Changed my boyfriend´s treatment.

[blondbeauty]

My boyfriend was taking combivir+viread. He has been on treatment since 1992 and has never developed any resistance. He has only changed treatment 3 times in these years. I went today with him to the hospital and we both talked to his Dr. about changing his treatment to Sustiva and Truvada. I don´t want him to be on AZT. He has ben on that drug since the beginning. The Dr. agreed and he is starting the new treatment tonight. I hope Sustiva does not cause him too much side effects or any bad reaction. Combivir was: he was too tired. 

[Ihavehope]

OK. I hope the new treatment works out for him. Although I do agree with you trying to help your bf with better meds, I would have thought the doctor would have been the first who would have suggested the change.

[blondbeauty]

If you are not resitant to any meds, the treatment is a personal choice. He is not very proactive and the Dr. had no reason to change his treatment because it was working OK. He changed it as soon as there was a reason: the patient´s desire to change and passing from twice a day treatment to a once a day treatment.

[koi1]

Hey Juan,

Good for you.  I hope he adjusts well to it.  You sound like a nice boyfriend, Ihavehope and I are hopefully on your "next boyfriend" wait list.  Besides, you get free travel, hell, I'd marry you just for that.

Rob (who is a travel whore)

[gerry]

Juan:

There is actually another reason to change: the combination of Viread + Combivir, althouth working for him, does not have research studies to back it up.  Having said that, do you know what his other regimens were, why he changed, what he changed to, and if he was undetectable all throughout?  These info might provide clues in determining if the switch is a reasonable one in terms of effectiveness.  Sounds like the switch is reasonable given the limited info, since the Sustiva/Truvada is more potent.  But if he had prior exposure to NNRTIs such as Viramune, that might make the situation a bit more uncertain.

Gerry

[Central79]

Hey Blonde

Your bf is so lucky to have you there for him, being his advocate. I don't have anybody like that there for me, and it makes things tough.

If there's no resistance, I don't know why anybody would be on an AZT -containing regimen (apart from the fact it's cheap!). The risk of lipodystrophy and anaemia (which it sounds like what was causing your bf to be tired?) aren't really worth it if you have other options.

Hoping he does well on the new combo.

Matt.

[blondbeauty]

Hi!
I don't know why he was on AZT since 1992. I also considered his combination therapy really strange (3 nucleotides) but he has been always undetectable and his CD4 are above 700. He started treatment with less than 100 CD4 in 1992.
After reading all the information on this website I understood the reason for giving him Viread: he has chronic Hep-B. But I also learned that Truvada would do an even better job than viread alone.
The Dr. agreed on everything and switched the treatment immediately but I avoided asking her about the reasons for keeping him on that obsolete regime. It would have been very rude and I must not forget she has done a great job with him keeping Julen in good health since 1992 when "everybody" died. Julen also trusts her very much and I don't want to make him loose that feeling. She is an old Dr. very nice and sweet and her reaction to our suggestions was very good and comprehensive.
Thank you all for your advice. He did great on Sustiva last night.
Juan