I don't really intend on missing any of my doses but I think it's bound to happen at least once every few years or so? My question is: How bad is it to miss ONE dose? How many doses can you miss in a certain time interval and still be safe? Let's say I miss a dose every 2 years, would that be a bad thing?
Thanks
Hi!
Judging from this thread: http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=34109.0, there seems to be a number of people who miss doses more often than once every few years, and they do not appear to have suffered as a result. However, I personally would be cautious, especially in the beginning.
Judging from this thread: http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=34109.0, there seems to be a number of people who miss doses more often than once every few years, and they do not appear to have suffered as a result.
I don't really intend on missing any of my doses but I think it's bound to happen at least once every few years or so? My question is: How bad is it to miss ONE dose? How many doses can you miss in a certain time interval and still be safe? Let's say I miss a dose every 2 years, would that be a bad thing?
Once you have been undetectable for a while, if you were to miss one dose it likely would not be a big deal. With Atripla, there was a study done called FOTO (you can Google it or do a search here in the forums for more info), it basically looked at taking it "Five Days On, Two Days Off." For the most part it worked for the people in the study (these were people who had been undetectable for a while).
Remember that resistance has to do with having the right level of meds in your body to fight the virus and with most of the latest ARV meds they do stay in your system for a bit (albeit with different half lives, so some last longer than others).
Taking it a few hours before or after won't make a difference.
The above is not meant as an endorsement of being careless, I just find that when one is less stressed about exact timing and not missing doses it actually helps in having better adherence.
personally out of an inherent conservative stance toward the issue.
You heard it here first folks she's a conservative. I'll be distributing the money to the winners of the pool in PM.
I'm doing a PM pool on who's gonna get a spanking in ten... nine... eight... seven............
Also, I haven't been taking my pill exactly on time (30 mins time interval) but usually within 10 minutes of the previous day. I usually take my pill on 12:30 am every night, but sometimes I end up taking it on 12:45 am or 12:15. Is continually changing the time of taking the pill a bad thing?
If I were you I would not set myself up for anything other then 100 percent adherence
Nestor,
As others have noted I am certainly not to be considered an exemplar when it comes to issues of medication compliance. If you spent more time reading the things you link to (as opposed to penning interminable screeds of gibberish parading as wisdom) you'd know this.
Be sure that whenever you attempt to advise newly diagnosed folk in the future this thread will be trotted out so your opinions might be given the weight they deserve.
MtD
I keep forgetting to take the morning dose, but with numbers like these who gives a shit?
Adherence is for losers and those who require a toupee.
Seriously? You really need to know more about a poster's history before you go making statements like that. As Miss P says, the OP certainly has had many problems due to non-adherence, and don't be surprised when he comes along to tell you just that in no uncertain terms using some very plain language. ~shakes head~
Thanks for sharing your experience guys.
And Nestor, don't worry I didn't misunderstand your post. I would be foolish to go against my doctor's advice just because I read something on the internet about it anyway.
The reason I made this thread is because I had a dream last night that I missed my Atripla dose, and I woke up actually panicking. I guess I'd feel really guilty if I missed one dose this early in the treatment process...that's good I guess.
This is richly comic. The thing to which I linked above was your own thread entitled "Eat me, bitches." If I had spent more time reading that, what would the result have been? Your contribution to the adherence question in that thread consisted of such statements as:
That may all have been a joke, but did it occur to you, when you wrote that, that your words were surely being read by many people who may not have known you were joking, who did not know your full medical history, and whose evolving opinions might be influenced by the picture you painted there? It was a frankly triumphant thread, you sounded on top of the world, and you gave the impression that non-adherence was something you laughed in the face of.
I now learn that you have suffered in the past as a result of poor adherence. If that is true, I am quite surprised that you would discuss non-adherence in the tone in which you describe it in that thread.
Again, it was not even you that I had in mind when I linked to that thread. There are two other persons in that thread who mentioned occasionally missing doses, and it was one of them, not you, to whom I wished to point. I certainly never intended to point to you as an exemplar.
As for trotting out this thread, be my guest. I explained myself fully above and have nothing to regret, except perhaps having paid undue attention to a thread started by you--a mistake I shall certainly not make in future.
Ann, after re-reading the "eat me, bitches" thread to which I linked above, it seems to me quite clear that the effect of various statements made by the OP in that thread was to portray imperfect adherence as a joke. It may well be that I am tone-deaf and that those statements were purely sarcastic. But if I read them wrong, surely some others may have done so too. As I have said, I had no intention of encouraging non-adherence in the OP of this thread or anyone. But the impression which I am accused of carrying is the one that could be reasonably expected to be planted in my mind, and in the minds of others, by his words in that thread. If he created the impression, why am I being blamed for carrying it, and not he?
Furthermore, you write: "the OP certainly has had many problems due to non-adherence, and don't be surprised when he comes along to tell you just that in no uncertain terms using some very plain language." I do not understand this. If he did not give us the information there (something he might have done, while he was making non-adherence sound like a grand old time) how is it reasonable for him to come in here and blame me for not knowing it?
In fact, what he says is false: "If you spent more time reading the things you link to (as opposed to penning interminable screeds of gibberish parading as wisdom) you'd know this." No, I would not. I could have spent twenty hours reading the thread entitled "eat me, bitches" (charming name) and I would never have known it, for nowhere there does he allude to the fact.
Finally, as for the bit about my "penning interminable screeds of gibberish parading as wisdom", I would like to point out that I have never spoken in that way to Matty or to any other forum member.
Hi IAmHappy,
I am sorry that all of this has come out in your thread. Thank you for the kind words. And yes, that you take adherence seriously is certainly a good thing.
(http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af197/bedstuy65/im-a-chikin-lol.jpg)
This is so sweet...Is that little matty in his first halloween costume?
We don't do that halloween bullshit down here.
MtD
I was talking about the real Matty, Will's cat.
Sure you were. ::)
MtD
Also, you're not the center of the universe, I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you.
It's a freaking cat in a costume. I'm not sure how much more obvious it has to be. Also, you're not the center of the universe, I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you.
You can be such a soft target. It's almost too much fun. ;D
The damp heat of the Big Easy starting to get to you, Hecky? :)
MtD
You and I operate on different wavelengths and an actual conversation between us without irony, sarcasm, mockery, or just plain bitchiness is almost impossible. In fairness it was like 1am when I posted that.
When you start employing irony, let me know.
MtD