From bad to great.

It was a roller coaster day.  I woke with a headache and was > < that close to calling in sick.  Then, I realized that I had collapsed on the couch after arriving home from lifting weights then playing hockey with little more than a milkshake and later a glass of milk and a piece of chocolate instead of dinner.  I took some drugs and went to work. . . in slow motion.  I ate crackers and peanut butter and got some caffiene and things turned around.  I have to remember to hit a drive thru in between work, the gym, and the rink on Tuesdays going forward.  I not only fell off the healthy eating wagon, I fell off the eating wagon.

Speaking of drugs, I got my blood test results today.  The anti-retroviral therapy works.  I take a Truvada and a Viramune in the morning and another Viramune in the evening.  My HIV viral load is 647 copies per ml, which is a far cry better than 420,000 four weeks prior.  My CD4 count is 564, which is more than double what it was.  I did the Snoopy dance walking out of the doc's office.  My immune system is on its way back to normal strength.  I want to reach a CD4 count over 850 and an HIV viral load of "undetectible".  They assured me it's possible if I do not miss a dose of the meds.  If the virus is allowed to replicate out of control it could mutate into an untreatable strain.  Luckily, since the virus responded to the treatment, I don't have a mutant.  That means long happy years for me. . . and lots of pills from now on.

I recently learned that there are 61 countries which have regulations restricting my travel and 15 countries to which I can no longer travel because of my diagnosis.  Well, 14, actually.  The USA is one of the countries which will not grant visas and commonly denies entry to HIV positive travelers.  I understand restricting people with something like tuberculosis, unless they're coming here for treatment.  HIV isn't transmitted randomly or in public.  This law must be some kind of holdover from the 80's.