So for those of you who know me that don't know. I wish I could have told each and every one of you in person. But this is the only way for some of you. As you can probably deduce by now, I'm HIV+. I found out in early April '08 when I went in to my primary physician due to a lung infection i was fighting for a few months. My GP asked if i would consider the test and I was going to ask about it anyway due to some other health problem i had back at the end of 2006 that they never could figure out what was wrong. Then this new infection.
My GP referred me to an Infectious Diseases specialist and later that same week I was in consultation with the new doc (I will call him Dr. C from now on). Two pages of blood tests and a week or so later i found out how bad it was. My CD4 count was "less than 20" (normal healthy person is can vary between 800 and 1200), and my viral load (or number of copies of the virus per milliliter of blood) was really high at about 669,000. Dr. C suspected I've had HIV for about 10 years, which is what I figured when I was told i was Positive, as that was the last time we got tested due to a scare from a past encounter I had that got in touch with me to tell me he found out he was positive. Because my CD4 was so low, Dr. C put me on Azithromycin and Bactrim for prophylactic purposes. And once the results of one of the tests came back to determine if the strain of HIV in me had any resistances, i was prescribed the HIV drug Atripla. The first one pill/once a day multi drug regimen on the market. I've been on the med for about a month now and I go in after Memorial Day for my next round of labs to see what's going on with my CD4 and Viral Load. And June second is when I will get results from Dr. C.
So far things have been pretty good. I was worried about my partner (B from now on) when I told him i was HIV+. For a couple of days I was afraid we were done for. But he's been great, as have my family and friends that i've told. When i started on the Atripla i had a week of severe fatigue. I could barely get out of the bed and barely do anything. But the following week started to feel better. And now i've been going along all day this week only getting worn out towards the end of the evening. I've been eating like a hog... which is better than the way I've been eating the last few months or even the last couple of years. Since my last appointment on the 5th of May I've gained about 10 pounds or more. Won't know the official weigh-in until the 2nd since the nurse does the quick fully dressed weight instead of actual weight.
I've had very few problems with the Atripla, and i'm happy about that. It's a bit annoying in it's effects where if I have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, it's like I'm walking in a straight line but someone's giggling the room around. And I have vivid dreams, but not nightmares. But come morning, i always feel fine. So it's been a relatively uneventful experience. Which is better than I can say for other experiences I've read about of people on other meds. I just hope Atripla is effective in me and that it's a long time before my HIV build a resistance to it. It's expensive enough on alone. If I have to buy three or four different meds each month, that would get out of control. I'm already trying to find drug assistance programs that I might be able to qualify for to help cover the $20,000 a year cost of Atripla.
In case you're wondering. B is still negative after we've been together 10 years. I know we were worried that we would both be positive but his test was negative. A giant weight lifted off both our shoulders. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I had given it to him as well. I know the rapid tests are supposed to be 99.8% accurate but I still hope he'll get a full blood test sometime just to make sure.
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