smoorman It was a pretty brutal, but successful treatment. Typically one was on the drugs for 48 weeks, I was a slow responder (as shown from the pcr tests), so my gastro doc (at Dartmouth in NH) boosted up the ribavirin to very high levels (1600mg/day) and we both decided to extend my treatment to 72 weeks. I didn't miss a day of work, luckily self employed so could pace myself. My HGB ran below 10 throughout treatment, talk about ass dragging. I as well was very involved with my treatment and research. Honestly, I had as much knowledge as they did. I was fortunate to chose Dartmouth for my treatment ,being a teaching hospital and involved in a lot of drug studies, they had no problem prescribing off label doses...In the end SVR, undetectable.
Another blessing, I had quit drinking 12 years before finding out I had HCV, so my liver biopsy looked pretty good.
Glad you got the new drugs, what a difference now. This is some of the reason I don't jump on the bad pharma band wagon, they saved my ass at a cost of around $225,000! (just the blood test alone were astronomical, weekly draws for the first to months, every 2 weeks for many month after and finally once a month) Vertex is the one who got screwed on drug development, technology/better drugs hopscotched them. They spent $4 billion on trying to bring their drug to market and got zilch for it.
All the best and be well!