Thursday, December 29, 2011

Warna Warni 2011

Melaka - view from Tamingsari

i-City Shah Alam

Desaru

Cameron Highlands

Broga Hill

Universal Studio Singapore

India

Mumbai @ Bombay

Bali

Bandung


Diam tak diam, tahun 2011 bakal melabuhkan tirainya dalam masa beberapa hari sahaja lagi. Pelbagai suka-duka dicoretkan pada tahun ini. Rasa sedih, gembira, lara, nestapa - menjadikan hidup lebih matang. Tanpa benda tersebut, pasti terasa kosong hidup ini kan. Seperti yang telah TT coretkan pada penghujung tahun 2010, azam 2011 adalah berkonsepkan "around the world". Gambar-gambar di atas adalah di antara tempat yang sempat TT kunjungi sepanjang tahun 2011 huhuhu. What about 2012 plak apa destinasi seterusnya yer? Ermmm...

As time goes by, I didn't realize that it has been more than 3 years I live with HIV. Few phases I've gone through - demoralized is one of them. But luckily I've many supportive friends out there. They provide me with appropriate advise and moral support. Thank Allah for sending them and making them existed in my life!

To all readers out there, happy new year and good bye 2011 - which has been fulfilled with wonderful colours of life!


Sunday, November 20, 2011

Al Fatihah buat pemergian sahabat TT




Semasa TT berehat di ruang tamu sambil melayari Facebook, TT dikejutkan dek berita kehilangan seorang sahabat TT yang telah lama TT kenali.

Arwah telah jatuh sakit sejak 3 bulan yang lalu, tetapi hanya hari ini TT baru ketahui tentang perkara itu. Memang terkilan sebab tidak dapat melawat jenazah kerana arwah meninggal nun jauh di selatan tanah air.

TT masih teringat kenangan kami bersama 7 tahun yang lalu...argh.

Bercelaru sebentar perasaan TT hari ini. Walaubagaiamanapun, kita doakan semoga roh beliau ditempatkan bersama orang-orang yang bertaqwa. Moga Allah SWT mengampunkan segala salah dan silap TT terhadap beliau...

Al Fatihah

Is Your HIV Treatment Working? Warning Signs and False Alarms

August 17, 2011


The first few months after starting HIV treatment are pivotal in determining whether your first regimen will be successful. Yet if you are brand new to HIV/AIDS treatment, how can you know what success is? It can be hard to tell the difference between a warning sign that your regimen might not be right for you and a normal signal that your body is still adjusting to the medications.

No one wants to take medications that make them feel worse than before. It also seems pointless to take medication every day that isn't working right. It helps to pay close attention, communicate with your health care team, and be a part of every decision.


How do you really know if your HIV treatment is working? There are three key things to keep track of: how much your viral load is dropping, how much your immune system is recovering, and how you're actually feeling.


Is My Viral Load Dropping Enough?

The Basics: The goal of HIV/AIDS treatment is to disrupt the replication of the virus so much that the amount circulating in your blood is as low as possible -- so low that the blood tests you'll use to keep track of your HIV will report it as "undetectable." No matter how high your viral load is when you start treatment, "undetectable" is where you want to get.

The pace of HIV viral load decline can vary considerably from person to person, and it's very much influenced by how high your viral load is at the start. More virus for HIV medications to attack often means more time to reach an undetectable level.

It's unlikely your health care provider will even start checking your viral load until you've been on your medications for at least a few weeks. Although checking earlier may give you a sense of the pace of the viral load drop, it's getting to undetectable that really matters, and that can take time.

Different Definitions of "Undetectable": What makes conversations about viral load testing even more confusing is that "undetectable" doesn't always mean the same thing. Different clinics use different tests analyzed by different laboratories, and each lab may have a different cut-off point for the detection of HIV in a sample of blood. So if your lab test has 50 copies/mL as the lowest detectable amount, but your friend's lab test detects viral loads as low as 20 copies/mL, what does it mean if your friend has detectable virus and you do not?

virus in the bloodstream

Obviously, less is better when it comes to HIV viral load. But we don't know precisely the significance of, let's say, 50 copies/mL versus 20 copies/mL. Measuring such tiny amounts of HIV in the blood is still tricky business, and there is even some question about how reliable those numbers are: If you were to repeat a viral load test, even with the same sample of blood in the same lab, the result would not necessarily be exactly the same.

The Mystery of "Blips": Even if you achieve an undetectable viral load (called "fully suppressed") and stay undetectable, it is possible you may experience a small rebound (to a viral load that's detectable but still very low, i.e., below 400 copies/mL). This is a viral load "blip."

There can be a variety of reasons for a blip (including lab variability or error), not all of which we completely understand. However, it does not mean the regimen has failed. Repeat testing will tell the story; if future tests show a three-fold increase or more in the amount of virus, then you and your provider may want to talk about switching to a different regimen.

