Pork bellies are falling

Wow, time flies. I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. Holidays and such, I reckon. (Or, the more honest answer is that I'm a terrible procrastinator when it comes to blogging.)

Alrighty, then. I have received two AIM injections since my last post: One on about Dec 20th, and another last Thursday. In each case, the reactions were initially mild. However, about ten days after the December injection, I noticed that some of my symptoms began to increase at an alarming level. My vertigo and (officially unofficial) dementia symptoms got really bad over the New Year's weekend, to the degree that I sort of lost a few hours' memory. I felt detached from my body, but not in that good "drunken stupor" kind of way. Then, poof. It was pretty much gone (although it comes and goes, to a lesser degree, all of the time). This time, at about day four after injection, I am feeling kind of flu-ish, which may or may not be attributable to the injection.

In the meantime, I have noticed some strong improvements in my digestion, which has always been problematic for me. Let's just say I'm way more regular and leave it at that. ;-) Further, the cystic acne (that has plagued my back since shortly after my diagnosis) has improved, dramatically. Although, I do seem to experience a mild breakout at about day five after injection. Oddly enough, at the mid-way point between injections, I get these strange acne breakouts all over my earlobes, especially on the right earlobe. Weirdness.

On to other topics. There was a bout of drama since last time, though, as I had my blood drawn about a week too early. After the Dec 20th injection, I agreed to get another set of labs in about three weeks. I didn't realize that it was a literal three weeks, so sixteen days later, I had my blood drawn. (It felt like three weeks.) Anyway, the two-week point is apparently when the medicine reaches its peak, meaning that the viral load and other metrics will seem artifically high (or low as the case may be) at that point in time. At the same time, my thrush symptoms had gone ballistic on me, causing me to break down and get a Nystatin prescription.

Anyway, my regular doctor about had a meltdown when he saw the results of that initial blood test. My VL was >100,000, but what really concerned him was that my platelet count had fallen to 38,000. Immediate talk of drug regimens ensured. However, my regular doc decided to have the lab draw another blood sample to re-test my platelet count. And, thanks to ice storms where I live, I was able to forestall a pharmacological intervention. When that second test came back, my platelets had already returned to a more normal range of 138,000 (he didn't re-test for HIV.) Interestingly, I fessed up to my regular doc about AIM and asked him to exercise a little bit of restraint. His response was decidedly negative, as expected, but he left it up to me to decide how to proceed. However, he declined my request to meet with the AIM folks to discuss the protocol and the expected symptomatic milestones during the protocol.

So, if things go as planned, I should be on the cusp of a major positive turnaround in my VL. I am going to try to have another blood test done in three weeks. Cross your fingers. The news, next month, may be pretty amazing!