Wanted to share this with you all

Hi folks. A guy who reads here wrote me an e-mail and he gave me permission to share..


"I have been infected for just a couple of weeks longer than one year. I am 44. I've given up trying to figure out how or by whom because I was practicing safe sex. Of course, I now realize why the official word is "safer" sex. Nothing is fool proof except abstinence. In my case the doctor caught it almost immediately at sero-conversion. Luckily, I have a gay doctor. I had flu like symptoms, and a weird rash. The doc thought it might be syphilis. When I went to get the syphilis test, they tested me for HIV. I thought nothing of it because I had a negative HIV test 3 weeks earlier. Su-prise Su-prise! Anyway, my point of telling you all this is that my HIV doc put me on meds immediately under the fairly new theory that catching the virus during sero-conversion and starting HAART may improve long-term immune function because it does not have time to replicate and get into deep tissue or other hiding spots. Who knows. I hate being on meds, mainly because I hate putting a foreign substance in my body. It has to have a long term negative effect - even if it does prolong my life."

What I think is... yes, if possible and when advisable AND as long as your physician agrees, see what you can do to wait before medications. The long term impact is unknown so we are taking some chances in this regard. We DO KNOW THE LONG TERM IMPACT OF HIV INFECTION. That impact is far worse than what may or may not happen years down the road. So these medications are useful. You just need to make sure that you are ready to be on these meds.

Also - remember - there are better treatments and medications coming. In the meantime, we are buying ourselves time. I hope, as I am sure all of you do, that less toxic medications and treatments will be available soon.

Thanks to David for the e-mail and letting me copy part of it here.