At the end of April I blogged about why I was curious about attempting another structured treatment interruption with my HIV meds. My doctor said there were no studies about this with the medication I am on, so he couldn’t necessarily recommend it, but that if I was intent on trying it then we would have to monitor it with more frequent labwork.

On Monday, after three weeks of the 4 days on/3 days off experiment, I am going to go in for lab works at the tail end of the off cycle to see how my viral load is responding. My viral load is always undetectable- I certainly want to keep it that way- and I am hopeful that there hasn’t been any seismic shift. Back in the days when I was doing one week on HIV meds and one week off, I’d get labs done after the week off and my viral load would still be under control. And when I started doing that in 2005, there weren’t any real studies to go on either, just some speculation and my desire to limit short-term and long-term side effects of the medication.

Now, of course, I’m not recommending anyone else try this. I’m just trying to find my own comfort zone, and the idea makes sense to me because of my unique treatment history. And if it doesn’t work out, I’ll be fine. My current regimen is light years ahead of the HIV meds that inspired me to try week on/week off nearly two decades ago. 

Anyway, wish me luck! I’ll write about the results next week.

Positively Yours,
Shawn