POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Questions About Treatment & Side Effects => Topic started by: worried100 on July 18, 2011, 04:57:17 pm
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Please be gentle with me i have some questions.
My husband lives in the carribean so the meds he has just started are the old type.
I am so scared for him, is he going to die quicky because he is on the old kind?
They have put him on something called duovir and nivirapine. I think the duovir is lamivudine/zidovudine and nivirapine.(Have i got this right??)
Why have they put him on nivirapine again in a seperate tablet?
He wont ask these questions as he is ashamed and they treat people out there quite bad with this illness :'(
He has had candida of the oesophagus which is being treated with fluconazole and the "lump" in his chest has cleared. He is complaining of excess saliva and having to spit all the time. is this because of the meds or the candida clearing?
He is feeling drowsy from the tablets, is this going to be forever or is it like the meds we take nowadays where your body gets use to it?
Any help appreciated
xxx
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Please be gentle with me i have some questions.
My husband lives in the carribean so the meds he has just started are the old type.
I am so scared for him, is he going to die quicky because he is on the old kind?
They have put him on something called duovir and nivirapine. I think the duovir is lamivudine/zidovudine and nivirapine.(Have i got this right??)
Why have they put him on nivirapine again in a seperate tablet?
He wont ask these questions as he is ashamed and they treat people out there quite bad with this illness :'(
He has had candida of the oesophagus which is being treated with fluconazole and the "lump" in his chest has cleared. He is complaining of excess saliva and having to spit all the time. is this because of the meds or the candida clearing?
He is feeling drowsy from the tablets, is this going to be forever or is it like the meds we take nowadays where your body gets use to it?
Any help appreciated
xxx
Duovir is lamivudine+zidovudine. It's also available as Duovir-N which contains nevirapine as well.
Because nevirapine can cause liver problems, it is more useful to take it separately so the dosage can be adjusted if needs be. If he becomes stable on this combo, then they will probably move him to the Duovir-N form.
Your husband needs to monitor his liver function very carefully whilst on nevirapine. He should also avoid alcohol too.
Feeling drowsy (aka somnolence) is a known side effect from this combination and it should settle down after a while but it may not. If it is very bad, he should talk to his doctor.
Excessive salivation is certainly a symptom of oesophageal candida and will most likely go away when he is completely candida free. Oesophageal can take sometime to clear up. It's unpleasant but he will have to be patient.
I hope this helps. :)
MtD
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Thanks Matty.
Is this combination he is taking going to hurt him more than the newer drugs? What i mean is will he die quicker on this combo ??? :-[
I was thinking of maybe ordering Viraday and sending it to him every month or three monthly but i dont know if the customs out there or the country would let me do this?
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This is a perfectly good combo and doesn't mean he will die earleer than on other ("modern") drugs. If an opportunity comes up to get off the AZT (zidovudine) take it if at all possible. This is the baddie in the combo. so to speak, in terms of side effects. But it works nonetheless.
God bless
- matt
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Just to add to what Matty and Newt said:
I took the equivalent of Duovir for 13 years. It worked great against the virus.
I eventually had some side effects from the AZT component, mainly some lipoatrophy (loss of subcutaneous fat).
I never took Niviripine, so I have no real input on it.
But the Duovir combo worked really well for a long time and I have been a pozzie for at least 26 years.
HUGS,
Mark
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Thank you all for your wise words, i appreciate it. :-*
Mark, you seem to be a strong man whose body could take the treatment. I thought AZT was what killed alot of people in the beggining?
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Thank you all for your wise words, i appreciate it. :-*
Mark, you seem to be a strong man whose body could take the treatment. I thought AZT was what killed alot of people in the beggining?
That was back in the old monotherapy days, when they used just AZT by itself. They were using very large doses taken every four hours around the clock.
Luckily, I managed to squeeze by that era and didn't start meds until the cocktails came our in 96. The doses used to day are not lethal. Some people have side effects, others don't. There is no real way to tell until you start.
Keep us posted on how your husband is doing.
HUGS,
Mark
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One should always remember that a LOT of the people that they put on AZT monotherapy when it first came out were at death's door anyway. One shouldn't look at those deaths as "due to AZT" in any manner. Plus, of course, the dosing was much higher for it at the beginning.
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Worried, that was when very high doses of AZT were given. They no longer give lethal doses. While it's not one of the better meds in terms of side-effects, it's not going to kill him.
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Thanks to all for your help so far.
I know he should ask the doctor about some of these things, and i tell him this, but he wont and he said he is not going back to see the doctor till his next appoitment which is around the middle of August
My husband keeps asking me things all the time, he is worrying and i think he thinks that i will be able to assure him, but i just end up worrying more.
There must be a group he could join out there but he doesnt live in the city but in the country part where everyone knows peoples business. He is terrified about people finding out as my family all live in the same area
Does the treatment make lymph nodes come up?
I have just got of the phone and a lymph node in his groin has increased to abit larger than a chicken egg. It hurts him and i told him to go to the doctor(He tried to tell the doctor about it when he went for the meds but doctor said not to worry about it without looking at it, it was large before but has increased since)
This is really doing my head in!!! It makes me realise how lucky we are :'(
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Lymph node issues are due to the underlying HIV infection and this is quite normal. Tell him to stop touching them. Once the patient is on treatment and VL is undetectable generally this should lessen and/or go away completely.
I encourage you to just get your husband to register on this forum -- it would be good for him mentally.
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Worried, if he's got a swelling bigger than a chicken egg in his groin, he needs to have that looked at by a doctor ASAP. While swollen glands are normal with hiv as Miss P said, one bigger than an egg is not normal. Are you sure he's not exaggerating the size?
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What Ann said
The worst (or perhaps best) that can happen is they drain it, or cut it out, or if it's an infection prescribe antibiotics.
But note, I got a gland swollen in me armpit the size of a golf ball once and my doc just shrugged. It went away on it's own. Prodding is not a good idea though. Lymph glands are designed to catch rubbish, you don't want the crap getting back out into the blood and then floating round the body.
-matt
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Hi,
please allow me to comment on Nevirapine (which I take) in simple words.
The first few weeks require close monitoring and surveillance as very rare but very advserse reaction may occur. Adverse side effects at the initiation of this drug is fortunatly not very common but if a rash or strong fever occurs, doctor should be seen immediatly.
While the (rare) side effects at initiation are also quite scary (once again this is rare), on the other hand, people who have used it long term register very few complaints about it. Millions of people are (or have) taken nevirapine for long without problem.
It is an 'old' drug but has a favorable long term tolerability
Cheers
Eric
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Thank you all for your wise words :)
The lymph node was really hurting him and went back to the doctor and the doctor said it was an infection gave him some antibiotics and injection and he says it is going down. (He didnt go back to the HIV doctor though, went as a "normal" patient to another doctor)
He seems to be coping not to badly with the meds but says he has a headache that comes and goes. He says his skin is starting to "shine" again and he doesnt look like he has been living under a celler anymore (he had terrible dandruff)
I am going to call him again on wednesday, fingers crossed things are still improving!! :)
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart
Unsure xxx
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Uncross them fingers and have a cup of tea, everything will be alright.
- matt