Patient Stories

My name is Lori Gavin and in 2009, I was diagnosed with Hepatitis C. This news hit me like a ton of bricks!

Lynette would discover that she had not one, but two forms of liver disease: Cirrhosis, and Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE), a serious brain disorder that’s one of the major complications of cirrhosis.

My name is Natasha and I am a 36 year old transplant survivor. I am happy to say that this makes me have two birthdays.

When I was diagnosed with Hepatitis C I thought how could this happen to me? I knew something was wrong when I was tired all the time.

Thirty-four years ago, I had a blood transfusion during treatment for Leukemia. It saved my life but also gave me Hepatitis C.

I have been on a personal quest to learn about autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), AIH treatment protocols, AIH research, and learning to live with AIH.

My daughter informed us of a recent outbreak of Hepatitis A, we were informed by doctors that I tested positive and also had a little cirrhosis.

I was hospitalized after sustaining a hand injury and the day after completing the pre- surgery lab work, I was visited by a nurse who explained they discovered “non-A, non-B hepatitis.”

The irony was I had been hired as the Hepatitis C Specialist for the City of Boston and was in the process of learning about this virus. Then BAM! I get my diagnosis.

I don’t know if you still need stories related to cirrhosis but my husband’s situation is unique. He has Alpha -1 Anti-trypsin Deficiency that actually attacked his liver instead of the lungs.

When I was 19 years old l was admitted to the hospital with jaundice. The jaundice reappeared and it was determined that l had hepatitis C.

I was her full-time caregiver for several years and watched her gradual liver failure and bouts of light, moderate and severe HE, the latter resulting in hospitalization.