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Sorry, I meant to say FOTO (five days on two days off).
I have been on the so-called FOTO (five days on four days off) for about 6 years now. My combo is different than the one in the study. The reason I started on this (without my docs knowledge) is that I was getting unpleasant side effects (mostly buffalo hump, which ultimately resolved itself). If you consider the half-lifes of most HIV drugs you will see that after 48 hours you still have a considerable amount still floating around in your system. It is my personal believe that we are all over-dosed, especially when we become habituated to our drug regimens. And ritonavir, which I am on as a booster, just adds to this long lasting effect. My CD4s went from about 350 (for several years) to about 650 concurrent with this change to FOTO. My VL has always been undetectable. I dont argue with these results.
Over the 10yrs I've been on ARV, I have had one break. Missing a dose here and there has not affected any of my stats and causes me no concern. STI's controversial at the best. As for the SMART trial, more like the dumb trial. With a trial such as this, it seems obsurd to recruit over 5,000 & from over 300 different sites, no wonder is was doomed from the start. Other smaller, rather more logical trials reveal different results. Hopefully further down the line we may see better conceived STI trials, directed at benefiting the patient, not the medical society. I believe the data from these trials are just the start.
Katongo
I am too scared to miss a dose even if just for experiment purposes, but picking up from Paul, I see a lot on fatness in the breast area and stomach which is rather too firm and on the most painful, I guess it is cell inflamation. Now this evolves in a cycle so it corrects itself. Now whether this is drug related or status related am not sure. Comment 3 - Are we overdosed or undersosed maybe we need specific trials on body weight and blood type.
February 11, 2009