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.

Dizzy down the boy (Efavirenz side-effects)

What does it feel to have the usual Efavirenz side-effect? I mean, this is nightly, as in every single night of forever as long as I am taking this drug. The side-affects are usually felt two hours after I drank the pill and is best to just sleep it off.

As of this writing, my face feels a bit numb just like when one drank too much alcohol. My fingers are feeling a bit more sensitive, there's some sort of an unexplainable sensation there too. Dizzy, that certain dizziness when you have drank a couple of glasses of wine or a few bottles of beer. It's mild, you can still control yourself but you know you are dizzy. I feel giddy, and I get annoyed very easily. I sometimes slur when I talk at this time of day. This is also the time that I don't like to be in tight spaces. There are days that I just want to strip off all of my clothes even in the middle of somewhere, because I feel hot, and I feel like my insides are going to burst.

That's all. I just want to share.

NOTE: Above are the usual side-effects; lately I have been experiencing insomnia on some nights, as well as depression. I am yet to experience hallucinations and those very famous vivid dreams. 

HIV & drug induced depression (Efavirenz side effects)

Last Friday the 20th of January, was just like any normal day for me. Until early morning came and I felt something weird. I felt sad, deeply sad,I felt like I was absorbing everyone's sadness around me, yet, I have no single reason to be sad about. It got worse hour after hour, until I almost bursted into tears at my workstation for no apparent reason. I twitted the moments I felt like that, and many responded, thank you so much.

It was one of the more serious side-effects of Efavirenz, it is one of my medicines to manage HIV. I talked to a fellow PLHIV and he said that it is normal, and I have to live with it. More online research was made, and I found out that either I live with the depression or I have to switch meds, which I don't want to anymore. I already changed cocktails twice. The usual dizziness I usually feel from the evening, went on until the next day, plus the depression went worse, I felt like I was exploding in extreme sadness, it was unexplainable,  and overwhelming.

I have been taking Efavirenz for almost 6 months, some side-effects take even years before it will manifest, so I am yet to encounter more. I am preparing myself, mentally, and emotionally, for most of the serious side-effects are psychiatric, while the physiological side-effects involves the usual liver damage which can be treated with another type of drug, the other side-effects involves some other physically changing effects. The worse side-effect of all I think, is the "suicidal thoughts" side effect, probably due to extreme depression caused by the drug. I have read a lot of warning and fact sheets online, and they all warn about the same thing.

So as I turn a "sophomore" into this new life of mine; this coming April, the more I need to prepare. I have been infected with a bacterial URTI a few weeks ago and the antibiotic prescribed was stronger than when I had Pneumonia last 2010 and early 2011. Insomnia has been lingering around with me lately, and exhaustion.

I don't live in a bubble and part of it all is exposing myself to a lot of life-threatening bacteria and viruses plus everyday stress. Ironically, the medicines that keep me alive, might kill me too.

Thank you to my twitter friends and physical world friends who responded to my tweets. I deeply appreciate all the encouragement. 

My new pill: Efavirenz

So it has been five days since I started drinking my new medicine, Efavirenz. Which side effects include insomnia, sleep deprivation, depression, vivid dreams, paranoia, mania and suicidal thoughts, dizziness, impaired concentration, confusion and anxiety... All of which I've already been through in the past, so I guess this will be just a breeze to me. Although on my first day, I really felt the dizziness effect, I was so dizzy that I couldn't even stand, that was within the first few hours of drinking my first pill. Then the next day, when I was about to go to work, I can still feel the side-effect of the drug, which was dizziness, it went on until I arrived at work and while I was working. As the days go by, the dizziness effect started to be tolerable, or because I have been expecting it to happen so I am already mentally prepared for it. However, the other day, I was on my way home and I was caught outside within the time I need to take Efavirenz, so I did. I felt so dizzy that while I was walking up the stairs of my building, I almost fell and it took me almost 10 minutes to arrive at my unit. That's why I need to be home before the time I take that pill. So far, no vivid dreams, but I am anticipating it. That's why I watch a lot of anime before I go to sleep.

Do you remember or know the feeling of getting so drunk that you cannot almost text right and your speech is slurred? You're so drunk that your motor skills get affected so much you cannot walk right? That is how Efavirenz affects me. Well, it gets better everyday, tolerable.

I take Efavirenz once a day together with Lamivudine/Zidovudine which is taken twice a day. I still feel weak these days, or it is because of me being overweight. During my stay in the H4 Ward during my confinement, my lungs were discovered to be already inflamed due to smoking and being already too sensitive to irritants, well I haven't been smoking since I took my first ARV pill which was more than a month ago. Also, my heart is already weak, so I have to minimize my bad fat intake and start doing mild cardio workouts. People living with HIV must take care on working out not to stress themselves too much and the workouts must be on a progressive process so that the body won't be surprised with the sudden activity. Last time I tried doing cardio during my ARV trial, I got sick. I can feel my body weaken, perhaps because of all the toxicity of the pills I have been taking. Well, I just have to live with it.