Of course it was frank, but it was overly pessimistic. The truth is we really have no idea how the new drugs will affect someone long term.
<big sigh>
The reason why I no longer post at AIDSmeds is because two of my favorite people in the universe were banned after heated confrontations with n00bs on this very same topic: they took the bait and flamed themselves right off the board. Their eventual re-admission (after more than a year) didn't sweeten the ashes I felt in my mouth for the way that site is managed and moderated. One has since died.
I was honestly thinking precisely of you when I posted the response you quoted. There is no right answer to this dilemma, TC. I really really get why you feel that Gaydoc's post was overly pessimistic. If I were in your position I'd feel exactly the same way: when I first began treatment in I felt that way myself. My now-ex (whom I infected via a broken condom) and I attended support groups in Boston and Connecticut where this issue came up constantly. It divides the HIV community now just like it has since the introduction of PIs in 96.
The meds effect everyone differently, but eventually they fail either through viral mutation, lack of strict compliance or sheer toxicity. I took AZT, DDI and Zerit for years and have the facial wasting to prove it. In my first three weeks on Kaletra, my cholesterol went from 150 to 525; I was given the choice of discontinuing using it or making astonishingly brutal changes in my diet. On the counsel of my doctor (whom I adored), I chose the latter, and in the process lost almost 40 pounds. This gave me back the body I had when I was 21 (yay!) but it took years to get my cholesterol and triglyceride levels back to normal and resulted in permanent arterial damage that cannot be undone.
Gaydoc was also correct in pointing out something I've known to be obvious for years: the meds suppress the virus in the blood but not the lymphatic system nor the central nervous system (with a few and very limited exceptions). Undetectable doesn't mean that the virus isn't present, it just means that its presence in your blood is too small to be measured. I remember when undetectable meant fewer than 100, when the refined the test to its current level, I crossed back over to detectable levels (usually anywhere from ~50 up) and burned my way through an entire class of meds trying to achieve that illusive and magical undetectable level again.
I sincerely and honestly hope that your experience will somehow be different, and I truly understand why you've taken the steps you have to maintain both your health and state of mind. If only as a placebo, they help you if you honestly believe that they do. This issue is much like what's referred to as "immaculate infections", where the person with HIV insists that s/he always practiced safer-sex precautions and still somehow became infected anyway: there is no win/win way to discuss this, but it needs to be addressed.
