I'm sure many of you have followed my journey through the clinical trial of TDF vs TAF since 2014. That journey ended at September 2021 as I was actually the very last patient to complete the trial (and one of the first few that started it).
Once that was completed, I had to go through my insurance to receive TAF - Vemlidy for 1 full year. The cost wasn't bad since insurance covered it. Unfortunately, my insurance no longer covered the medication starting July 1st, 2022. So my cost went from being $60 USD to $1683 USD a month. Needless to say, that was unacceptable and very unaffordable as well (to some, this is a monthly rent/mortgage for living in the United States).
I finally got in with my doctor and he seemed surprised when I told him this, even though I sent him an email about it over a month ago to see if he could fight my insurance. The good news, I was able to convince insurance to get me what remained for "One Last Time" before July 1st, 2022 so I was good until end of September. The bad news? I am now being forced to go back to TDF - Viread because that is covered by insurance.
My doctor doesn't know why they dropped it but only gave me the one option above. There are no more clinical trials for him to recruit me on. They tried getting me on one and did try to recruit me hard on it but I declined. They did mentioned there may be a new clinical trial in 2-3 months time that I would likely be a candidate for, and may be geared towards a cure, but didn't have any info on it at the time nor was it open yet.
Anyway, that being said, I'll be back there in September. Before I give you my weight, let's just say my weight puts me in an Obese stage and I am unable to lose weight on a diet alone myself but I also half two failed neck surgeries in my neck, thus making it impossible to work out to lose weight as well. My blood pressure was very high at a 150 over 105 and this was very concerning to them. It goes down when I lose weight yes, but I suspect it's higher because of the failed surgeries (my surgeons told me this could happen). On top of this, my heart rate was at a 104 and going fast, but I also walked to the facility so that could have been a contributing factor.
Anyway, here are the other results *only posting what I feel is relevant*:
Glucose - 91 mg/dL
Sodium - 140 mmol/L
Calcium - 9.8 mg/dL
Bilirubin, Total - 0.4 mg/dL
Alkaline Phosphatase - 66 IU/L
AST (SGOT) - 23 IU/L
ALT (SGPT) - 36 IU/L
pH - 7.0
HBV IU/mL - HBV DNA not detected (This means the medication is working!!!!!!)
AFP, Serum, Tumor Marker - 1.8 ng/mL
Hep B Surface Ab, Qual - Non Reactive
Hep B Surface Antigen Quant - 4168.00 IU/mL
Phosphorus- 2.9 mg/dL
HBsAg Screen - Positive
My only concerning piece is that My HBsAg Quantitative has gone UP since March 2020. They are now as follows:
In March of 2020 it was at:
1318.00 IU/mL
In September 2021 it is now at:
3599.00 IU/mL
June 2022 it is now at:
4168.00 IU/mL
I can only assume that the weigh gain and poor diet plays a big part in this because in March of 2020 I was 185lbs and June 2022 I am 255lbs. I'd be more concerned on being on a clinical trial with an increasing value like this and honestly would not want to go on it unless they can guarantee a huge knock down of value during a 1-2 year trial. Anyway, I'll share more as I get on here and will post any updates as needed if I make any crazy decisions.