Maybe being part of the Health Management Group will help also.
Yesterday, saw Dr. A. Left me a bit depressed most of the day -- maybe because the rains set in on Sunday -- and everyone seems to be a little down now. I was her first patient -- and I asked her what direction I should head. Her response was that did it matter what she thought, since I'd do whatever I liked anyways. She didn't say it attackingly, and obviously something else was going on. OK -- so it turns out she now has 3 teenagers in the house, and I think she was probably saying it more to her 17 year old son, than me.
We're still waiting for the result of my Fuzeon Resistance test to come back -- probably this week. She also said she would present my case to the weekly doctor's meeting they have on Thursday.
We talked about whether to go on TMC-125, or MK-0518. Dr. A didn't feel there wasn't much of a different, especially since the merck drug is so new and may have unknown problems. But my research suggest otherwise. I already have 4 NNRTI mutations, and studies show that for people with that many mutations, there is only a .52 log drop in virus, as opposed to someone without any mutations achieving a 1.6 log drop. That is quite a difference.
Also, found out from Dr. A. that there were only 1000 or so slots available for MK-0518 in expanded access, and if I waited until Kaiser was approved as an expanded access site in January, they would probably all be gone by then. It was recommended that
I go ahead and call the other site in town, The Research and Education Group, and get on their list. So, when I go home, I called them, and talked to Toni, and she put me as number 4 on their list.Now, my concern is that I may have to make a decision to go ahead and take the Intergrase, even if my viral load (which is now 27,000) and t-cells (260) stay stable, when I would prefer and wait until a decline.
Decisions.
I think of the mountain.
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