POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Questions About Treatment & Side Effects => Topic started by: Pricho01 on September 12, 2012, 10:07:59 pm
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Anyhoo - I've come off Atripla (close to 2 weeks now) cause it was a bad deal for me and my Specialist wants to wait six weeks b4 I start new meds.....
I am feeling really unwell though, have three coldsores and I'm starting to get a throat infection, and feel like I'm getting the flu...
Is six weeks too long to wait to start new meds? Has anyone else had similar issues...?
I dunno if its in my head but feel pretty yuk n I thought I would be starting new meds straight away... blah!
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i was on Complera and then Isentress/Truvada and had bad vomiting reaction from the Truvada components. Ive been off meds for about a month and feel extremely fatigued and my lymph nodes started to swell after a feww days of coming off the meds. Im waiting until my next appt at end of Septmeber to decide which regimen to start next. That will be approx 2.5 months without meds at that point. My doctor told me so long as my numbers are ok I can wait to begin a new regimen. As of today VL 10,000 and CD4 700
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Can I ask what was the reason your specialist gave you for why he wanted you to wait 6 weeks between medications? Particularly if you were already undetectable, I'd think that a doctor would just switch you over immediately. Cutting it cold turkey would run the risk of (potentially....I'm not sure) building up resistance to the tenofovir or the emtricitabine. Also, can I ask what was the reason why you went off Atripla in the first place? You mentioned that it was a "bad deal" for you, but was it due to the nervous system effects presumably due to the efavirenz, or was it perhaps due to renal tox from the tenofovir?
Hope you get to feeling better soon :)
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Yeah it was the CNS effects - not good for me.... didn't get to UD cause I wasn't on for long enough - VL currently over 300, 000 not sure if that is super high or just average...
She said she wants to "flush out all the meds and start with a clean slate", thinking I might call her and let her know how I'm feeling...
Just wasn't sure if it was in my head lol - you know...? But if others have had similar stuff happen (nycpoz33) then could be coming off meds causing this.... cheers Phil
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I would certainly be in touch with the doctor (or call the nurses' line perhaps if there is one) in this case. But, I tended to err on the site of sharing too much about my experience with the HIV specialist in the beginning. Good luck as you start a new line of treatment :)
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I tended to err on the site of sharing too much about my experience with the HIV specialist in the beginning. Good luck as you start a new line of treatment :)
Sharing too much...?
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Before I started Medications..I had enlarged / swollen Lymph Nodes and extreme fatigue. Then I started the meds and those 2 symptoms disappeared. Now that im off it was like an immediate reaction back to those symptoms. Depression also set in once the medical symptoms came back
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There is usually no need to wait to start new meds. Reactivation of the virus in your system often makes you feel ill. - matt
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i agree with newt,,, doesn't make sense that you have to "flush out" the meds before getting on the new one... what is your specialist smoking? :o
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i agree with newt,,, doesn't make sense that you have to "flush out" the meds before getting on the new one... what is your specialist smoking? :o
ok well I'll be on the phone on Monday - as to what she is smoking... I'll ask her, see if she's willing to share... :P
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I am feeling really unwell though, have three coldsores and I'm starting to get a throat infection, and feel like I'm getting the flu...
Sorry for the late-ish reply, Phil. I've had computer problems this past week.
Cold sores, aka fever blisters, are herpes. Herpes has these two nick-names for two reasons. One is because when the body (or mind) is under some sort of stress (such as from a cold or the flu), it's common for an outbreak to occur.
The other reason is that the outbreak itself can make you feel flu-ish.
If you get outbreaks fairly often, you can take an antiviral medication called Acyclovir. You can either take it when you feel an outbreak coming on (and continue taking it for a few days), or you can take it as a prophylactic , which means taking it every day to stop outbreaks from starting. I take it as a prophylactic and it works great with no side-effects.
Please talk to your doctor about acyclovir. It is available at very reasonable prices because it is available as a generic. It's well worth it.
Also, if you're taking acyclovir as a prophylactic, it means that you're much, much less likely to pass your herpes on to someone else. Keep in mind that you can give a person genital herpes if you have an outbreak coming on, if you have an active outbreak, or if you have a healing outbreak when engaging in oral sex.
You can also pass your herpes on when kissing and if you have an active outbreak, you can also pass it on by sharing drinking vessels or eating utensils. It's a virulent little bugger and that's why up to 80% of adults have herpes.
You can read more about herpes in the context of hiv in our Herpes Lesson (http://www.aidsmeds.com/articles/Herpes_6789.shtml).
Again, I'd highly recommend talking to your doctor about prophylactic acyclovir. It's fantastic being outbreak free!
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Cheers Ann you're a star.... It's also hard getting a snog at a bar ;) gosh I hope I don't have genital herpes..... now you've got me worried!! Do the two go together??
Hmmmmm will ask my dr....
Thanks for the comment.....
Cheers Phil
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I was told a long time ago that sores,blisters, infections etc in the mouth are early markers of a compromised immune system or disease. (Anyone knows more about this?)
I thought problems with my mouth was from herpes (could still be) and was about to take acyclovir and despite a good mouth hygiene I got irritated gums, blisters,sores and maybe what could have been some lesions of some sort. :o
Point is that once I started my meds it took maybe a month for the mouth to clear up, I also noticed that my gums started to heal up nicely and the occasional bleeding when brushing stopped. Its been 3 months and my mouth looks and feels very healthy.
I still have the box of acyclovir at home but never used it as of yet.
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Phil, genital herpes and oral herpes do not necessarily go hand in hand, although it is possible to have it in both places. I only have genital herpes, and I got it from my first college boyfriend who had oral herpes. We didn't know about herpes at the time - it was in 1980 just before it hit the news in a big way.
I mean, my own mother used to get oral herpes outbreaks - everyone just called them cold sores and it was no big deal, other than not being nice to look at. It never occurred to me or my bf that I could get it genitally when he went down on me when he had an outbreak starting to come on. His outbreak wasn't even really evident until the next day. I came down with my primary outbreak about a week or so later and it wasn't until the doctor explained to me what it was and how it was transmitted that we put two and two together and realised he'd unwittingly given it to me.
If you have genital herpes, you'd likely know about it. The outbreaks are painful, particularly if they're in a place where they'd be rubbed by clothing, if urine passes over them, or if they get rubbed by toilet paper. Ouch! Why do you think I'm so delighted with prophylactic acyclovir? Also, when an outbreak is coming on, it's usually heralded by itching and tingling, not something easy to ignore when it's going on in your knickers. ;D
I was told a long time ago that sores,blisters, infections etc in the mouth are early markers of a compromised immune system or disease. (Anyone knows more about this?)
It can be, but it can equally also just be one of those things. As I first said to Phil, up to 80% of people harbour the herpes virus. It normally only causes outbreaks when a person is stressed out physically (hence the nick-names "cold sore" and "fever blister") or emotionally. However, if a person starts getting outbreaks monthly or even more frequently, it can indicate an underlying problem such as a compromised immune system.
Before I acquired hiv, I only had one or two outbreaks a year, if that. (After the first year anyway. The first year of herpes was a bitch.) It was only after I'd had (untreated) hiv for about five years that I started getting outbreaks more and more frequently. Now that I'm on acyclovir, I don't get them and I started acyclovir years before I started hiv meds.