Results 1

First set of results from the docs this morning.

My HIV strain didn't show any signs of specific drug resistance yay!

My CD4 comes in at 570.
My viral load is currently 90,000

For those not in the know, CD4 is basically a measure of how strong your immune system is - it's to do with white blood cells, you can go google it if you want to know more than that cause otherwise I'd fill several screens worth of text with information on CD4/CD8 cells and lymph nodes.  I'm well within the normal range, so I shouldn't be about to die any time soon.  There's also no urgent need to start drug treatment - but more to come on that sometime after Friday.

Viral load kinda measures what it says on the tin.  In copies per ml of blood.  The results can range from <50 a="a" aim="aim" and="and" any="any" as="as" asically="asically" ballpark="ballpark" be="be" body="body" dirty="dirty" does="does" drug="drug" easy="easy" elevated="elevated" eventual="eventual" evil="evil" expected="expected" fairly="fairly" hiv="hiv" i="i" in="in" infection="infection" interpret.="interpret." is="is" it="it" its="its" less="less" load="load" m="m" million="million" mine="mine" my="my" nbsp="nbsp" not="not" number="number" of="of" on="on" p="p" recent="recent" s="s" so="so" somewhat-high-ish-but-nothing-to-worry-about="somewhat-high-ish-but-nothing-to-worry-about" spreads="spreads" that="that" the="the" therapy="therapy" things.="things." this="this" throughout="throughout" to="to" treatment="treatment" undetectable="undetectable" viral="viral" work.="work." would="would" y="y" yet="yet">
Oh also my liver function is slightly above average.  They took more blood for more tests.


These are great as a rough guide to where I am, but what is FAR more useful is the trend of both these numbers over time.  The faster my CD4 decreases/viral load increases the more likely it is that I'll develop symptoms and the worse my body is doing at keeping the infection under control.  (I would say fighting, but ultimately, there's no 'win' here, even on drug treatment, the best I can get is to suppress the disease to a point where it doesn't particularly affect my daily life).  So basically I have to get tests for the rest of my life.  I see the consultant on Friday and we'll work out then what the next step is, and therefore, how often those tests are likely to come and when I'm likely to know how good my body is doing against the virus.

If you want to know more about my results, ask me in person, or go google things.  Either way expect information overload.  I've kept it pretty short and simple here for ease of understanding.