Pulling up the numbers - Making your CD4 count higher

My latest CD4 count as of January 2012 was 589, it was 294 points up from my previous count, almost 300 points increase. I did change a bit of my lifestyle, and I am willing to do more better changes. Here are the usual things I did on the 6 months I was battling to gain back the normalcy of my immune system. So therefore, here are my tips:

1. Don't stress - Stress is the biggest factor of why the CD4 count drops significantly low. 
2. Eat well - This is subjective based on one's needs. Do eat well and in moderation, make sure you get enough nutrients in whatever you put in your mouth. 
3. Sleep - Sleep well and get lots of it. 
4. Listen and feel the body - Those aches and pains are signs that something is wrong. Do something  to alleviate it and investigate the cause. Do not over work your body, it has its limitations, you may want to push it to the limit or beyond, but it can only perform so much. 
5. Relax - As much as you want, whenever. 
6. Get the rage out - Keeping your rage in, may cause you to be stressed out. I express myself by listening to loud music or just tweeting away some thoughts. 
7. Walk - It's just healthy and simple. 
8. Keep yourself busy - Learn a new hobby, read, write, day dream.
9. Have alone time - Being alone will get you to know yourself more, and you will also know what your body needs and what your soul desires. 
10. Smile.

Note: My ARV cocktail - Lamivudine/Zidovudine, Efavirenz

Normal

04-00-2010: 526

12-16-2010: 385

06-09-2011: 295

01-05-2012: 589

The numbers in blue are my CD4 count for the past two years since I was diagnosed with HIV last April of 2010. It has been on a steep decline from April to December then slowed down on June, but still it went down. A healthy and normal CD4 count is between 500 - 1500. 

It was a very long wait earlier at the hospital (San Lazaro Hospital) because I woke up late (around 5:30 AM), and I arrived there at around 8:30 AM and I was already the 62nd patient! There were such a huge number of new patients there that I barely know anyone. Good thing that some of my "batch mates" arrived a few minutes later and some a few hours later. Those batch mates of mine were diagnosed at the same year I was, we are given codes, like student numbers, which we will know what year a person was diagnosed. I very good friend of mine accompanied me to the hospital all that time which I really appreciated because he was asked if he was "one of us" too. Fortunately, he isn't. Me, my friend, and my batch mates spent time to the nearby Day Care Center inside the hospital compound where we spent hours chatting with other patients and  social workers, we had a few good laughs, which was one thing that I always look forward whenever I am going to visit the H4 Ward. The laughter, the fun, the socializing, and all that buzz and "bubbliness" of the other patients is what I always miss in H4 Ward, and what I always look forward to. Socializing amidst the stress and boredom of the long wait until our name is called for our turn to see the doctor is always a key for us not to be so crazy and dead bored inside the SLH compound. A patient can wait for the whole day if he listed his name late, like what I did earlier. There was a mass held in the H4 Ward - Clinic, yes, we now have a separate air-conditioned clinic from the ward; so everything has to be cut and stopped. The priests and very handsome seminarians from the St. Camillus Seminary came to celebrate mass. Operations in the clinic resumed at around 4:30 PM, right after the mass. My doctor told me that most of her patients today who came for their CD4 test, got an increased result. That's why despite of her tending to more than a hundred patients that day, I can see that she's happy. Most of the patients earlier came for their CD4 test results anyway, only a handful were there for a health check-up. 

I was on my way home at sundown with a smile on my face. After a very long time... I am now, walking, normally.

Thank you so much to everyone who included me in their prayers. Thank you, God.