One Month!

[T-Plus 30 Days. A Month!]

Yep, you read that right (and if you've been following the blog, you've maybe been waiting for it)... As of fifteen minutes ago, I took my 30th dose of Truvada, on the 30th day of my prescription. 100% adherence, folks! 

Finished my first bottle tonight!

Looking back, it's been a hell of a month: the first few days with my prescription were completely smooth, followed by about a week or so there with some pretty constant, low-grade nausea (which, to be fair, I could have gotten a prescription for, but really it was never bad enough to ruin my days or interrupt my work, and I tend to be the type that avoids extra prescriptions when I can). That nausea went away pretty quickly after that though, and since then it's been wonderful.

I've had to use my travel meds bottle repeatedly, which makes me really glad I made the thing. I think I've refilled it a half dozen times so far.

My prescription refills automatically until my doctor or I cancel it, so there's never a lapse in doses, but I do still have to go in to see my PCP this coming Monday so that I can get labs drawn (an HIV test and a liver function test this time). Assuming that goes well, I won't have to go back again for another two months.

People have asked me a lot of questions about PrEP (online and elsewhere). They've also asked me a lot of questions about me, which I definitely brought on myself to a degree by being so vocal about going on PrEP (I'm "out" to friends and family about being on it), but which I still find kinda uncomfortable sometimes (I told you I was on PrEP, not that I wanted to share my detailed sexual history with you...).

Oh, and I got my next bottle of Truvada last night (you can see it above), and with it, a big reminder about how important the copay card and insurance are. You can see it in the picture below (I made a meme out of a part of the pharmacy receipt):

Yep, that's a bit of my actual pharmacy receipt.

After insurance and the copay card, I paid nothing for my Truvada. Before? That one bottle of 30 pills would have cost nearly $1,800 retail, which works out to about $60 per pill. There might be some folks who can swing that totally out of pocket, but I am definitely not one of them (they don't pay Case Managers/Social Workers much here in the US). Cost is definitely a consideration when it comes to medications (though ideally it never should be); it's a big deal that there are options to make the safety PrEP affords accessible for many people. There need to be more options now, for everyone.

Now on to month two... Cheers, folks!