Reassurance for People About To Start Meds

[wonderful1]

http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Meds/Archive/When/Q206735.html

Reassurance for People About To Start Meds

Hi Doctors,

I read so much on this forum about people scared to start meds. Once upon a time, that was me.

I just wanted to write and let people looking at starting to know NOT to be scared! Meds are GREAT!! They put YOU in control of the disease instead of the disease controlling you.

2 years ago when I started I had a CD4 count of 234, a CD4% of 16% and a viral load of 118,000.

Now, the last results I got back last week, my CD4 count is 910, my CD4% is 40% and my viral load is undetectable.

I have missed two doses in 2 years (thanks to the airlines for losing my luggage - lesson learned!)

I don't have any side-effects as I take the meds immediately before bed. Nothing whatsoever. It's just like taking a vitamin pill before bed every day. I check my blood every 3 months and see my specialist, and that's pretty much the only time I think of HIV.

Previously we only had Efavirenz and Truvada (the 2 main components of Atripla) here in Australia as Atripla wasn't available due to licensing problems.

This has been fixed now, we have Atripla and I take 1 pill per day. That's it.

So I just wanted to write in and let anyone who is considering starting meds to just do it - it puts you in control!!

I do have one question for you, however - how long can I keep taking these meds? Is resistance a certainty after a point in time? Or is there no reason why I couldn't keep taking these meds for years to come? Are there any new meds in the pipeline?

Anyway, thanks for all the work you do here. It has certainly helped me, and I hope that I can help other people feeling nervous about starting meds with this post.

All the best from Australia!

      Response from Dr. Young

Hello David from Oz,

Thanks for your posts and very important words of support for our treatment newbies. It sounds like things are going very well for you.

As for your queries, so long as you continue to stay as adherent to your medications as you have been, I can see no reason why they'll fail; the only reason to switch might be related to side effects (which you don't seem to have), toxicity, or just the availability of future, better tolerated or easier to administer medications. There are several newer meds in the pipeline, including an increasing number of HIV integrase inhibitors (INIs), such as raltegravir (Isentress) and investigational INIs from Gilead and GSK.

Your case actually highlights the evolving issues of HIV care; better tolerated HIV medications, longer term AIDS-free survival and a shift in focus towards living longer and healthier.

Stay tuned, and keep us informed of how your doing.

Be well, BY

[leatherman]

hi wonderful,
i noticed that you've just been posting articles and commentaries from other sites. I think it'd be nice to just hear from you about you. Re-posting an article from a competitor site seems a little cold - and a little useless especially since there are easily dozens and dozens of those same type of stories here from our own members - when it would be much more interesting learning about you and your journey with HIV. I mean your profile doesn't even let us know what country you're from, your age or how long you've been positive. That would for sure be a lot more interesting too, I think, than reprinting the information from that flawed study about premature aging. (just too many variables in the mix for that study to have produced any results worth knowing LOL)

and just to go along with the theme of your thread here. I've taken 15 or so HIV meds over 18 yrs (just had my AIDS-aversary on 12/26) and now that I'm on the once-a-day combo of reyataz/norvir/truvada, I'm healthier than I've ever been in 20 yrs. Of course, no matter my story, untreated HIV nearly always leads to a damaged immune system, then AIDS, and then finally death. So if death isn't a reason to take the meds and stay alive, I don't know what more could be said to encourage people to get on and stay on therapy.

welcome to the forums, wonderful, and I hope to hear more about you and your story soon.