POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Questions About Treatment & Side Effects => Topic started by: MexicoGringo on January 18, 2009, 11:54:55 pm
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Hi.. I am a 30 year old living in Mexico. I am a US Citizen on disability, living in Mexico because the amount of money I get wouldnt really cover me in the US, so I live here.. The problem is I go back every 3 months to get my meds.. ( truvada and Viramune). This month I ran into some unexpected problems, and couldnt get back untill later than I planned and I went a week without meds.. I have been on Truvada and Viramune for over a year and only missed 2 days (diffrent occasions). and take them religiously at 10pm.. I got my meds and started taking them that night but a week has passed.. I have a few questions... 1. do you think i coulld now have a resitance.. 2. I now have bad nausea, diareahha (worste than ususal) and headache... Is this caused by meds or virus?
I have made arangment s to where this will never happen again... I have tickets to go back and get meds no matter what...
The other problem is my doc couldnt get me in, and I could stay long enought to see her, so I wont get blood for another 2 qnd 1/2 months...
OK, besides telling me how much of an idiot I am, (BECAUSE i ALREADY KNOW THIS, AND AND FURIOUS AT MUYSELF FOR THIS LAPSE) Please tellme what you think!!
Thanks
Tony
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Hi Tony
From your post it sounds like you don't have much of a connection to local medical care in Mexico. You might want to sit down with a pencil and piece of paper and just ask yourself:
- What would your strategy be if you were to get sick and require care? How would you access care in Mexico? If your plan is to get back to the US for care, how will that happen?
- Is it possible for you to purchase your medications in Mexico? (If you haven't already you might want to post in the Spanish forums -- pretty sure there are some Mexican members that participate.)
- If not, can you build up a backlog in case you are again unable to get back across the border? (Most prescriptions for a three month supply allow a refill about 2 months in -- that allows you to build a bit of a backup supply. I get three months at once and usually reorder when opening the last bottle -- that way if there is a delay, there's some backup.)
As far as whether you have resistance, can you get your viral load tested in Mexico? If not, you might want to consider an early trip back to the US.
Hope this is helpful
A
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well i am very surprised and sad that only one person has responded.. surely there are peole who has missed a week before??
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well i am very surprised and sad that only one person has responded.. surely there are peole who has missed a week before??
That's because your two questions aren't particularly answerable.
1) you could have resistance, or you could not -- the only way to tell is to wait it out and see what the lab results tell you. IIRC your viral load has to go up to 1,000 for a geno/phenotype test to become feasible.
2) your nausea, diarrhea and headaches could be the result of restarting meds, or they could be from something else
Nobody else here is going to give you any different answer to those two questions I would think.
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I take Truvada/Viramune and last October missed 5 days of meds. I had just changed ID's and the new doctor's clinic sent my prescription god knows where and I was out. I even walked into her clinic and alerted the clinic and their own pharmacy that there was a problem but no one seemed concerned in the slightest. After googling my ID's name and finding a Nepalese group she does charity work for, I sent her an email letting her know. Then I called another doctor and switched.
Long story short - June labs were vl undetectable, 553/27%. December labs, vl undetectable 698/50%.
As for the vomitting etc., are you taking two Viramune everyday at the same time or splitting them up 12 hours? I have had ID's tell me to take them both ways and when I switched to all at the same time, I spent the next five months throwing up. As soon as the new ID switched me back to splitting them up, the nausea went away.
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I missed 3 days last March because I was in the hospital and they wouldn't let me take anything by mouth due to my esophageal bleeding. When they finally let me take them, their pharmacy didn't even have isentress so I had to send my BF home to get some from my supply.
My VL has remained undetectable, thank goodness. I hope yours does too.
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I went to visit my mother one Thanksgiving and became snowbound for three extra days.
So, I went three days without meds, and these were not normally meds known to be forgiving of missed doses.
I came out of it fine. Viral load still undetectable and CD4 about the same.
I wouldn't do it all the time, that is just asking for trouble.
Let us know how the next round of tests turns out.
HUGS,
Mark
(Who now makes sure to take plenty of extra meds with him on trips - just in case.)