health.

The key item I discovered in this round is that my Hemoglobin is at 10.9 (the normal range is 12.7 – 18.1). Hemoglobin is the blood cell that carries oxygen around the body. My baseline number was 14.8. That means the hemoglobin content in my blood is 27% lower than it was at the beginning of the test only 6 weeks ago and I have become anemic. No wonder I am out of breath after relatively light exercise and movement and tired most of the time. My blood can only carry ¾ of the oxygen it could 6 weeks ago. It’s not that I have become a doughy sack of fat, it’s that I don’t have enough hemoglobin to carry the oxygen.

While that is a bit scary considering I now also running low on the white blood cells that fight infection, at least I know why one of my symptoms is happening and I can see it in hard numbers.

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