My HIV doctor has been looking after my HIV and my general health for nearly twenty years.  She is fully across my current hep C treatment too.  It is a relationship of trust and mutual respect and I know she is there for me.  She’s the one who started me on HIV treatment; encouraged me to stay on treatment, even when it got tough; And as I get older she is looking out for the things that will be a challenge for me and my compromised immune system.

One of those things is raised blood pressure.  The blood pressure medication I have been on has given me a persistent cough, which has been exacerbated by the ribavirin added to my hep C treatment. So I need to make a change.  Armed with a list of blood pressure medications that are compatible with my hep C treatment, we sat down together and chose a new one that is right for me.  

I really appreciate that she involves me fully in all treatment decisions.  I also appreciate that she has encouraged me to upgrade to each new generation of HIV treatment as it comes along.  In the bad old days of HIV I was on three different meds at the same time, all with different dosing regimens. Some of them had to be refrigerated.  Lots of them had nasty side effects.  All in all there were six or seven pills per day.  Now I am on just one pill, once per day for my HIV.

Although it is 20 years behind, the amazing developments in HIV medicine over the years are thankfully now being replicated in hep C.  My hep C treatment involves two tabs of one med taken once per day; one tab of another med taken twice per day; plus I two tabs of ribavirin taken twice per day.  How long before hep C treatment is one pill once per day?