Re: Going Off Meds for a Month

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I was off of meds for 4 years; 2004 to 2009.. my tcells never fell below 600 and was undetectable the entire time. It was mid 2008 when a viralload was detected. It was not anything alarming but my doc felt i had to get back on meds. I had a lot of things going on then; school(med school) became so stressful ,got depressed because of situations(politics) affecting my family back home, my father got diagnosed with CHF,a few weeks after the diagnoses both my parents were in a car accident. A lot of stuff was happening..I got more depressed,and I blamed the virus for not always remembering what i learned..lol. well, I have always been depressed since I learned of my diagnosis. But this time, depression took a toll on me so my doc wanted me back on meds. Nov2008, a viral load was detected;first time since the

break, nothing alarming but doc felt it was time to get back. Bottom line, i did very well while on break and continued to do well .However,I just got off a month and a half break..this time it was not voluntary, i lost ADAP.. .no insurance, and still do not. I have successfully enrolled in a "med assisted program" with Gilead and Bristol Myer. It can be very taxing doing all the paper work but sure is worth it..Now i do not have to worry about meds for the next 12 month.Curios to get my lab results before taking my cocktail!!!!Not encouraging anyone to take a break, but sure is not a death sentence!!!Take good care of yourselves; boys and girls!!!Angel From: Will Bob <rawmassage@...> JB <blueeyes9455@...> Cc: Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 9:10 AM Subject: Re: Going Off Meds for a Month

don't listen to this crap they say, you can stay off melds a week, a month even with CD4 counts as low as 200, its not life threatening, of course, the higher the CD4 count the longer you can stay off melds. Usually, they would let you be off melds here in Canada until you to down to 300-200 depending on the Dr, but this doesn't mean that if you go less than 200 for a week or month you gonna enter AIDS the next day. Moreover, its the CD4/CD8 percentage that is important, not the ABSOLUTE CD4 count, CD4 will be usually lower if the total count of lymphocyte its lower. My total lymphocyte count is usually low, therefore my CD4 are usually lower than general population and I was on and off melds for 10 years.

here in Canada a lot of people are on vacation therapy (off melds), drug companies don't have such influence here like in the US. All these messages they sent back show how cultural it got in the US for Dr's and patients to listen to dug companies crap (marketing strategy).

People develop resistance mostly when they are ON medications not off medication!!! just think about it, you are asked to switch meds combinations because you developed resistance to your current one, why is that?! the more your virus its exposed to one meds combination the more its likely to develop resistance to it....

All these is not written in stone, but generally it is like that.

and please don't come back and show me some study that prove otherwise (secretly funded by drug companies). We had the same way of thinking back in early 2000s here and Canada but 10 years of having people on drug vacations prove that it is safe to be off meds for a while, not to mention the positive effects on your liver, kidneys, Cardiovascular risk, etc

From: JB <blueeyes9455@...>Subject: Going Off Meds for a Month Received: Sunday, March 11, 2012, 5:44 PM

I am wondering how harmful it would be to go off Meds for a month until my Medicare part D kicks in. I just cannot afford to pay out of pocket for these meds .. I am so financially drained. Advice needed.