Question
Could that be a result of anaemia?
28 January 2009. Related: All topics, Changing treatment, Side effects.
Hello,
Firstly, thank you for your web site, it s really full of usefull informations and help to all of us to get so many answers to our questions.
I’ve been infected for 2,5 years. My first symptom was seborrhoic dermatitis, and then it was encephalitis. Finally, diagnosis was HIV infection. I started to take Videx-didanosine, Epivir – lamivudine, and Kaletra – lopinavir/r. It seemed to be OK, but after 6-8 months of taking drugs I started to feel difference in way of thinking – I was always tired, hard to concentrate at work, sleepy, have problems with memory, feeling vertigo in my head. I thougt it was anaemia – my Ery cells were low/before I was taking Combivir – after that switched to Epivir and Videx- 1,5months ago. My question is – can these cognitive problems be caused by anaemia? /hemoglobin was ok/, CD4 cells are more than 1000, viral load – undetectable.
My HIV doctor keeps saying that it is too late for HIV encephalopathy – I am 28 years old, just 2 years beeing infected and therapy seems to do very well.
So, may these be symptoms of anaemia, or just side effects of drugs? Should I wait longer for new combination Videx+Epivir to start work?/and Combivir to stop doing dicrease of erythrocytes/?
I am a doctor, too, and because of my job, I am really scared of HIV encephalopathy and demencia.
Thank you for yourl reply. Best regards.
Answer
Now, I have the impression that you already checked for anaemia and it was not there (from what I read in your question). There are some further issues here though. Why do you change the Combivir to ddI+3TC in 2009? Have you considered Truvada or Kivexa instead? The d-drugs are more prone to provoke peripheral neuropathy in the long run, to start with, as well as you may have a higher chance of developing lipodistrophy too.
As for the fatigue, it can be a result of many reasons that are described in details at the following link: http://www.i-base.info/guides/side/fatigue.html Many people underestimate the effect of proper sleep too, but one study showed that about 60% of the cases of fatigue in HIV-positive people are a result of not getting enough sleep. Other reasons can be mitochondrial toxicity and many others…
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