15 yr. HCV surviver:

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When I first found out I had hep-c I thought I was going to die. In 1993 HCV was new, after a blood test a doctor suggested a liver biop. Before I had any needles stuck in my liver I wanted a second opinion. I was directed to Halfmoon Bay Ca. to a liver/hep. spec. The first thing she said was thank god you didn't go through with it. Any intrusion into your already weak organ would have been fatal. She discussed the very painful treatments that were available as a last resort but she wanted to try something different. I was put on a very strict diet plan, starting with plain pasta, cranberry juice, and lots of milk. No added spices of any kind, all bland, boiled food. The liver must have some down time to recover. 4 months of that, before I tried some plain tomato sauce on the pasta. 1 yr. before I could have fish, 1 Yr. 6 mo. to chicken, never fried, always boiled or broiled. At that time I started on veggies also. 3 Yrs. before I dared a bit of red meat, the hardest thing for your internal organs to process. Oh I didn't mention the most important thing of all, NO ALCOHOL what so ever, that means never again in your entire lifetime. Some folks don't really understand that part and that is what kills them. Jumping forward to now I am living a pretty normal life with a slightly enlarged liver and I think I probly lost about 10 good yrs. of life from this experiance. As a youth, my drug of choice was cocaine up the nose, not through the needle. I was told by an India doc that was the beginning of the end for me. HCV is no longer in my bloodstream today, I had the A & B nonactive virus shots so I would be protected from that. I feel very blessed!!!