Meds at an odd time+alcohol

[gryffindork90]

I've been taking Atripla for about a month know, and have been pretty good at taking it at a fairly consistent time, but I've also not had any reason since I started to have that time shift much. This Friday however, I'll be attending a wedding, and I'm curious about 2 things.

First of all, I normally take the pill around 8pm and am asleep by 10. Obviously with the wedding, my whole timeline will be thrown off that day. Is it more important to stop eating earlier so I can take the pill around 8 like normal, or will I be ok taking it a few hours late?

Second of all, since starting the medication, I've not had any alcohol, so I don't know exactly what to do there. Should I just not drink at all? Or maybe just stop drinking earlier in the night?

Appreciate any help anyone can provide!

[eric48]

Hi,

Welcome here.

I'm NOT on atripla, so ...

But, any medication that your body needs to get adjusted to requires a bit of caution.

If you'd be already 6 months into treatment and well adjusted, etc. (so called 'stable'), then everyone would tell you: does not matter !

But, generally speaking, for the first six months you may want to stay on a conservative course.

I have done like you have, no alcohol for a few months. There is no proof that this is a must do, but, look, these are still pretty strong medications anyways

Concerning the timing, here also, take a conservative approach. Like many others the meds are probably doing the right job and your VL is most likely decaying.
Then why bother?
Yet, if the next blood results are not so good, you will keep thinking you have 'failed' somehow... And this may torture you, even if this is not true

Be conservative. The self imposed ban can be lifted soon!

Most importantly: do not miss the dose. Dosage time with Atripla is not as critical as with my own regimen, most people think that a couple of hours should be OK.
Especially for a one time event!

Enjoy the wedding !
Eric

   

[newt]

You'll be fine taking a dose late for a wedding. But, since you are in the initial weeks of treatment, do take it.

As for alcohol, who knows? Some people can drink like a fish on efavirenz (this is the drug in Atripla that needs consideration), some people are floored by half a glass of champagne. There's only one way to find out....

- matt

[newt]

The technical reason for my remark is that after 5 days efavirenz reaches a constant level (steady state) in your body and you need to be off it at least several days before you have less than enough of the drug present for it to be ineffective at suppressing the virus. Tenofovir and FTC, the other 2 drugs in Atripla, have at least a +8 window after the expected doing time once you've taken these for 2-3 weeks. So after a month on Atripla a single late dose is acceptable for a wedding (within +8 hours of normal dosing time if you want to get nerdy about it).

- matt/font]