Dr. I was diagnosed positive in April'97. I had a cd4 of 157 and a v.l. of 485000.My ID doctor tried several therapies and we ended up with Zerrit/3tc/dapsone and Crix. As of August of 97 my cd4 was up to 300 and v.l. was undetectable (<400). I hate these pills especially the crix. I no longer feel ill with them however I constantly feel tired and have sore throats a lot. I also have some tingling/burning when I urinate. Are these expected with the Crix. What can I expect with this pill? I have just had blood drawn for the second set of testing & I'll know the results in about 2 weeks. I hope all goes well.

If you're having a lot of problems with the Crixivan after giving it a good trial, then it's safe to switch to another protease inhibitor provided your viral load is undetectable when you do it. You could use either nelfinavir (Viracept) or ritonavir/saquinavir (Norvir/Invirase), for example.

What you should NOT do is to give up on protease inhibitors altogether. With a viral load of 485,000 you need them. You should also not make that single-drug change if your viral load is detectable-- that would require changing the entire combination.