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Author Topic: After 10 years starting a cocktail  (Read 4969 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

cwbyPOZ

  • Guest
After 10 years starting a cocktail
« on: November 23, 2010, 01:38:41 am »
This may be more for me to vent than to ask a question.

Last week my doc said my numbers were crashing and it was time to start meds. I have always been above 475 CD4 count and under 5000 VL without meds. Well the last six months my numbers dropped to 300 CD4 and right around 13,000VL with only 100 blood platelets. My strain had been subjected to a drug at some point so she chose a three pill cocktail. I was in shock for about two days.

I thought about all the posts I have read where people would stare at the bottles for a few days and it was very traumatic for them to take the first step of swallowing just one of those pills. Of course it is more of a psychological event and monumental step to start that next chapter in their life. I had always joked with friends when the doc says its time to take a pill I would sit on it for a while then decide what I want to do. Well reality slapped me in the face. I just wasn't prepared for what my instincts told me to do. I decided right then and there it was time. I went to the kitchen got my pills and took them. I was completely alone. My partner was out of town and this was totally in my control. It was very liberating. I have too much to live for not to take a few pills a day.

I have had some unpleasant stomach pains from the pills but for the most part nothing as bad as I thought it would be. I am so grateful for all of the pioneers who have paved the way to get our treatments to this point. Thank you for giving me a prolonged chance at life.
Cowboy

Offline lmdo

  • Member
  • Posts: 85
  • 35 years old
Re: After 10 years starting a cocktail
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2010, 05:09:59 am »
Wow -that is a great attitude!
And I agree - the many many people who have paved the way for things to be at the stage they currently are at. Pioneers indeed!
All the best

Offline Theyer

  • Member
  • Posts: 2,701
  • Current ambition. Walk the Dog .
Re: After 10 years starting a cocktail
« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2010, 05:50:04 am »
That is a good post to read first thing in the morning. i was spared seeing the taking off combo as anything but welcome and necessary, due to having OIs when the first drugs came out.
When I first came across some one violently debating starting meds I was confused by there reaction and I think made the mistake off seeing their dilemma as only a form off denial.
I look forward to reading off the increase in CD4 and decrease in VL
Take care
t
"If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people ."  Tony Benn

Offline Ann

  • Administrator
  • Member
  • Posts: 28,134
  • It just is, OK?
    • Num is sum qui mentiar tibi?
Re: After 10 years starting a cocktail
« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2010, 07:43:56 am »
Hi Cowboy, welcome to the forums.

It is somewhat unclear from your post but if you have been poz for only ten years, that means you were diagnosed sometime around the year 2000. However, you have posted in the LTS forum and this forum is strictly only for those diagnosed before the year 1996. This is stated very clearly in the LTS Forum Welcome Thread.

If you have not been diagnosed before 1996, please let me know and I'll move your thread into a more appropriate forum. Please don't feel as though you're being told off - I understand you're new here and might not know your way around as of yet. It's ok.

lmdo, I know for certain that you have not been diagnosed before 1996, so you should definitely not be posting in the LTS forum. I know you meant well, but thank you for your cooperation in the future. Please don't post in the LTS forum again.

Ann


on edit... This thread was originally posted in the LTS forum by mistake. The OP also had problems with his original account and is now back posting from that original account. Just wanted to clear up any confusion. ;)
« Last Edit: November 23, 2010, 01:52:13 pm by Ann »
Condoms are a girl's best friend

Condom and Lube Info  

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

cwbyPOZ

  • Guest
Re: After 10 years starting a cocktail
« Reply #4 on: November 23, 2010, 12:29:42 pm »
Ann
Please move this where it is supposed to be. I can't find my way around the new forums very well yet. I in no way meant to upset anyone.
Cowboy

Offline CowboyPOZ

  • Member
  • Posts: 61
After 10 years starting a cocktail
« Reply #5 on: November 23, 2010, 12:53:58 pm »
Sorry if this is the second time your reading this. I put it in the wrong place and had to make a new account to post it the first time. I have finally gotten back into my original account.

This may be more for me to vent than to ask a question.

