Thrush a'bye baby
Just before the Thanksgiving holiday break, I got a call from my infectious diseases doc. He was calling with my the results of my latest blood work, which was drawn the week before. As my primary care physician and infectious diseases docs are not at all affiliated, the ID doc didn't know about my 150K VL spike, last month. (And no, I didn't offer up that tidbit, either.) When the ID doc called, I could tell he was a bit concerned -- especially because he usually just appends a short note to my labs and sends them via snail mail.
As predicted by Dr. T. (the inventor of AIM), though, my viral load has begun to come back down. It's still up there, comparitively speaking, but almost half what it was, a month earlier. I suspect my viral load would have been even lower had I not just received another shot of AIM, four days earlier. So, here are the latest stats:
VL: 76,000 (159,000 last time)
CD-4: 254 (262 last time)
The ID doc's biggest concern was my CD-4 count. He stated that it's around the 250 mark that he generally likes to begin a "regimen," as his goal is to pre-empt any opportunistic infections that might try to take advantage of the weakened immune system. Fortunately, though, he didn't panic. Instead, he asked me to have my lab work repeated in about six - eight weeks to determine whether or not this set of results was a fluke.
All of that said, though, I have also begun to experience my first real (make that "classic") HIV-related symptoms. Lately, my tongue has been sore and, at times, it has been difficult to swallow. I didn't think much of it, reasoning it to be the result of allergies or of a mild cold bug. However, yesterday after Thanksgiving dinner, I was teasing my daughter and stuck out my tongue at her. Her response was, "Eww, what's that brown stuff on your tongue?" At first, I thought it might have been residual stains from the hords of black olives that I had been feasting upon. Yet, when I went into the bathroom, later, to have a look, I was shocked to see the classical signs of thrush, which is essentially a yeast infection in the mouth. The brown stuff was really more of a pukey yellow, but sure enough, it was there. I immediately started rinsing with listerine, and then started spraying my mouth with Dr. Schweitzer's forumla, which I get from Meridian. I later visited WebMD, where I learned that one can try to treat thrush with live cultured yogurt. That'll be my next step.
Wishing you a joyful respite this holiday weekend.
As predicted by Dr. T. (the inventor of AIM), though, my viral load has begun to come back down. It's still up there, comparitively speaking, but almost half what it was, a month earlier. I suspect my viral load would have been even lower had I not just received another shot of AIM, four days earlier. So, here are the latest stats:
VL: 76,000 (159,000 last time)
CD-4: 254 (262 last time)
The ID doc's biggest concern was my CD-4 count. He stated that it's around the 250 mark that he generally likes to begin a "regimen," as his goal is to pre-empt any opportunistic infections that might try to take advantage of the weakened immune system. Fortunately, though, he didn't panic. Instead, he asked me to have my lab work repeated in about six - eight weeks to determine whether or not this set of results was a fluke.
All of that said, though, I have also begun to experience my first real (make that "classic") HIV-related symptoms. Lately, my tongue has been sore and, at times, it has been difficult to swallow. I didn't think much of it, reasoning it to be the result of allergies or of a mild cold bug. However, yesterday after Thanksgiving dinner, I was teasing my daughter and stuck out my tongue at her. Her response was, "Eww, what's that brown stuff on your tongue?" At first, I thought it might have been residual stains from the hords of black olives that I had been feasting upon. Yet, when I went into the bathroom, later, to have a look, I was shocked to see the classical signs of thrush, which is essentially a yeast infection in the mouth. The brown stuff was really more of a pukey yellow, but sure enough, it was there. I immediately started rinsing with listerine, and then started spraying my mouth with Dr. Schweitzer's forumla, which I get from Meridian. I later visited WebMD, where I learned that one can try to treat thrush with live cultured yogurt. That'll be my next step.
Wishing you a joyful respite this holiday weekend.
Labels: AIM, alternative therapy, hiv, thrush
posted by AIM Guinea Pig at 4:48 PM
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