Hep B

I have been very touched with friends who are concern about my current health situation after reading my blog. And i promised that i will post some info about Hep B to help answer some questions.

Hep B in short is a virus that attacks the liver which will cause the liver to become inflamed
There are two types of Hep B infection : Acute & Chronic
Acute Hep B infection affects a person temporarily. The virus will go away with rest and no treatment is needed while chronic carrier like me will carry the virus my whole life.
Long term HBV carriers may suffer chronic hepatitis which may predispose to cirrhosis, liver failure and cancer of the liver.

Hep B can be transmitted through body fluids including blood, saliva, semen, mucus, vaginal fluid and breast milk. ( Girls.. u better stop eating food from my plate ! ) It can be easily transmitted through sexual activity, sharing injecting equipment, sharing toothbrushes or razors and from mother to child at birth ( which i think that's how i got mine )

Now.... i have been having regular check up ever since i found that i am a carrier.About half a year ago, my doctor told me that my ALT reading is out of the norm which means that my liver could be inflammed. Another blood test showed the same result and hence i was refered to a gastroenterologist who ordered me to have a liver biopsy just to be sure that the liver is not too inflamed. The result came back alright. There is a little bit of scarring in my liver at the scale of 1 of 4. But the gastro. advised that i should consider taking medication ie Interferon which i have to take daily for XX number of years depending on how my virus respond to the treatment. There is no certainty how good or how bad the respond will be. How good being there is a possibility that the virus will go away. On the contrary, at the other extreme, the virus might mutate. Since the medication is an Anti-viral , i should not fall pregnant......... that's a lot to take in for a 28 year old unmarried YOUNG lady.

Anyway, the good news is.. after some hard work of dieting, my recent blood test showed that my ALT was back to normal! I still have no idea what caused the ALT level to rise, could be some food that i eat or a certain lifestyle? The most puzzling thing is my family doctor actually say i don't need treatment so early. Who do u believe? Well, i plan to stay on my diet till i see my Gastro. next month.

I guess its a blessing in disguise, without this ALT panic, i would not have gone for the biopsy and would not have known that there is already scarring in my liver.

Its time to pay a little bit more attention to LIFE.