Pt. 4 Medicated...

By the time I got around to accepting of sorts and disclosing.. the task of sitting down and talking to the Dr. about my numbers... UGH!!!!

The date was February and I had my latest test. It had only been 3 months since my diagnosis and less than six since I was infected yet my Viral load was 207,000 and my CD4 count was a scary 219. The doctor sat down with me and approached me with the option of whether we would want to start me on medications.

This is the one avenue almost all POZ people question. When and where to start. I started to fight it tooth and nail. The prospect of being on something that I would have to take to stay alive the rest of my life seems like the most horrible thing ever. My doctor sat me down and explained what the meds would do and how without them I would not be able to support my body in the future due to the dropping numbers.

Hesitantly I said yes but not until after my birthday in March. Somehow my birthday snuck up on me and I had to face the hard reality that I would be starting Medications. Previous to that I had to go through what they call HAART. I met with a nutrition specialist, then it was a pharmacist, then a social worker, and then a the trial center to see if I fit into any trials.

When all was said and done I started on my meds (they put me on Truvada, Reyataz, Ritonavir) on March 21st. First day of spring and all that jazz LOL. I seriously thought a new beginning was in store so many things in my life at the time were so chaotic but at least i was able to breathe a bit and rest up.

The day I started my meds i was doing pretty good... or so I thought until I smelled the wafting of Thai food in the neighboring restaurant... that is when my gut went into convulsions. Aside from that I felt good though. Two days into the meds I woke up one night to use the restroom and woke up with my roommate above me asking if i was ok. Apparently I had passed out in the hallway ... of course I went to bed and called the doc in the morning.

By this point everyone at the clinic knew me by name and was always happy to see me cause I approached everything with a biting fun humour. They did some tests and I waited to see what was going on. Results came back and apparently I was having a case of IRS (aka Immune Restoration Syndrome). That is right there is a good kind of IRS.

BTW this would be a good time to note that I have learned acronyms so much since my diagnosis. They are something that just come and go.

My blood was drawn a week after i started my meds and we did the test and I was in shock. Apparently the reason I was so sick was the IRS had brought about a shock in my system due to my drop in viral load. In one week I went from 207000 to 200. My CD4 went from 219 to 289 in one week. The doctor was very excited about all this.

The symptoms slow faded away and were fully gone within a few weeks. The worse part was just adjusting to taking the meds daily and the reminder that this was my life. It was about two months before i was completely undetectable and my cd4 went up.

The one thing though I was thankful for was living in a time when that was the least of my side effects. Truth be told that it was so mild that I could have been worse at one point.

Starting meds was hard but I do continually look at how they have saved my life. Today my numbers are good as of last week I am still have an undetectable viral load and my CD4 is 419. I was told that I will never have high numbers but I am feeling the best yet in my life as far as my HIV health goes.

to be continued