some thoughts..

[pozguy909]

Hey all,

Its been a little over a month that i found out i was poz (Aug 8Th) and freaking out about it.
My first blood drawl was vl 330000 and CD4 of 25 (Aug 10).  My vl was 227000 and CD4 was 17 on second drawl(blood drawn on Aug 18).  I was put on genvoya the day of my HIV doctor visit, and started the next day (the 19Th) so i could take it at the time of day i wanted to be consistant with.

Since starting genvoya (and 2 antibiotics), my constant mouth bleeding,diarrhea and fatigue have completely stop.  I feel like i have more energy, and i have been able to go back to regular life (without having to this about the virus within). 

Through all of this, I have been racking my brain as to why my CD4 levels were so low, considering that i have been positive for not more than a year and a half (i had a negative test at the end of may 2016 and another in Aug 2016).  Reflecting over the last year,  i can say that i hardly had 8 hours a night of sleep (mostly 3-6hours nightly), not exercising very much (1-3 times a week), poor diet (too much fast food, as much as once a night), and consistant use of flonase (which is apparently an immunosuppressive medication).  In June and July of last year, i also had a sparing with mono.  i feel like these were the factors that caused my CD4 levels to drop so drastically.

Its been a whole 31 days since I've been on medication.  during this time, i have improved my diet.  i never used to eat fruit, but have since started making smoothies out of frozen berries and bananas.  I'm exercising the same amount as i was before (lucky i never lost any strength).  I'm sleeping more, getting consistant 7-9 hours daily.  there have been a few times where i would be woken up 4 or 5 hours in, but i have a good amount of energy to get me through the day without needing excessive amounts of caffeine (2-3 monsters daily which is almost 600mg of caffeine to about half a can - 1 can which is anywhere from 100mg to 200mg).  I've also stopped using flonase, since Genvoya can affect it anyways.

When I get my blood tested on the 29Th (41 days on treatment), I am hoping i will have good results to share with everyone.   I want to see if by changing my lifestyle for the better it will improve my overall health in the short term.  of course i know that it could take a long time for my CD4 to climb over 200, but I'm taking every step i can think of to help speed up the process.

I only post this because i needed some kind of outlet to voice this thought, and if anyone has any kind of input on this, i would gladly like to hear what you have to say.

edit:  i forgot to mention that i am also taking vitamins daily.  Im taking omega 3's, vitamin d and a multi. 

[Jim Allen]

I have been racking my brain as to why my CD4 levels were so low, considering that i have been positive for not more than a year and a half

I think you stressing about something that is not within your control.

Also you have no idea what your "normal" CD4 range was before infection.
Maybe you always had a slightly lower range, even if you take HIV negative people the differences are vast ranging from anything as low as the 400's to the high 1200's, maybe you were always on the swallow end, and doing just fine.

Since starting genvoya (and 2 antibiotics), my constant mouth bleeding,diarrhea and fatigue have completely stop.  I feel like i have more energy, and i have been able to go back to regular life (without having to this about the virus within). 

Excellent! I mean it, feeling better, healing and taking you meds to suppress the virus. That is it, job done! Keep taking the meds and live your life, allow your body and yourself time to heal.

I want to see if by changing my lifestyle for the better it will improve my overall health in the short term.  of course i know that it could take a long time for my CD4 to climb over 200, but I'm taking every step i can think of to help speed up the process.

i forgot to mention that i am also taking vitamins daily.  Im taking omega 3's, vitamin d and a multi.

CD4 is simply not a measurement of health, yes its true the very low or vast lack of them we know opens a greater risk towards certain infections and cancers that can/do lead to death.

However that does not mean having the most CD4 cells equal healthiest or healthy.
Fast food does not give you a low CD4 count. Vitamins are not going to increase your CD4 cells, nothing you can take or do will increase them for long at all. Funny enough I know an exception is smoking a cigarette, as that will "temporary blip them upwards" but its very bad for you, causes cancer an all types of nasty health problems and its not a real increase its just a blip and anyone doing this is fooling themselves. Its not healthy at all.

