Infectous Diseases team

After the 4 hour dialysis today I had a quite interesting appt with the Infectious Diseases team, who are in charge of WTF to do about my HIV medication now that there's all this complicated shit going on with my kidneys failing. The discussion included the prospect of going back on to HIV medication, and the possibility of returning to work in some capacity.

I have been quite concerned about not being on any HIV anti-retrovirals at the moment. My worries are that by being taken off them (due to my kidneys not being able to handle them) then the HIV gains the upper hand; the virus mutates and develops resistance to not only those drugs I was taking, but also co-resistance - that is resistance to other drugs in the same class as those I was on. So my choices for future treatment then become limited. After expressing these concerns I was told that due to the way I was taken off them (put on Kaletra instead - another HIV drug) then it was unlikely resistance would have developed. I hope this is the case, otherwise when I do go back on to medication in the future it may end up quite a process to find a drug that actually works. 

There's been so much shit going on the last 2 months, I don't even know what my current CD4 count is, other than the lowest it got was 450 in ICU, a relatively healthy number considering I'm taking nothing for it. The doctors are therefore not at the moment concerned about the HIV too much and it's more about getting the kidneys back into working order. It all very much depends on the Renal team, the results they get from the biopsy, and the course of action they take, as to what the Infectious Diseases team does. I don't however want it to be some kind of an emergency thing to get put back on medication though.

I also asked about the possibility of a partial return to work, which there was no objection to as long as OH&S was followed. No problem there as work is a big place and they're right into that. They would put me on light duties. I'm still getting half pay from them, which is enough for rent and food. It's been about 2 months though since I was there, it'd be good if I could at least show up to confirm I was still in existence! The dept head has assured me a number of times that I do have a job to go back to, but cripes, 2 months off?

I've continued to feel the depression lift. It's like slowly moving from a dark grey world of doom into a world of colour and form. I noticed in the 6 hour lie flat thing after the biopsy yesterday, how good it was now to do something as simple as just listening to music again. You can appreciate the art involved, and the meaning is much more apparent in much of it.