HIV and Suboxone

[Cryonight]

I just found out that I am positive last week. Like any person I have a million questions that are unanswered at this time. I am not expecting to get them here. I will be seeing a doctor soon. However, I'm a little unsure if I should tell the infection disease specialist that I'm on sub. I'm pretty sure that they are going to tell me I need to come off the medication which I think will be harder on me at this point. I am on a very low dose. Only 1 or2mg a day. Can anyone suggest what I should do? When I first found out I thought that I should probably try to come off sub but I really dont wanna complicate things more. Yesterday I didn't take it and I got REALLY emotional, more than I could handle. Plus I start school next week. I have a full load of classes. I'm just really confused about how I will afford hiv meds along with sub, my insurance sucks and it doesn't even pay for sub. Can anyone give me any sort of advice? Anything will help at this point. I'm so lost.

[Ironic]

CoN, I'm sorry to hear about your status. It could have happened to me a lot of times, and same with a lot of the people on here.

I can already tell that you are a brave individual. You have a lot on your plate with classes and everything else you are doing, while trying to deal with keeping yourself physically and mentally healthy. It can be a tough balancing act, but I know for me, I tend to do better the busier I am.

I am mostly just writing this post back to tell you I admire you and to wish you luck. The only real advice I have is to be completely honest with your doctors. I assume you are taking a lot of meds for the HIV. Your doctor can't help you as much if he doesn't know what to look out for, and medication interactions is only one of the potential problems you could face.

Good luck this semester. Hope to see you around the forum!

[Breezy_Ann]

I am very sorry that your test came back positive. HIV is not the death sentence it used to be, many people live relatively normal lives with HIV. Besides possibly requiring pain relief, I do not see any reason your dr would want you to get off sub but I do not know much about HIV. A lot of people have trouble getting their Sub covered, I think you will find your insurance better about covering your HIV meds. A call into your insurance company should clarify this for you.

If it were me I would be completely honest with your Dr. I wouldn't want to chance Sub interfering with my treatment, just in case it does. I know this must be a devastating diagnosis but with a good treatment plan it really doesn't have to be. This forum has been a huge source of support for me and if you stick around we will be here to support and help you in anyway we can.

[rule62]

Like everyone else here, I'm sorry to hear of your diagnosis. But like Breezy said at least it is treatable and not a death sentence anymore.

If you are only on 1-2mg's, I would be completely honest with the doctors. They need to know what you're taking so they can treat you properly. And at that low dose, if you do get sick enough to warrant pain meds, it will be easy to stop the Sub and switch over.

I have found that it is always best to be honest in all areas concerning your health. To do otherwise could pose problems later on.

[Bboy42287]

Im so sorry to hear about this but i admire you for even posting something like this on a open forum in order to try and get the answers you need. You need to be 100% honest with this Dr so he can trear you the best he can i dont know about sub but i know methadone is not a problem. Just keep your head up you will get through this.

[finallyachance]

I am sorry for your recent diagnosis. But you sound very brave and I think honesty is your best policy here plus maybe researching answers to educate your doc if need be to how to properly allow you to be on suboxone but if ever needed any pain relief on what to give you and what not to give you.

We are having to pioneer proper pain relief when treating opiate addiction because we need pain relief at times in our maintenance therapy. And...I often wonder if I will see it in my lifetime that these doctors become empathetic to the fact we addicts have to have pain relief before and after surgery broken limbs, tooth problems etc..etc... Good Luck my friend and today thank god for our pioneering HIV populous before us we now have an educated medical community and social community that no longer discriminate against the HIV person and/or patient.

[Cryonight]

Thank you all for the support and kindness. I need a lot of this kind of thing right now. Just by coming online in the chat rooms and talking with people and knowing I'm not alone and that there is a lot of hope has helped me so much. I really don't know what I'd be doing right now without the internet and support.