Now that is not saying however that eating more balanced healthy diet and having a more healthier lifestyle will not benefit you. It will benefit your overall physical and/or mental health/well-being, this is priceless and its good to make better choices now, as you should be planning for the long term.

Wishing you well and hope you can keep up the healthy diet going and perhaps lean to put the "when/how" thoughts regarding the HIV infection & low CD4's behind you, so you can move on in life without having to think/worry about this anymore.

Jim 

[Tonny2]

       ojo          hello there, i'm glad you are starting to feel better and making changes in your life, this changes will help you feel better overall. i think you are on your way to  take back control  of your life again...i invite you to concentrate in the present, on your treatment and the changes you have made and let's see your next blood work results, i'm sure you will be surprised with them, fingers and toes crossed...i'm glad you know that your cd4 will take a while to recover, but the most important thing is to get your vl down,that is what your med is for,  just keep taking your med as prescribed. ok?...remember, for a succsseful treatment, you need discipline and a good attitude, it has worked for me for almost 23 years.  i'm sure, it will work for you too...please, keep us posted...hugs                     ojo

[pozguy909]

I guess I should post this here so I don't clutter The Forum. On Friday I went to my clinic to get my blood drawn. I haven't gotten the results for my viral load yet, but my CD4 has increased to 108. That's 91 up from when I had my first test. That was 40 days of genvoya

[Ptrk3]

Congratulations!  That's a very nice increase, so I would expect that your viral load has dropped considerably, if not to undetectable, since the CD4 increase is such a good one.

[Mightysure]

You're not the only one who hadn't been infected for long but had a low Cd4. Sometimes, there are so many factors that you can't really pinpoint one thing unless your cd4s were measured beforehand and some cause could be determined.
You're doing all the right things and you're on the right track. Please stay in close contact with your medical team. I'm happy you're on treatment.

[Lightfighter]

Congrats on your numbers getting better.

Like mightsure said, we just don't know where we started with CD4.  I was infected March 5th of last year, diagnosed April 1st, had my first labwork from my ID doc on May 17th.  My VL was 244,000 and my CD4 was 238.

I'm one of those guys that started off pretty bad.  Prior to diagnosis (and even now that I'm undetectable) I was very healthy. Rarely got sick, etc. I figured I always had a strong immune system. For all I know my CD4 could have been within what's "normal" for me or very close.

Don't sweat the CD4 once you get over 200.  They will go up as your VL drops.  Worry about being undetectable.

[pozguy909]

I got my viral load update. Still detectable,  but it's at 240. 

[Tonny2]

       ojo       Hello there...Congratulations, you are on your way to full recovery...240 is nothing compared to your initial vl, i'm sure that by now, you are UD...now, we have to take it easy and wait for your soldiers to recover little by little, eventually, they will increase above 200 so you can feel a peace...I'm very happy for you my friend, keep doing what you have been doing, taking your med as prescribed and enjoy life, because there is life after an hiv dx...hugs                                                         ojo

[PozLawyer]

You're not the only one who hadn't been infected for long but had a low Cd4. Sometimes, there are so many factors that you can't really pinpoint one thing unless your cd4s were measured beforehand and some cause could be determined.
You're doing all the right things and you're on the right track. Please stay in close contact with your medical team. I'm happy you're on treatment.

I can attest to this as well as someone who has a generally sub-500 CD4 count even though my HIV was caught during acute infection and I have been UD ever since. Some people just naturally have lower CD4 counts with or without HIV, that's why the "normal" range is so wide. 

A lot of practitioners in the US aren't even running CD4 counts anymore on their patients who are stable and UD for 1+ years unless there is some specific reason to worry (opportunistic infection, patient request--sometimes we just like to know).  Being UD is much more predictive of treatment success than CD4 count once they've gotten you all stabilized.  Once you get back to 200, don't sweat the CD4 count unless your doctor is worried.

You'll be UD at your next blood draw, I'd bet money on it.