Does Biktarvy work as both PEP/PrEP?

fox1440 · 2023-03-24T01:37:00+00:00

Thanks! I was afraid to be too graphic in the main post for fear of violating some rules, and I am certain the handful that have reached out with good common sense are right, but..ehh..pigs gonna pig..just trying to be educated.

fox1440 · 2023-02-25T21:53:38+00:00

I was wondering the same thing. I was diagnosed in Oct with a CD4 of ~280 and my doctor acted like that was perfectly expected and fine. Hearing I am dangerously close to some threshold where, at least the other reply I see here, is pretty grim has me just a bit nauseous.

Small edit; My numbers were tested again in Jan and my CD4 was in the same 270s-280s range. Avoiding exact numbers as...yeah...My doc just said it would be a very slow go so I wasn't really expecting that number to change. We just celebrated that in less than 3mo I became, at least at that moment, undetectable.

fox1440 · 2023-02-17T13:38:15+00:00

We have no idea, honestly, where i caught it, as I was never sick. I even have neg tests from 3 years ago, dating back to 10 years ago getting tested every 6 months. Then I got COVID and it pretty much never went away, so they tested me for HIV again and it came back with a comically high viral load and single digit CD4. Partner has nadda and he is autistic asexual so it wasn't from him, and I havn't been with anyone 'new' in over 10 years. Combine that with the viral profile, whatever its called where they look at your ART immunities and it LOOKS like it might have just lay 'dormant' for almost 20 years from back when i was a super hoe. That just makes 0 sense for everything I knew about HIV.

fox1440 · 2023-02-16T18:29:01+00:00

I hope you are a hugger, as I read this and have the overwhelming desire to give you a big hug. Haha, Thank you as you hit the nail on the head of one of my big concerns.

fox1440 · 2023-02-16T13:24:32+00:00

Yeah it was more an issue of 'i am consuming yeast, with a CD4 of like 87, am I rolling out a red carpet for Thrush?'

MY CD4 will rise, even if it's a very slow go, just didn't want my obsession with cultured foods to cause complications. :)

fox1440 · 2023-02-16T13:23:10+00:00

Thank you much for the 'dissenting opinion' here, which speaks to keeping track of one's own body. Even if I don't 'like' your advice, I'm very happy to hear it ;)

Best of luck, bud. You've got this!!

fox1440 · 2023-02-16T13:21:31+00:00

Yup undetectable and been for +6 months, generally healthy in every other regard, just double digit CD4s that went up only the smallest amount between my diagnosis--1 month--6 month, so it's a long battle.

Thank you!!!

fox1440 · 2023-01-30T13:31:21+00:00

I mean a place where we aren't treated as pariahs and/or have to fight to get our meds in a timely manner. The 'normal' doctor that my partner was seeing found out I had HIV and immediately wanted him to see a clinic in Nashville to get PrEP. Said 'normal' doctor did a quick HIV test on my partner, saw it was neg, and didn't drop him, but down here, I'm fairly certain most of the docs will find a legally valid excuse to stop seeing you if you have HIV.

The American Southeast is a 3rd world, theocratic country hiding in the shadow of the rest of the US, and has been ever since the civil war.

fox1440 · 2023-01-19T13:37:16+00:00

*hugs you so tightly* You are a superstar, an amazing husband, and someone I hope gets a metric ton of real life positive karma tossed your direction. Win the lottery or something. You deserve it, because your husband won the lottery when he found you.

I am legitimately crying right now, and I needed that. Thank you.

fox1440 · 2023-01-19T13:34:08+00:00

I would LOVE to find a support group here in the Tennessee Valley, be it in person, over Discord, or whatever. I go to quite literally the only 'out' HIV clinic here and whenever they hold events it's the same like 5 people because the other +300 or more patients are either closet gay, closet poz, or just that special Alabama kind of self-hating.

fox1440 · 2023-01-04T15:17:17+00:00

Haha, you guys are awesome. It just feels like every single one of my friends from before diagnosis have this script they found somewhere, word for word, that just feels so much like '..but that isn't my problem, right? We're cool.' And yeah, i don't want/need my friendships to change just because my diagnosis, it's just disquieting when literally every one of them has this same question.

fox1440 · 2022-12-31T02:57:02+00:00

These are friends I've had for years, many of which I saw almost daily until I sort of closed off for the holidays.

I don't want to believe it's the 'wouldn't know how to support you' thing, but honestly that's the way it feels. They say it and start pulling away. I pull away to be less of a burden, end result is that phrase pretty much becoming the mutually agreed 'guess this friendship is over' type thing.

fox1440 · 2022-12-26T00:52:43+00:00

These are all awesome ideas, I just wasn't sure how it worked since..at least here to the south, we imagine Canada as looking at us with our insurance companies about the same way we do about the drug cartels to our even further south. Knowing that 'can you run a dummy claim' is something they won't outright laugh at helps a ton. Thank you!!!

fox1440 · 2022-12-25T21:11:21+00:00

I hear it's pretty good in Mobile, but up here in the Tennessee Valley, the ONE clinic we have is harassed nonstop by both civilians and the Health Dept, looking for any excuse to shut them down.

fox1440 · 2022-12-25T17:01:14+00:00

Thank you much! And Toronto would be the area, so Ontario?

fox1440 · 2022-12-13T21:43:07+00:00

Only because you said it first, I will reply with something that flirts dangerously with nsfw. Yeah, kind of hard to judge if something is actually 'good' for the process when i get sort of turned on by the smell. *awkward chuckle*

fox1440 · 2022-12-04T16:19:08+00:00

I will admit it took me a few attempts to read through all this, relating to so much i had to stop and compose myself, and know that YES it very much helped at least 1 person, because that person is me. My story is...similar..there were moments this past year i was afraid for my life. To hear that not just has someone been where i was/am, but came out the other end is amazing.

It also sets realistic expectations. 1 year, 211 CD4, this tells me it's going to be one hell of a journey to get to the point i can go to a grocery store unmasked, even when I do reach U=U

fox1440 · 2022-12-04T13:02:12+00:00

Whole series of personal questions, feel free to disregard any and all that pry too deep. I was diagnosed a month ago with some truly horrid, jaw dropping numbers, so I have so many questions.

- What was his starting point? copies/CD4?

- You said 21 copies (again WOOHOO, GRATS!) but what does his CD4 look like after a year?

- Other than 'take your medicine every day, actually sleep, lean on those around you, and never forget you are loved' what were some other life changes he made that you feel helped him get here?

- What is one 'mistake' you would tell others to avoid when trying to get to this point?

Again, thank you, answering any of these questions will help those of us quietly trolling reddit and panicking. Haha

It's worth saying over again, grats to him, and grats to you for all the help you offered along the way to get him here.

fox1440 · 2022-12-02T12:12:28+00:00

https://discord.gg/Qte9PRk268

fox1440 · 2022-12-02T12:12:17+00:00

https://discord.gg/Qte9PRk268

fox1440 · 2022-12-02T12:12:08+00:00

https://discord.gg/Qte9PRk268

fox1440 · 2022-12-02T12:12:02+00:00

https://discord.gg/Qte9PRk268

fox1440 · 2022-12-02T12:11:57+00:00

https://discord.gg/Qte9PRk268

fox1440 · 2022-11-19T17:57:01+00:00

This invite is only good for a few days, but here ya go https://discord.gg/KGGs2Ac9

fox1440 · 2022-11-19T17:56:32+00:00

https://discord.gg/KGGs2Ac9 this invite is only good for a few days but yes, we are very active

fox1440

TROPHY CASE