So now that pre-order prescriptions have dried up, I turn my wide eyes to the road ahead. I have been mapping out the route, and the cool thing is that I have a bed to sleep in every night: a major plus! I’m cashing in some of me and Gwenn’s Hilton Honors points, accrued from our HIV/AIDS educational travels, for “free” stays on two nights.
When staying with friends, I have to be diligent about getting at least 5 hours of sleep a day. The tour is about two weeks, with a couple days near the end that open up once I get back to Virginia. I’ve done crazy travel before for World AIDS Week, like flying to California in the morning, speaking, and then taking the red-eye back to the East Coast two hours after the talk, so I can go for a few days on less without dealing with anything other than exhaustion.
All in all I’m happy with my tour plan.
But, yesterday, I had a thought: What about my HIV meds?
As has been well-documented on this blog as well as in Poz magazine, I do a week-on/week-off regimen with my medication. It’s worked great for me... so I was bummed to see that my week on starts the day I leave town. Taking meds isn’t hard for me, because I take them with a little snack right before bed and then I’m out. Usually at the same time every night. The tour schedule is a little zanier than my usual travels... so my plan is to be on meds as usual this week, and just continue to take them next week as well. Basically I’ll be on for two weeks straight, then resume the usual regimen. This just shifts my week off to begin when I hit the road, which will prevent the rather high likelihood of missing a dose or two due to the erratic schedule ahead.
It’s funny, in jotting down everything (shirts, buttons, messenger bags, cds, etc) I have to prepare for this odyssey, my HIV meds were the last thing to be considered on the list. In a tour that is all about survival, I kind of blocked out one of the key components of my survival: those little, HIV-ass (and sometimes my own) kicking pills of mine. I give ’em a hard time, but I do love the life they’ve afforded me.
Which will continue on long after those tour dates have ended.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
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