Dear @markd,
Thanks for sharing your story and sounds like you are looking after yourself well with a great attitude. Welcome to the community and hope you find the support you need here.
Thomas
Hi marks
I am happy to ear how strong and focused you are. This is a forum that will offer you alot of support. Welcome and as an African, we say “feel at home.”
Kinoti.
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Hi Tefera megistu
I am delighted with the trust you have on me to answer to your concerns on chronic Hep b status and medications.
Moreover, I boast of only 20yrs hep b positive experience and fall short of medical expertise folks like Thomas Tu @Joan Tavis @Mark Douglas, @Chari Cohen @Professor lampartico@Dr Strasser et al posses.
With that said, I encourage you to be abit patient and you will definitely get appropriate response from the afore mentioned.
Sorry, I have not been of more help.
Kinoti
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Hi kinoti thank u so much i appreciate ur answers. Thank u for u advice.
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Hi, i am brand new to the site and newly diagnosed. My name is Tina Kerns. Ive had past history of boughts of kidney stones as well as one bought July and August of this year which included severe sepsis…
I began feeling ill again in Jan of 2022; worried that stones and sepsis had come back, went to ER to find out i have Hep B… I spent 9 days in hospital with abdominal pain as well as worst migraine of my life beginnung a week before ER visit through first week of my stay in hospital. January 21, 2022-Jan 30…orange urine’ pale feces, pain, fatigue and joint pain was given entecavir last 6 days in hospital at .5 mg… Discharged with self care and able to take care of myself… This lasted about 5 days then weakness significantly increased as did other symptoms…my ALT upon doc f/u was 2109 and AST was 1609 billirubin at 30. My jaundice was VERY LOUD and stayed that way for weeks… Weakness grew significantly. I have hip replacement on right side 15 years old. I stopped for prescription and while leaving i stepped off curb and collapsed. Needed aadssostance to get up. Wasnt hurt nbuut got in car and went straight home where i live alone…
That nite tring to use bathroom was able to walk there but, failed getting off toilet. Once fell and hit my head on drywall. The second time i hit my head on porcelean sink. Both times i had to literally crawl back to bed and use nitestand amd wall to get leverage to get back in bed. I then took ambulance to hospital. I am female 48 years old. Was re-admitted and currently, this admission, i will be on day 35 here. Initially i had portable toilet and could get up on my own, then to bedside commode and back again; until one day lost strength getting back to bed and i just kind of slowly slumped to floor. I was then restricted to bed with briefs and bedpan.
I had many issues with patient care this time… At night left in bed pan too many times ro count for over an hour and about 4 times i spent 3 hours waiting for help.
My doctor moved me to different hospital and things much better. The mersa i developed is clearing up patient care is amazing, PT which is consistant and same person.
In last 2 weeks ive develped nueropothy. Most of the time i cant feel my feet at all and if touched feels like its asleep with nails being driven thru them. Hands in constant pain; pins needles, feel much more swollen than they are. nuerology is working things up to see what can be fixed and what might ir-reverseable…i began gabapentin 3x/day at 100 mg and after one day already increased to 200mg…
Only symptoms i havent had are fever and loss of appetite; although i do get full faster…
Im sorry post so long but, as the song says everything is connected. Right now im just trying to wrap my head around this… Being told not to worry… Just keep doing my PT… I do not have support and live alone… As soon as i am able to travel, i will move back to Missouri with my dad and stepmom. The rest of my family are there too. Im just wondering how strange is this as ive read most people contracting this dont know they have it and get past it quickly…
I really was having a bad few days and finding ur support group has renewed my faith and hope.
THANK YOU…
Tina
Dear @Tinakerns,
Thanks for sharing your story and experiences. It sounds like you’ve been having a tough time with everything. Please feel free to reach out and post on this forum. I hope this community can help support you through your Hep B diagnosis as you grapple with it.
Yours sincerely,
Thomas
Hi there. My profile name is the date I was diagnosed. As you can see… just a few days ago. I’m in the US and unsure how long I’ve had it. Interestingly, the very day I was diagnosed was the same day my mother got MRI results of cysts on her liver and kidneys which makes me wonder if she too is hep B positive and this is how I got it. More to come as this unfolds. Grateful to be a part of a community as I navigate the unknowns.
Hi 3322,
Welcome to the community! I am sure the next days, weeks and months are going to be interesting for you, to say the least. Try not to stress too much while waiting for results and more testing. You have a great resource of information at your disposal within these forums as things progress for you.
