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Remember, you HIV fatigue is NOT just in your imagination! Also, I (and many others) stongly agree with you about the damn drug ads. Some of the smarter drug companies have "toned" them down but if they were smart they would put real people with living with HIV in their ads. What is wrong with us who take the damn stuff day in and day out?
Hi Richard, thanks for your reply and your words of encouragement. I value your opinions becuase you are damn grounded in reality not some psychobabble shit! I am going to see my HIV MD next week to see if there is anything going on or I am doing wrong causing an increase in the fatigue. I do not know if this issue has been brought up by you before but it is related to this. I HATE all those advertisements for all those HIV meds.(usually in gay magazines mainly and usually show smiling hunks on a beach or something)that make it look like you take one or two pills and life will be back to a bed of roses. Sure it may project "hope" but, in my eyes, trivilizes that these meds. are heavy duty "chemotherapy" NOT aspirin and trivilizes this disease - it pisses me off!!!!
Jose, no comment is "too late". I am happy you are going back and reading my previous posts. Here is what I need to say to you and everyone else living with HIV and chronic fatigue (virtually regardless of the cause) it DOES NOT HAVE to be that way. Yes, there will be "days from hell" (like the one I talk about in this post) but we are living with a chronic life threatening disease. We are on DAILY chemotherapy. (There isn't another "concept" for it other than that in all reality.) But, bottom line is that you and your primary care provider should be able to peel away at the fatigue onion and find some probable causes for it (physical, emotional and/or spiritual) and discuss options to attempt to correct or, at the very least, moderate it. Come up with an "AIDS day" game plan if you will. DO NOT ACCEPT FEELING TERRIBLE AS NORMAL JUST BECAUSE YOU (WE)HAVE AIDS. IT IS NOT NORMAL AND YOU DESERVE TO FEEL BETTER. However, several word of caution that I feel often does not get said in the exam. You will most likely have to do some leg work to curtail your fatigue. Work in NOT a four letter word. It is a word or empowerment. All of the issues of living with HIV are not contained in a pill bottle. I have faith and confidence in all people living with HIV that they can make small changes in their lives to help them feel better if only they get the information, support, and tools to achieve them. DO NOT ACCEPT TERRIBLE...it is NOT normal.
Since I stumbled upon these blogs recently, I am going to leave a rather "late" comment...LOL. I am having one of those months where I am fuckin' fatigued almost everyday. I wake up tired and go to sleep tired almost everyday now. Yes I work but if it wasn't for my coffee addiction I wouldn't make it through the work day. Since I also suffer from clincal depression I really can't say which one it is...the fuckin's AIDS and the meds or the depression kicking in or maybe both combining...I guess that goes back to that internal question of "who came first the chicken or the egg" but I am too tired to debate that!
Hey Pluto...I think you have a very interesting and valid point. I also feel it is important for us living with HIV/AIDS for long term to remember we are the FIRST CO-HORT or generation to do so. So we are in fact the "lab rats of time". It is essential we talk and document our experiences so that other will learn. One thing I feel we can almost certainly agree upon is not wanting to live with the doom of history repeating itself.
Bad days are just a part of the long-term survival with H/A. Perhaps because we have more good days than bad we subconsciously forget but, I can tell you that after 14 years past my expiration date I am still glad I am around. I still have too many people to talk to about this disease (I go into classrooms to tell my story as a prevention message).
Hey gorgeous! I too work out several times a week. Also,in the past, whenever i used muscles i had'nt for a while, The tendons in my legs or arms, would become so emflamed it was, and still is, rediculous. Damn the muscle, the tendons always take it in the shorts! Anywhere they attach to the bone is so painful. Sure, the muscles would hurt a little, thats normal, but the tendons becoming so enflamed? Not so normal! Don't know why! ?? Jeff-Seattle Wa.
Jose
Thanks again Richard, I am going to my MD to check out the fatigue. I am a pretty tough fighter mentally (we have no choice)but my body feels like a I am stuck on first gear lol. Pharmaceutical companies, as almost every advertiser knows, sex and pretty people sell - even for medications for life threatening diseases...WTF!!!!! Since most of the ads are targeted towards gay men, maybe a hunkier hunk will persuade us to switch from one med. to another...who the f*ck knows...but they play those games and some of us fall for it...that is why they are billionaires with NO conscious! Unfortunately we ARE the guinea pigs for them for all these new anti-virals and we SHOULD be paid for that!!!!! But advertisements work becuase I have friends who are still very promiscuous and have this almost "magical thinking" that if they become poz, all they will do is take a "pill" and continue with their behaviors...they don't listen to me or others who ARE living with it. I remember asking one guy who is a "bug chaser"(hey please do a blog on this, I have lots of stories being the one chased lol)that if he had medical insurance...he said "no" then I proceeded to laugh in his face!
October 27, 2009