Its been less than a month.....what to do?

[Positivelyhopeful]

Hey everyone,

I am newly diagnosed and feel a bit overwhelmed by the information on the internet about nutrition and HIV. Some sites indicate that its better to go vegan while others suggest that a bit of everything is what we need. I don't know what my CD4 and VL are just yet but I really want to get a head start on my general health. Currently my only issue is fatigue but I started on multivitamins yesterday so I'm hoping that will help.

Kindly advice me further. I did read the disclaimer that persons here are not medical advisors but I would appreciate your opinions. Thank you.

[Matty the Damned]

Hi,

What are you sleeping patterns like? If you have trouble sleeping this might be the cause of your fatigue.

MtD

[emeraldize]

Stress can cause you to be more tired. As Matty suggests, if you're not getting good sleep, that will mess with you terribly. Try taking a benadryl (if you have no reactions to it) 1/2 hour prior to the time you would like to be asleep. Don't drag a book to bed or watch tv -- just lie down with the intent of sleeping.

And, why not take a break and treat yourself to some things you truly enjoy? A complete turnabout in diet, in my opinion, will just be another change you have to manage at a time of significant change. Relax--as much as possible--relax.

After diagnosis, I ate more ice cream, watched more comedy, and threw steaks down the hatch with glee. I continued to eat the good stuff -- fruits and vegetables, but I decided it was okay to be a fun-loving carnivor.

[Positivelyhopeful]

Thank you for the responses.

I think I sleep well. I sleep approximately 8hrs each night but after being awake for 3 hours in the mornings I feel drained.

As per the diet, I had embarked on a healthy lifestyle change from Feb this year but I started slacking up a bit in April. This was all before I knew my stat. Now I don't know if I should go back on my low carb, low sugar, low fat diet. It really wasn't so bad, I just missed ice-cream and pizza (which I still haven't had even though I've been off it) and I haven't been exercising anymore because of the fatigue.

[Matty the Damned]

Thank you for the responses.

I think I sleep well. I sleep approximately 8hrs each night but after being awake for 3 hours in the mornings I feel drained.

As per the diet, I had embarked on a healthy lifestyle change from Feb this year but I started slacking up a bit in April. This was all before I knew my stat. Now I don't know if I should go back on my low carb, low sugar, low fat diet. It really wasn't so bad, I just missed ice-cream and pizza (which I still haven't had even though I've been off it) and I haven't been exercising anymore because of the fatigue.

Like Em says if poor sleep isn't the issues (and it sounds like you sleep pretty well) then stress might be the problem here.

Alternatively if your VL is high and your CD4s a bit low then it could be fatigue associated with HIV infection. When do you get your first set of blood test results?

Unfortunately fatigue is very common in HIVers and often one of the most intractable issues we deal with. Getting your VL under control makes a big difference.

MtD

[Positivelyhopeful]

It must be the VL (I feel saddened by the thought of it) because I've been handling all this pretty well on my own. Better than I'd ever thought I could in fact.

I haven't done the tests yet but I'll be doing the CD4 on Tuesday next week. I'm truly hoping the numbers will be good because I felt perfectly fine until this bout of fatigue took charge the last 2 weeks. Even my doc thought I would have been negative when I got the test done (just did it randomly).

Oh well, I'm here now and happy to have a supportive group of people to talk to.

[Matty the Damned]

It must be the VL (I feel saddened by the thought of it) because I've been handling all this pretty well on my own. Better than I'd ever thought I could in fact.

Well it may not be. Fatigue is such a nebulous thing. Take care not to fall into the trap of thinking that everything that happens to you from here on in is caused by HIV.

I haven't done the tests yet but I'll be doing the CD4 on Tuesday next week. I'm truly hoping the numbers will be good because I felt perfectly fine until this bout of fatigue took charge the last 2 weeks. Even my doc thought I would have been negative when I got the test done (just did it randomly).

Oh well, I'm here now and happy to have a supportive group of people to talk to.

The thing with blood test results for HIVers is that single test results for VL and CD4 don't really mean much. You have to have a series of tests to get an idea of what is happening to you. It's all about trends over time.

For example when people are newly infected they often have HUGE VLs and correspondingly low CD4 counts and understandably this can lead them to Lose Their Shit. However as time goes on these numbers tend to settle down without any medical intervention.

Another thing that tends to send people into a spin is dramatic changes in their absolute CD4 counts from test to test. Absolute CD4 counts tend to bounce around a lot in response to all sorts of things. Diet, exercise (yes this can make your CD4 count drop) and even the time of day the test is taken. Therefore it's important to also consider another CD4 test result called the CD4 percentage which is more stable than the absolute.

What I'm saying is that it's best not to fixate on individual sets of numbers. This is hard to do because we tend to see blood tests as definitive statements about our overall health and well-being.

Check out the lessons section on our main site http://www.aidsmeds.com (if you haven't already) for more about  the many and various tests that HIVers are put through on a regular basis. I'd link you directly to the lessons but the AM server seems to have popped out for a coffee or to score some meth or something.

MtD

[Matty the Damned]

The Lessons link is: http://www.aidsmeds.com/articles/BloodTest_5030.shtml

MtD