Email 77: Climbing ALT and AST

Posted by Pozziepinoy on 5:16 PM

Hi Pozziepinoy, 

 I am very thankful to God for coming across your blog.

  I am writing to ask you about the ARVs which I started a month ago. I have the same set -efavirenz, lamivudine, and tenofovir. I have adhered to the scheduled timing and dosage for a month and thank God I have not encountered the side effects except for the dizziness in the morning due to efavirenz.

However, at the start of my second month I noticed a sudden climb in my ALT and AST levels (almost 8x the normal) and abdominal pain. My creatinine is normal. I also noticed for the first time that my urine is turning too orange and with pink streaks and so I decided to stop my ARVs for 2 days. But after reading your blogs, I am somewhat encouraged to go back to ARVs. I just hope and pray that with just two days of missing no resistance will crop up. 

 Did you encounter the same thing with your urine. I always have lemon urine most of the time until very recently I noticed that change. Is it possible that it is due to ARVs?  I am concerned about my liver and kidney. I still have to talk and discuss this with my doctor but maybe a few insights from your end would be great!

Thank you in advance!
XXX
POZZIEPINOY'S REPLY

 Hi XXX,

 Thank you for your email and for finding my blog. I hope that you are learning something from my entries as this is the purpose of this: to share my researches and to educate others as I educate myself.

 I assisted one pozzie who had the same condition as you are having right now. I reported his case to Dr. Ditangco and her advice to him was to go back to the hub and report everything to his doctor. From then on they just monitored everything and right now, everything is back to normal levels. 

 However, I can't tell you what they advised him in the treatment hub because each patient's case is unique. Your doctor will know what the best solution to your problem and of course he or she will base it on your past medical history.

 My advice then to you is communicate your concern fast to your HIV doctor so you will get the best advice and or treatment. Trust in the wisdom of our doctors in the treatment hub because I really believe that they know what they are doing.

 I hope I was able to answer your question. Feel free to email me again if you have other concerns.
Stay healthy,
Pozziepinoy

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