I have been infected for about 20 years. I follow a good diet and also take a number of herbs. When I first found out I had HCV, I too had very bad digestive problems. My doc fixed that up, as well as bringing my AST and ALT back into the 'normal' range, which is safest and ideally where it should be.
I have heard that those people who have a 1 genotype will develop problems much more slowly than those with a 2 genotype, although 1s are much harder to cure. I am a 1, what are you?