HIV Support Group

I have had HIV for over 20 years and have managed to stay off the meds but the time has come now with T-cells in the 200 range. I really hope Atripla is a drug I can take. Being only once a day I feel I can adhere, but not if I AM going to keep having crazy spells and wake up feeling like I do now. So foggy and drained and nauseous. I avoided reading the pages of literature for this drug and it's possible side effects because I did not want to convince myself of anything untrue but...seriously, this stuff is really sending me for a loop.

I started taking Atripla less than 2 weeks ago. The first 2 nights on it were pretty intense with hallucinations both visual and auditory. These were not dreams because I had to keep opening my eyes to make sure I wasn't really seeing these things. It was not scary just hard to grasp and definitely impossible to sleep. They seemed to diminish after a few nights though so I thought YEEHAW, the worst is over.

Last night was the worst episode yet. About 1/2 hour after taking the Atripla I started getting the familiar spinning, lightheaded feeling so I headed to bed promptly. I did not make it and instead fell on the bedroom floor where I lost my mind completely. I don't know how long I lay on the bedroom floor before I came to and when I did come to, I was soaking wet with sweat. Head to toe soaking wet and I could not stand by myself. My body felt like it had electricity pulsing through it and my hands were shaking numb. I asked my husband to feel my hands but he could not feel the pulsing. I just don't know how that is possible, it was so intense. Today my lips feel numb and my hands are so heavy feeling and of course I have the lingering headache I have had for weeks now. The nausea is present too and makes it really hard to want to eat. I've lost a few pounds since starting this med and I really do not need to lose any more weight and my doctors agree.

I plan to discuss these things with my doctor this week but do not feel that the pharmacy will be much use to me. They had to special order my drug and when I picked it up, the pharmacist said she had never heard of it. Oh great! So I asked the pharmacist a couple of questions and she consulted the 3 pages of literature that came with my med to give me the answers. I don't have a lot of confidence in their expert opinion because of that.

Has anyone else had these symptoms from this med and if so, did they go away with time? Are these symptoms things I need to really be concerned with? I just do not know and do not want to do my body irreversible damage. It was so scary last night all I could do was to think of GOD when my mind left. When I came to GOD was telling me it was just a spell or was it me saying that? It was very scary confusing and I don't want to have to go through that too many times.

Any insight or experiences with this drug would be appreciated.

BE WELL.
Posted on 04/15/08, 12:04 pm