Introduction and a bit of ranting

[Tarek66]

Hello forum,

My name is Tarek, I’m Egyptian, I’ve been diagnosed with Hiv at the first day of the current year, I have no idea how long I’ve had it but I can say that it’s less than a year because my last checkup was a year ago (unless the last checkup wasn’t accurate, which is very likely with the public Egyptian medical institutions) ... the public institutions here are the only authority allowed to do testing and/or treatment for Hiv, they dispense ARV treatment for free but conditionally (you have to get below 400 cd4 count for them to allow your access to the treatment) ... it’s a very scary concept...

Otherwise, I like to think of myself as a happy person, and I am pretty relaxed and content most of the time, until I catch a cold and think to myself “this is it” :)) ... I have caught cold around 2~3 times ever since my diagnosis, the weather changes and bad isolation of buildings here make it too easy, each was more dreadful to me than the last, I’m fresh out of the last one and starting to feel like myself again...

But I started to realize that I need better medical care... the public institutions mentioned get an enormous load of patients everyday, so there’s no real personalized care and it’s so bad that I would be scared to stay in that environment lest I’d catch something... while private doctors freak out as soon as they realize you are hiv+ and refer you back to the said hospitals and institutions claiming that they’d know better (which is clearly BS)... So I’m searching for a GP or a medical professional in Egypt who’s willing to look at Hiv patients and help them with regular routine health checks and stuff like that without freaking out or blaming everything on Hiv and referring patients back to the shit holes they call public hospitals around here...

Let me also mention that ever since the diagnosis I’ve been giving blood samples to the public hospital near me every 2~3 weeks and will have to keep doing that until I fall down to a “treatable cd4 level” and they do nothing more regards symptom tracking or help with minor infections and things like that...

So if anyone knows of a medical professional who can provide that around here, that’d be great for me :3

Otherwise I guess I need all kinds of support and would love to discuss my condition and compare/share with others about it

Thanks for reading :3

[Griffon]

Hi Tarek , I'm in the UK so not able to help you find a doctor , but I remember so clearly how it was when I was first diagnosed .

The first thing is to stop worrying !

When I was diagnosed , eight years ago , it was policy not to start ARV until CD4 was down to 250 . The reason being that the benefits of treatment had to be offset against the side affects of medication . Since then they have raised the CD4 start level because as drugs have improved the side affects have lessened and it's been found an earlier start to medication is beneficial . A CD4 start level of 400 sounds about right . CD4 levels fall at very roughly 100 a year with an untreated infection , so the decline is pretty slow . So depending on your current level , you have plenty of time to sort things out .

From my personal experience I have found general doctors to be pretty much useless . Because I live in a small community I have not informed my GP of my condition . You can do a great deal to manage your condition yourself by leading a healthy lifestyle , and strict adherence to medication when you start .

You can use the time before you start ARV to educate yourself about HIV , as their is a lot of information on line and it helps to know what you are dealing with .

You are going to be alright , stop worrying !

[Tarek66 in reply to Griffon]

That makes a lot of sense I am currently doing my best to gather information on the subject and to stay in a decent state of mind and body... I’ve always been a worrisome person, freaking out over any small misfortune or anything going slightly wrong... I think I’ve somewhat made progress from there, and your reply does help a great deal ^_^Thank you, Griffon!

[Tarek66]

Update... I've been on atripla for the last 3 months, it seems to be working well, my most recent cd4 test was 651 with VL 5000~ copies... I'm feeling good and I picked up yoga and upgraded my eating habits... I guess that's what it took for me to get on a better path...

Thank you for your support, this whole website has been quite a valuable resource for me 😁

[Jayfaith in reply to Tarek66]

Lovely to hear - greetings to you too

[JS18 in reply to Tarek66]

Hi Tarek66. Thank you for sharing your story so happy you seem to be doing better. Here in the US can’t help much but always willing to listen and help where I can. Peace health and happiness to you.