Thrown.

Dear Going Gentle,

Hope things are going well with you.

Your blood results from 7/2/08 were fine. They show that starting HIV treatment can be delayed for the time being as your count is above 350.

The CD4 count was 433 and the viral load was 17273 indicating low viral activity.

I would advise you to keep your appointment with Dr McAids next week to discuss these latest results and where to go from here.

Regards,

Dr Death

Your Friendly Local Clinic for HIV and Sexual Health

Names changed to cast a vague haze of anonymity over the whole thing. It's an odd spanner in the works. I'd been expecting the result to be like my last 2, hovering around the mark where I'd need to talk about starting treatment. Now, I'm not so sure. It's a tricky one - do I keep playing this lucky numbers game or do I think about how my health has been as more of a barometer? I've been ill quite a lot this last six months with various niggling and not so niggling infections and now I just don't know. Well, I'm still seeing the doctor on Monday, I guess we'll have a serious talk then. I guess I'd kind of been so prepared for my system to be in freefall, having a healthier result's a bit of a surprise.

Medication, woah medication!

It's starting to look like medication is, in fact, what I need. Hmm, maybe the comparison to Roy Castle isn't so good - look where his dedication got him.

I went to the clinic last night to get my bloods done, same as always, and I had a chat to the guy there about it - I've been iller this last six months than I think I can ever remember being. I'm a one-man MRSA factory, too, because I've had about five or six courses of antibiotics in as many months. He seemed to think I was right to bring it up - my last couple of results are in the range where it's worth starting to think about it, but if I'm feeling unwell, then it's a good time to make a start on medication.

Pretty much everyone I've talked to about it has found very few ill effects with their medication - especially people who've started recently, so I'm not worried so much about that; I'd just like to be able to feel well most of the time rather than some of the time and I'd like to know I was that little bit less infectious.

I'm going back in about 10 days to talk to a doctor about which combination is likely to suit me best. Until then I'm going to try not to think about it too much.