Petrelis Files

On Becoming a 'Truvada Bore' at UCSF's Poz Clinic

I had my intake appointment this week with my new primary care physician Dr. Susa Coffey up at the UCSF Parnassus campus' 360 Poz Clinic, where I've transferred to after years of receiving care at SF DPH's Castro Mission Health Center. Frankly, I should have left that center years ago because of the higher quality of care, not to mention easier coordination and ability to secure appointments, at UCSF.

Dr. Coffey and I spent nearly ninety-minutes going over my recent pulmonary problems and other current concerns, while also taking into account my historical medical records from DPH. We were both very worried about my high hepatitis B viral load and discussed a treatment plan to address that, without driving up the HIV viral load or creating new problems.

We decided I'd go off of Combivir and switch to Truvada, the drug that fights both HIV and hepatitis B. Get more info about the drug and dealing with both infections at the HIVandHepatitis.com site.

I've picked up the Truvada from my pharmacy and am now taking it, and have enjoyed a good laugh about getting on it for the stated relatively boring old reasons and not for the controversial reasons of using Truvada as a PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis, tool to avert acquiring HIV.

Some of the sexually active gay men using Truvada as part of their plan to stay HIV negative, in response to stupidity surrounding Truvada equals PrEP, have taken to declaring themselves a "Truvada whore" and wearing t-shirts with the Twitter hashtag "#TruvadaWhore". I heartily approve. Carry on with such treatment = prevention activism, and self-empowerment, men!

However, for me as a longterm AIDS survivor it's much more appropriate to identify as a "Truvada bore" and today I'll be launching the hashtag "#TruvadaBore" on Twitter, lol.

Hoping that I get nothing but the best results from the drug to battle my HIV and hepatitis B co-infections.