Hello. I'm new to site &!community though I've replied to some posts here. My journey begins at an Army Base in Texas in 1967 , I'm 2 yrs old & recovering from rheumatic fever. I'm told I turned yellow & at some point end up at Children's Hospital in OklahomanCity, OK. Im diagnosed with type A. Two years later via biopsy, I'm diagnosed chronic active hep. At age 11, the GI doc is very concerned by blood work not being right & worries I my have autoimmune hep. A biopsy reveals a nonA nonB hep. Seven years later at age 18, I'm very ill & so yellow I'm turning orange! While in the hospital, a sonogram & blood work shows my gallbladder is storing very toxic bile & basically poisons it. It has to come out but if they do surgery while I'm so jaundiced, my survival rate is 10%. I was sent home on a special diet for six weeks then gallbladder gave out. A biopsy was done as they removed gallbladder & had a very bad case of hep B. My last GI doc believes I also had type D then even though it wasn't known yet. He said my records &!tests support this. Age 25 during last trimester of pregnancy my hep was trying to come out of remission & I was scheduled for c-section. My water broke the day of appointment to decide if they were going to induce or not. A year later I was very ill with hep c. It was out of remission 5+ years & during this time an experimental treatment was available, the interferon with ribovivarin was my 50/50 shot. The side effects were horrid! My hands burned as if on fire. I lost more weight, began at 90 lbs. got down to 80 lbs, & was starting to turn yellow. White cell count bottomed out at 2,000 & doc stopped treatment. I was a non-responder & my doc was hoping I'd be able to recover from the treatment. I began cleansing my liver with 32oz of fresh lemon slices & water twice daily, began a combo of fresh herbs as a tea I drank all day. A holistic student doc was my advisor & herbologist. I was feeling better & GI supported my holistic approach. That's also when I was told I was a Genotype 1. No letter followed yet. From there , I suffered severe depression from the intron therapy, had major joint & liver pain. These are still issues today. Bouts of fatigue & sleep to insomnia & restlessness now. Dark urine sometimes. In 2000 appendix went south. Photos taken of liver during appendectomy revealed cirrhosis of whole surface of liver. High risk for liver/bile duct cancer. I continue taking herbal supplements & battle anemia constantly. About 5 yrs ago blood work showed no viral load & doc hoping my body built up its own immunity to the C. It's still in my body but no longer active. Damage is already done & beyond repair. At 51 I now face the possibility of lupus. I don't even want to go there!
Well that has been a nearly life long journey of hepatitis. Thanks for reading!