Last week my doc said my numbers were crashing and it was time to start meds. I have always been above 475 CD4 count and under 5000 VL without meds. Well the last six months my numbers dropped to 300 CD4 and right around 13,000VL with only 100 blood platelets. My strain had been subjected to a drug at some point so she chose a three pill cocktail. I was in shock for about two days.

I thought about all the posts I have read where people would stare at the bottles for a few days and it was very traumatic for them to take the first step of swallowing just one of those pills. Of course it is more of a psychological event and monumental step to start that next chapter in their life. I had always joked with friends when the doc says its time to take a pill I would sit on it for a while then decide what I want to do. Well reality slapped me in the face. I just wasn't prepared for what my instincts told me to do. I decided right then and there it was time. I went to the kitchen got my pills and took them. I was completely alone. My partner was out of town and this was totally in my control. It was very liberating. I have too much to live for not to take a few pills a day.

I have had some unpleasant stomach pains from the pills but for the most part nothing as bad as I thought it would be. I am so grateful for all of the pioneers who have paved the way to get our treatments to this point. Thank you for giving me a prolonged chance at life.
Cowboy

cwbyPOZ

  • Guest
Re: After 10 years starting a cocktail
« Reply #6 on: November 23, 2010, 01:08:03 pm »
Ann,

sorry to be a bother. I found my original account information and posted this topic in a different area. how do I delete this account? I am so lost on this new forum. I miss the old simple one.lol
Thank you
CwbyPOZ aka CowboyPoz

Offline Inchlingblue

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  • Posts: 3,117
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Re: After 10 years starting a cocktail
« Reply #7 on: November 23, 2010, 01:43:26 pm »
The meds have greatly improved so more than likely you will do fine.

Three drug cocktails are the norm for most people with HIV. What meds re you on?

Offline Ann

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  • Member
  • Posts: 28,134
  • It just is, OK?
    • Num is sum qui mentiar tibi?
Re: After 10 years starting a cocktail
« Reply #8 on: November 23, 2010, 01:48:48 pm »
Cowboy, I dealt with your new account. If you have a similar problem in future, please do not create a new account. Instead send an email to forums@aidsmeds.com, tell us what the problem is and we will help you access your original account. We do not allow multiple accounts here.

As you had replies from a couple people, I merged your thread from LTS into your new thread.

I agree with the others - you'll do just fine once the initial adjustment period is over.

Ann
« Last Edit: November 23, 2010, 01:51:34 pm by Ann »
Condoms are a girl's best friend

Condom and Lube Info  

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

Offline tednlou2

  • Member
  • Posts: 5,730
Re: After 10 years starting a cocktail
« Reply #9 on: November 24, 2010, 01:25:20 am »
Cowboy, nice to meet you even under these circumstances.  Next year, I will be coming up on what I believe is my 10 year anniversary being poz.  I'm trying to get myself prepared for the eventuality of meds.  I feel I'm becoming use to having HIV and not being on meds.  While I know it will happen, I think it will be hard to accept that I now need meds in order to live.  I try to tell myself all the time that this no meds thing is just temporary and to not get all depressed over having to start.  And, that I should embrace starting and that I will probably feel much better. 

It is good you listened to your doc and your own body.  I hope I have the same resolve.  Keep us informed of your progress.

Offline CowboyPOZ

  • Member
  • Posts: 61
Re: After 10 years starting a cocktail
« Reply #10 on: November 28, 2010, 02:26:46 pm »
The doc put me on Norivor, Reyataz and Epzicom. So far the side effects are not too bad. I have been really tired but honestly thought the side effects were going to be worse than they are.

Offline Inchlingblue

  • Member
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Re: After 10 years starting a cocktail
« Reply #11 on: November 29, 2010, 10:31:18 am »
The doc put me on Norivor, Reyataz and Epzicom. So far the side effects are not too bad. I have been really tired but honestly thought the side effects were going to be worse than they are.

I have a good friend on that exact combo and he is doing great. He started out with about 200 CD4s and a viral load of about 800,000. He is now undetectable and his last CD4 reading was about 1000.

By the way, you don't have to take Norvir with this combo but some doctors like to add it anyway.

 


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