Getting a leg up this morning

Maybe it’s the IV vitamin C, the low dose naltrexone, or something else, but I’ve had better energy and mood all summer. My biggest complaints lately are mostly due to the DVT blood clots that developed sometime last month.

Since this is the third time I’ve developed clots in my left leg, I know the drill, but that doesn’t mean I’m being completely compliant. I am taking the warfarain (Coumadin), though we seem to play Billy hell trying to get the dose just right. That’s why I inevitably quit the drug, only to throw another clot at some point.

<big sigh>

What I haven’t been so good about is following the routine that has proven to be the only way I’ve managed to get the venous ulcers and the lymphatic damage caused by the clots to heal.  It is a very intensive and time-consuming regimen involving lymphatic massage and compression.  I’m simply not doing all I could when there are so many other things I want and need to be doing.

Still, when the swelling and venous sores start getting worse, as they have been lately, I’m resigned to at least wear my panty hose… er, I mean compression stockings.

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  • 97

    97. That’s my latest CD4+ count, less than half the count from six weeks ago.

    That’s it. I have tried as many alternative treatments as I can think of to reverse the decline. I will be starting my third round of pharmaceutical ARVs as soon as I can get a prescription and fill it.

    This decision has been a long time coming, and in hindsight, I probably should have restarted a few months ago. There’s nothing magical about 97, or being below 100, but it’s as good a breaking point as any. I’ve long argued that there are two things to keep in mind about CD4 counts: one is the long-term trend; the other is single- or low double-digit counts.

  • Reduce AIDS drug toxicity and side effects

    I embarked on my third course of ARVs since 1998. For ten of the sixteen years I have been HIV-positive, I was able to manage well enough without ARVs and I continue to believe there is no reason for otherwise healthy HIV-positive—let alone negative—gay men to take these drugs. To those who want to wave a recent study about the benefits of early intervention in my face, I would ask them why they put so much faith in a science that has utterly failed us to date.

  • The truth about Truvada: PrEP won’t stop AIDS

    I’m willing to grant that gay men are entitled to use PrEP… provided they have access to all the information they need to make an informed decision. Informed consent has been a hallmark of the HIV and AIDS research and prevention efforts for three decades, and that shouldn’t be waived for the campaign favoring PrEP.

    Gay men deserve to know that all the claims for Truvada reducing the risk of acquiring HIV-positivity  are based on trials—funded by Gilead—that emphasized the importance of using condoms…

  • Confessions of a heretic AIDS dissident

    You might not know it from reading the comments left here on my blog, but there are more than a few AIDS dissidents who really don’t like how I think or what I write about.

    There’s a whole thread on a very popular Facebook page called “Rethinking AIDS”, discussing my open letter to Dora. Last I looked, that thread had nearly 100 comments, and very few of those comments were about Dora, Ruggiero or the defense of academic freedom.

    No, the gist of the thread was whether or not I am in “the AIDS Zone.” It seems that because I did not use “air quotes” around the term “HIV disease”, I’m not really an AIDS dissident. Others took issue with my post for daring to publish that some AIDS Rethinkers hold a very narrow view about “HIV” and “AIDS”, while others of us are merely “questioning” the whole affair. None of them chose to comment directly to me here.

    Some of the most visible and vocal Rethinkers seem intent on imposing their own “beliefs” (another loaded term that deserves quotes) on the entire movement. There has long been a tendency to try to impose a sort of litmus test to determine whether or not one is a true “AIDS dissident”.

    Since I first met the AIDS dissident community via the AIDS Myth Exposed forums—since renamed Questioning AIDS—several years ago, I’ve become aware of several of the various factions, distinctive personalities and divisions within that broad group. Now I’m finding it ironic just how guilty some of these people are at their own version of “bone-pointing”.

2 Comments

  1. And you’ve already claimed in your previous post that the IV Vitamin C did NOT improve your energy, so why are you fronting now?  Wishful thinking!  Keep it up and you’ll be on Dancing with the Denialists real soon!

  2. Also, Vitamin C is water soluble.  No one believes that a water soluble vitamin is going to kick in months later and give you all sorts of energy.  Stop lying to yourself, take you HIV meds and soon you’ll be feeling much better.   

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