M&M’s and ART

mm_spokescandiesAntiretroviral therapy (ART) is a combination of medicines used to treat HIV positive patients. It is highly successful and has increased the average lifespan of an HIV positive person exponentially. This is incredible progress for anyone living with this debilitating disease, but as usual with medications, there are some negative aspects.

I personally had never given much thought to ART before a particular project in my AIDS Awareness class. For the assignment, we were required to follow an average ART medication schedule for four days using different colored M&M’s. From the second I looked at the guidelines for the project I was shocked. There were five different medications to take every day with incredibly strict requirements. Some medications had to be taken hours apart, others absolutely had to be with food, and some needed to be taken an hour before bed. It took me a full day just to come up with a schedule that could accommodate all the requirements, and even then I had to change my own daily schedule to make it work. I had to set an alarm to take a pill an hour before I woke up, push back breakfast by an hour, set reminders on my phone to take pills during class, and actually stay up a little later just to get all the pills in.

This was one of the most eye-opening activities I could have done to learn about ART. Yes, antiretroviral therapy is an incredible breakthrough that changes lives. But it is not perfect. It is expensive, time-consuming, irritating, and could be slightly uncomfortable if you do not want to take hordes of pills in front of people. I am sure that if I were living with HIV I would learn to adjust, but the drugs would probably still limit my activities and lifestyle.