POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Questions About Treatment & Side Effects => Topic started by: FiercenBed on October 29, 2006, 08:07:59 am
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among a host of not so hot news from the doc on fri from hiv HIV encephalitis ( which nobody seems to know to much about), neuropathy and KS; my vl test seems to concern him. im on kaletra and truvada started in july. first test was cd4 149 27.9 vl 150,000. 2nd test vl 5,000 no cd4 done. 3rd test cd4 420 28.9 no vl done. fridays test cd4 347 28.9 and vl 489.
anyway he sez i should have been undetectable after 3 months. if the vl is falling why is this so bad? i mean i know undetectable is the 'goal' but iv cn seen peoples vl numbers on here in the hundreds. doc sez this might mean the virus is resistant. now iv gota have the whole blood thing done again in 30 days. i hate the thought i switching meds. is there any reason to panic?
final thought.......why are the guys on here for med ads always so hot?....lol
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Viral load of 5,000 after 1 month would, to my mind, suggest a viral load a month later was a good idea. The benchmark figure you's looking for after 1 month on treatment is a viral load of 1,000 or so. However, given the margin of error in viral load tests 5,000 might mean this. And however no 2, not everyone responds like the textbooks say.
Your viral load is just about high enough for a resistance test. Important to get both genotype (looking at the virus itself) and phenotype (which drugs will work against yr HIV infection) resistance tests.
Took me 8 months to go undetectable. I would be careful about switching combo without a strong indication that there is important resistance before having a viral load test (or two) more.
- matt
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My viral load NEVER got under 3000 and ever since 1986 I've been taking almost everything on the shelves. I always took my medicines on time and never missed a dose. Now that I am resistant after 20 years of being positive I was put on Fuzeon, Norvir and Aptivus and finally reached my lowest VL count ever and it was 75 after a few weeks with the new meds. Before this, my viral load was jumping between 3000 and 16,000. My second blood tests were done 2 weeks ago and my results will be given to me on Halloween day. I hope they will read undetectable but I don't get my hopes too high on this matter. I always get nervous before these appointments. Every other blood test reads fine except my triglyceride count. Just be patient and let's see what your doctor has to say after those upcoming lab tests.
PS( About your comment about those guys on hiv adds looking "hot", I guess it's just pure marketing strategy just to cheer us up a little. I consider to be very healthy right now but with some facial fat loss and peripheral neuropathy that I've developed over time with the meds, I don't look as good as these guys do. Even if I am "undetectable" by now. I think Matt or "newt" should be a cover guy for these adds. He always looks nice in the different photos I've seen him in...)
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Catman, I was somewhat similar myself though my VL hovered around 15,---30,000 for 10 years. They never could get it to undetectable, EVER. And I too was horribly attentive to my medication schedule to a fault... however everyone seems to now be of the consensus that my extremely bad diareah the entire time may have complicated things and pushed me into developing resistance to PI's. Oddly my cd4's kept slowly rising as did my % overall, going from up from the 300's to an average in the 600's; %'s averaging in the mid-30's.
Now with Fuzeon and Prevista/TMC-114 for the first time I'm undetectable. My cd4's have gone up even further as has my %. My first month my VL dropped from 40,157 to 135; and by the 3rd month was undetectable and has remained so. And I'd actually been up around 57,000 the month before the 40,000.
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Got my results on Halloween Day. Good news. For the first time in 20 years I'm undetectable. This combo has spooked out the hiv and left it hiding somewhere. I hope it doesn't come around for a Long while. I never make a big deal about this type of news because sometimes things change when we least expect them to. I just hope the fuzeon, aptivus and norvir continue to work until new meds come out for strains of resistant hiv. I have some facial wasting do to the meds, but the hell with that, I prefer having my viral load undetectable than looking like a hamster with full cheeks! I will check into the facial fillings on the market and see whats available and affordable. In the meanwhile I'll continue getting plenty of rest and eating right. Let me now take in this moment of being "undetectable" and see how I feel about it. Done. Just a little less worried...that's good enough for now. Meow.
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Congrats Catman. I, too, just got my newest results yesterday and my VL is still undetectable too for the 3rd month. And after wasting to nothing 4 years ago weight wise I've gained back 40 lbs. It's nice to receive a new lease and be encouraged again.