Quint1976:
Thanks Matt for your contributions to my story.
I don't believe what she said either so i asked for a second opinion and contacted a specialized laboratory today who do resistance testing for hiv to see what their opinion is. So i am actively working on resolving this now, something which i should have done earlier.
It's a learning experience for me and both your and Jim's contributions help me with this process....
Thanks again guys and i will keep you updated 👍
Quint1976:
Hi everybody,
Just a little update on how things have gone by the last month or so.
So after everything we talked about in this topic i started talking to a biochemist from one of our national bloodbank- and research labs and asked him about the possibility of testing resistance. He told me that there would be no problem to test resistance for meds as long as i had a viral load of at least 500 copies per unit blood. Now he did explain to me that it could happen that mutations (read resistance) could not show up during testing and therefore the results could be a little questionable. His opinion was that my doctor wanted to say that but it came out all wrong. Also he said that testing can be done while on meds but that that usually was done when there is a suspected rising resistance to the meds used at that moment when testing revealed spikes in viral load when normally you would expect an undetectable load.
All in all he was confident that if i requested such a test the results would be reliable enough to make a conclusion.
So i have been experiencing various problems recently concerning my health. I've been very dizzy, having headaches, getting muscle spasms in my feet and lower legs , having sweat attacks, having my heart racing for no reason, having hot flashes and more complaints so i went to my personal physician. He said that it could be a number of things or just due to me being stressed/depressed. He asked me to talk to my specialist in the hospital for a new check-up of my HIV and so i called and i got an appointment for two days later. Now yesterday i got an email saying there were new test results in from the bloodwork we had done. My CD4 count dropped from 470 early August to 410 now and my viral load went from 50.800 early August to 96.000 now.....while not a major drop for my CD4 i am reaching the minimum required bottom line of 400. I was going to return by the end of November for a check-up but i expect that when i do my CD4 count would be well below 400 and my viral load well above 150.000 :o So conclusion while it may not explain my complaints i am however very worried about how this is evolving. My specialist is going to call me tomorrow to discuss these results so we shall see what she is going to say about all this.
Keep you guys posted and thanks for listening and responding to my messages :)
Jim Allen:
Hiya,
Sorry to hear that you have been feeling unwell and about the depression; not sure if you are getting support with the depression, but I wish you all the best in managing this condition and hope you feel better soon.
Also, hope you can revisit the doctor and, this time, treat whatever else makes you feel unwell.
Regarding HIV and HIV treatment, look CD4s are not a measurement of health, and we know HIV uncontrolled does damage even with good CD4 levels so the sooner you can get things sorted, the better.
I'm really surprised about the resistance testing answers you are getting, feels like travelling back in time or talking to someone getting treatment in a 3rd world nation.
If you ask me, the same can be said regarding the treatment history; instead of trying something different, you essentially are given and keep taking the same drugs or components at least and somehow are expecting a different outcome :o It's very odd.
Anyhow, hopefully, your next appointment goes well, and you can start treatment soon, something different and better suited to you. :)
Take it easy.
Quint1976:
Hey Jim,
Thanks for your message.
The depression thing is something that is a part of me aka chronic so i will never get rid of that problem but it could be a bit more manageable. I am working on that together with my psychologist and hope to get some kind of improvement on that but cured i will never be.
I am not even bothered with that resistance thing anymore.....i am choosing to ignore that and when the specialist calls me tomorrow i will talk to her about choosing other regimens instead of the basic Truvada component i have had in basically every treatment i tried. I already mentioned Dovato last Tuesday and she was open for that so we'll see what happens. Also i just saw another result come in (number 27 hahaha) for iron and i am below the minimal level required so maybe that is a factor.
We'll see and i will post more when i talked to my specialist in the coming week.
Matths:
Hi again, thank you for this update. I wish you best of luck for your upcoming discussion. Smart move to not overthink what anyone says. Except what Jim noted: untreated HIV does damage. Therefore, take advantage of what modern treatments can provide and get back on treatment. And tackle the various health concerns, including mental health, step by step. It’s a journey and it seems you are getting back on track. Best of luck, Matt