I hope the experts will be able to guide you through this journey and the members of this forum can be a comfort to you as we all share this common bond called Hepatitis B.
Glad you found your way here. Good luck and God bless,
-Paul
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Welcome to hep b community. I am sincerely sorry to learn of the pain and frustration you are going through due to combination of challenges. Life sometimes can be tough. But we must put up a spirited fight to keep going.
Wish you all the best.
Regards
Kinoti
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Welcome to the community @3322. Hope you get the support you need here.
Regarding your mother, Hep B is not really associated with liver and kidney cysts, so that doesn’t really indicate if she is Hep B positive.
Hope this helps,
Thomas
No, but those with Hep B are higher risk for liver cancer which can metastasize to the kidneys was where my mind was going with that.
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I see, glad that is not likely to be the case here. Wish you and your mother all the best as things proceed.
Thomas
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Hi Kim
I am happy for you to have cleared hep b virus. Count yourself as a lucky one.
You have directed your question to@Thomas but I hope it doesn’t hurt to have others opinions. Moreover, your question is social psychological and probably ethical more than medical since you’re no longer infectious.
Now, should you tell your future spouse that you once had hep b? This will depend on what you intend to achieve or say the importance of this revelation in your relationship. According to me, it’s like giving a brief summary of your life to your spouse before you met including your relationships
Sorry, I couldn’t tell you more.
Regards
Kinoti.
Dear @KIM,
Welcome to the forum and thanks for your question.
If you have resolved your HBV infection (HBsAg-negative HBV DNA-negative), the risk of transmission is practically zero. It is your choice whether to talk to them about your past HBV infection, but they are not at any appreciable risk of HBV infection from you.
Hope that helps,
Thomas
Hello everyone, I’m 26 year old and currently 16 weeks pregnant. I live in the US. I got tested positive with Hep B. My GI specialist wants to start on Viread right away as he assure me it is safe during pregnancy. I also got my liver ultrasound and he confirmed it looks good. To be honest, I have never been this scared in my life now that I am carrying another human being. I don’t know how the future will look like. He also told me that I might need to take this med for the rest of my life. Thank you everyone and nice to meet you all!
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Dear Olive, thanks so much for posting and welcome to hepBcommunity.org. So glad you found us! Congratulations on your pregnancy. How exciting! With that said, not only do you have the “stress” of pregnancy, I am sorry that you just learned that you have hep b. But please know that this condition should not have any impact on your pregnancy. It’s a liver infection but doesn’t interfere with the growth and development of your new baby. I was diagnosed over 30 years ago and successfully had 2 children without any complications during pregnancy or delivery. There are several things that you should be aware of going forward.
First, starting Viread is generally recommended in the 3rd trimester unless your blood lab tests are really concerning to your doctor. Studies show that it’s safe for the newborn in the 3rd trimester. The goal of starting this antiviral is to reduce the level of virus in your body to decrease the risk of transmitting the virus to your newborn during pregnancy and/or delivery. Research definitively shows that the lower the viral load, the lower the chance of transmitting the virus.
Second, it is vitally important that after your baby is born he or she should receive two shots in the delivery room: the first dose of the hep b vaccine and one dose of HBIG (hep b immunoglobulin). Ideally, these 2 shots should be given in the delivery room since time is of the essence and you don’t want the shots to be delayed beyond the first 12 hours after delivery. If your baby is given these two shots within the 12-hour time frame (immediately after birth is absolutely the best), then the risk of transmitting the virus is more than 90%. If these 2 shots are NOT given within the first 12-24 hours of life, then there is a greater than 90% risk of your baby being infected and developing chronic hep b. This is entirely preventable!! The Hepatitis B Foundation has excellent information on its Pregnancy and Hepatitis B pages that you can check out.
Finally, the best advice I can give as a woman living with hep b and mother of two healthy, happy and successful adult children, is to know that hep b is manageable with treatments and preventable with the hep b vaccine. Educate yourself and become comfortable with the facts. Finding this forum is a wonderful step in the right direction. There are many women who have given birth to children who can reassure you that living with hep b will not prevent you from a healthy pregnancy and healthy babies!! Always, Joan
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Hey Joan,
I’m so glad that I found this support group because I felt so alone in this journey. I think my doctor wanted me to start right away because my blood test really concerning him. I have confirmed with my OB that it should be safe for me to start on the medication. It’s helpful to know I can protect my baby from this disease. Thank you again for your email and your story really inspired me!
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Hi Fanawole. Is it possible we chat privately?
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Jane , Not long I figured out about mine . I have learned to live with
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