Dr. Me : George Mary Carter - the HIV+ impersonation thus begins:

From a post dated Sat, Mar 28 1998 12:00 am

Carter struggles with basic math in the new Poz; plugs Glaxo;
calls himself "Dr. Me"; finally admits the benefit of acupuncture; then
pushes his supplements. He is doing a fine job hanging himself.

- A. Lentivirus

"Better yet, ask your physician to call Glaxo Wellcome at 800.5.GLAXO.5,
ext. 2365, and request the Viral Load Measurements and Math card."
                               - George M. Carter, Poz April 1998

http://www.thebody.com/poz/survival/4_98/tell.html

AIDSpeak

New math for PWAs
-- George Carter

Whoever wrote Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned
in Kindergarten was obviously no PWA: These days, it takes an
advanced degree just to track your viral load. If you associate log
with cabin, median with strip, fold with laundry and mean with
your ex, read on.

Mean: A fancy word for average. For example, consider three
people who had CD4 increases of 20, 65 and 350. To find the
mean, first add the three numbers: 20+65+350=435. Then divide
the total number of increases by the number of people who had
increases (435÷3) to find the mean CD4 increase: 145.

Median: Like that solid yellow line down the highway, the median
is in the middle. In the trio above, then, the median is 65.

Fold: The word fold is always preceded by a number. What to do
with that number? Well, if it's paired with the word increase,
multiply; if it's paired with the word drop, divide. So if your viral
load was 2,500 and you have a threefold increase, your new viral
load is 3x2,500, or 7,500. If your viral load of 75,000 had a fivefold
drop, it would land at 75,000÷5, or 15,000.

Log: This is heady stuff, so go slow. Log (short for logarithm) is
the power to which 10 is raised. As with fold, it's always
preceded by a number. A two-log viral load drop is your previous
viral load divided by 102 (100), say from 3,000,000 to 30,000. And
a three-log increase multiplies last month's measurement by 103
(1,000), say from 3,000 to 3,000,000.

It gets even trickier with fractional folds and logs, at which point
you reach for your old slide rule. Better yet, ask your physician to
call Glaxo Wellcome at 800.5.GLAXO.5, ext. 2365, and request
the Viral Load Measurements and Math card.

***

http://www.thebody.com/poz/survival/4_98/dr_me.html

D R.  M E

Heads Up

How to handle a headache out to here

by George Carter

Headaches may not seem like much
when you're battling neuropathy,
fatigue or chronic diarrhea -- until you
get a brain-throbbing skull-cruncher. If
it's a migraine, throw in nausea and
sensitivity to light for a real good time.
       Before long, you're seriously
considering hurling yourself in front of a speeding truck just to
stop the pain.

If pain is severe or lasts more than a day, get an immediate
appointment with your HIV doctor or neurologist. Headaches may
arise from drug side effects or various extremely serious
infections, like cryptococcal meningitis, toxoplasmosis,
tuberculosis, endocarditis (a heart infection), candidiasis, syphilis,
herpes outbreaks, CMV infection in the brain, progressive
multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) and central nervous
system lymphoma. That's why you need to let an expert figure it
out. And if you're a chronic migraine sufferer who's given up
hope, it's time to go back to your doctor: New drugs are available
for both pain relief and headache prevention. And they work on
most users.

If it's more of a "My disability check is eight days late" or "I'm
waiting to hear if I qualify for the Sustiva expanded-access
program" kind of headache, remember that stress is a common
cause of headaches, for which Manhattan acupuncturist Jackie
Haught -- who treats many PWAs -- suggests several remedies:

Practice meditation or deep breathing
Get acupuncture or acupressure
Try essential oils
Do yoga
Try biofeedback

A simple remedy is rubbing certain acupressure points on the
hands. Pick up one of the cards (available in many health-food
stores or large bookstores) that show which spots on the hands
are linked to the head. The aim is to unblock the flow of energy to
that part of the body. Odd though this sounds, many people have
reported significant relief in minutes.

In addition, recent research has indicated that some headaches
may be caused by magnesium deficiency. Magnesium may be too
low in some PWAs, so supplementing with 500 to 1,000 mg per
day might be useful.

When these measures aren't enough, pharmacy shelves are
weighted down with drug options. You've seen the ads --
Headache no. 274 from those awful aspirin commercials -- but
here are their real names:

acetaminophen (Tylenol, paracetamol in Europe)
aspirin (Bayer and others)
ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, Nuprin)
ketoprofen (Orudis KT, Actron)
naproxen sodium (Aleve)

Always make choices with an eye to interactions with other drugs
you are now taking -- and pre-existing conditions. Old-fashioned
buffered aspirin might often be best, but it could also be harmful if
you have ulcers, intestinal Kaposi's sarcoma, kidney dysfunction
or low platelets.

Although many practitioners believe that an Excedrin-type
combination (aspirin, acetaminophen, caffeine) works best,
frequent use of this combo may create a habit that can backfire.
And caffeine withdrawal comes with a whopping -- you guessed
it -- headache.

Even worse, glutathione, an important antioxidant already
diminished in PWAs, is further depleted by acetaminophen. And
lower levels are tied to faster disease progression and liver stress.
That's why San Francisco PWA Mark Kuebel sticks to
acupuncture. "On the rare occasions when it doesn't work, I use
Aleve," he says.

Long-term or high-dose use of any pain reliever at all should be
done only under medical supervision. And if anything is chosen
that contains acetaminophen, adding glutathione-enhancing
substances -- N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), vitamin C, alpha-lipoic
acid and L-glutamine (see What This Means, POZ, August 1997)
-- is a must.