POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Questions About Treatment & Side Effects => Topic started by: raroy273 on August 06, 2008, 01:44:48 pm
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Had my quartely check up this Monday and during the course of the conversation my PA brought up the possiblity of switching to Invirase and getting off of the Kaletra as long as my numbers looked fine. I would LOVE to get off the Kaletra, I have not had a normal bowel movenment in over a year and that would be exciting to me. Sorry to be graphic, but its a fact of life on this drug. I did some reading on Invirase and from what I have read, it needs to be boosted w/ Novivir, the Kaletra already has this built in from what I understand, does the Invirase, or does it require another pill to take? Also, it seems side effects are less and from what Paul told me they are less. I am also fairly drug resistant, so with switching before the med fails does this limit me in drug choices later down the road? If switching from the Kaletra makes it ineffective and makes it not an option later down the road then I'll put up with the gut issues. Am I worring too much about this or just being concerned about leaving options open later down the road. Can anyone shed light on switching? I appreicate it. Sorry to ramble on.....
Ryan
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Invirase is not as robust as Kaletra and has similar GI effects, thoiugh obviously this varies according to the indiviual.
If it has to be a PI ask about Reayataz
Resistance is important - Prezista may, therefore, be an option,among others
- matt
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Second what Matt said, and maybe some people with Invirase experience could give some more info, but not only is Invirase not as robust as Kaletra ( both in terms of suppression and resistance) it also had awful gastrointestinal side effects on a lot of people...As Matt said, if resistance ain't an issue check out Reyataz...strong PI and better for your lipids than either Kaletra or Invirase...
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I had just as bad, if not worse diarrhea from Invirase as I did on Kaletra, and between the two they are the PI's I was on the most. In fact, at once point I was put on a type of salvage therapy where they had me on both Invirase and Kaletra together -- so imagine the horror. They did this while we had to wait to get me on the Prezista clinical trial. Not a pleasant year. I was taking 20mg of immodium each day.
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Thanks for your input. I'll have to talk to him more about it. I wish I could take Reyetaz, but I am resistat to that. :( So thank you to who ever gave me this!
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You may want to check out Isentress. When I made the switch from Kaletra primarily because of the diarreha, my ID doc said that if Isentress didn't work out, I could go back on Kaletra if I wanted because Kaletra doesn't have some of the resistance problems associated with other PIs. Fortunately, so far Isentress has been relatively symptom free for me since December and my numbers remain good. Not that I would go back on Kaletra ....unless I absolutely had too. I feel like I finally got my life back. Check with your doctor to verify what mine told me. There may be some good alternatives for you among the newer drugs.