The Bottom Line: Let's say you've been on your medications for several months, and what had been a consistent decline in your viral load has leveled out without reaching an undetectable level -- or, worse, your viral load is going back up. If this happens, you and your provider will want to figure out and address what might be slowing your treatment progress, and decide whether you need to switch regimens. The longer you stay on a combination that isn't fully suppressing the virus, the more risk there is of the virus becoming resistant to those medications, as well as other HIV medications you haven't even taken yet (called cross-resistance).

But when you're just starting out, as long as your viral load is generally moving toward undetectable, you're in good shape.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Dari 2008 sehingga 2011...Tuan Tanah (TT)

Hahaha....akhirnya TT dah bole recover balik blog ni yg suatu waktu dahulu "missing-in-action" :)

Bukan apa, kali terakhir TT mengupdate blog ni adalah pada awal tahun 2010. Itupun setelah domain akulelakiitu.net sudah tidak lagi wujud di alam siber. Semuanya berpunca dari TT sendiri, kesilapan teknikal - ntah macam mana TT tersalah click button, maka hancur kesemuanya. Nasib baik content blog tu sempat TT back-up dan seterusnya di transfer ke blog yang baru ini akulelakii2.blogspot.com

Sesungguhnya, ramai yang bertanya tentang kehilangan TT semenjak TT menyepikan diri dari arena blogger. Iyer, TT terlalu sibuk, dengan urusan hidup dan career :)

Dan alhamdulillah, Tuhan masih panjangkan umur TT. Masih bernafas di bumi ciptaan Allah S.W.T. Jangan risau yer, kesihatan TT masih seperti dahulu, sihat walafiat, malah semakin "overweight"! Walaupun umur TT baru menjangkau awal 30-an, tetapi sesetengah orang kata TT dah mencecah 40-an! Ayooo...

Tapi takpe, apa sangatlah yang TT nak risaukan, kita pun makin lama makin tua kan. Harinya pasti untuk kita bergelar sebagai warga tua. Cuma TT harap TT boleh hidup dengan lebih lama. Sebab terlalu banyak perkara dan impian TT belum terlaksana. Biarlah Tuhan berikan peluang untuk TT mencapai impian TT tersebut. Bukan hanya untuk kejayaaan di dunia tetapi juga di akhirat. Amin.

Oklah, di sini serba sedikit TT ingin bercerita tentang keadaan kesihatan TT..dan sejauh mana Virus HIV telah bersarang di dalam tubuh TT ini (diagnose +HIV pada pertengahan tahun 2008).

Seperti yang korang ketahui, TT sentiasa melakukan check-up di hospital kerajaan untuk memantau keadaan CD4 dan viral load setiap 3 bulan sekali. Dan seperti apa yang dijangkakan, CD4 TT menurun tahun saban tahun. Dari CD4 count berada dalam keadaan selesa pada 2008 (400+ count), sekarang bacaannya telah menurun kepada 290 sahaja.

Disebabkan bacaan tersebut sudah sampai ke tahap AIDS (250), makanya doktor menasihati TT untuk menyegerakan proses treatment dan kawalan. Bermula pada September 2011, TT memulakan first regime dengan pengambilan Stocrin dan Combivir. InsyaAllah, pada December ini TT akan buat another CD4 test, tak sabar nak tau berapa bacaan terbaru hasil dari pengambilan regime yg pertama ini.

Alhamdulillah, TT telah melepasi tahan ujian getir kesan daripada pengambilan regime tersebut. Sesungguhnya, dalam tempoh 2 bulan pertama, TT berasa amat tidak selesa dengan apa yang TT telan. Bayangkan hidup ni kena bergantung dan memakan ubatan tersebut pada setiap hari pada setiap masa yang ditetapkan untuk selamanya !!!!

Itu belum lagi dikira perasaan nervous, kecewa, hopeless serta kesan sampingan ubatan tersebut (loya, pening kepala, hallucination, stress)....

Nasib baik lah TT mempunya ramai kawan-kawan yang sudi memberi pertolongan dan sokongan. Terutamanya kawan baik TT yang tak putus-putus memberi harapakan agar TT terus berjuang melawan virus ini.

Dan pada saat TT menaip blog ini, TT berada di dalam kondisi yang teramat sihat, segar, highly moralized bla bla bla :)

I'm happy to be me. Regardless apa yang telah berlaku pada masa lalu, we have to be stronger than before right? Learn from the past, for better in future.

Oklah, dah lama TT bergayut di depan laptop ni, sakit pinggang sebab mengemas rumah malam tadi pun masih belum hilang, Nak nonton movie sekejap dan rasanya tengahari ni TT nak jalan-jalan di The Curve. Ade sapa-sapa nak join? :)

Anyway, if you guys would like to have regular communication dgn TT via Yahoo Messenger, please do not hesitate to add my ID akulelakiitu@yahoo.com

You can send an email or instant message. However, I would not able to reply you message during office hour. TT kena concentrate pada kerja :)

Anyway, happy weekend!!!!!