MR. BAD GUY (ENGLISH VERSION)

LOVE KILLS

- Congrats, Enzo -he said shaking his hand. At the sight of his stunned face he cleared it -. For your Oscar nomination.

- Oh, thanks, John. No, just rumours. Show business is like a neighbourhood patio. There's nothing definitive. I will know starting the year.

- Well, are you up for it?

- Shoot.

- The total count of cd4 is 603.

- It's only 28 more than three months ago.

- That's plenty of them. To give you an idea the increase of cells when the treatment is successful is between 50 and 100 per year. You have your checkings every three months. And in each check there's more cells. All is ok.

- What will happen with my counts? Am I increasing while the treatment works?

- Probably it will be like this till you totally stop. You get a sort of landing and there will be no more increasing. at the most 2 or 3 per year.

- Then I will never have the1200 lymphocytes of an ordinary person.

- Don't get obsessed with cd4, Enzo. You only have to pay attention you are in a normal range and that will free you from oportunistic infections. With your 603 cells you can be healthier than another one with 1200.

- Do I have still anemia?

- I guess you'll have anemia as long as you live because it caused by the drugs you're taking against the HIV. I don't worry about your anemia, Enzo. That's in control.

- What do you worry about?

- Your liver.

Enzo's liver had a diagnosed fibrosis since the discover of his hepatitis C.

- We will do a new test less painful than the biopsy. The fibroscan.

- What is all about?

- It works in a similar way like an ultrasound monitoring. It has a probe that send out waves and they get into the liver. It serves to measure the elasticity and quantify the fibrosis in an easy way and with no pain. Besides, we're having the results instantly.

- My liver might get worse owed to my strong medication, doesn't it?

- It's possible.

- What about then? What will we do?

- In any case we're gonna start with the treatment against the hepatitis C after check on your liver.

- I'll have to keep on with the medication against HIV.

- Yes, of course. You can't stop taking that medication, it's working really well. The treatment against the HVC will involve taking medication. We'll have to balance the medicines to avoid conflicts between both treatments.

- My fibrosis will get worse with all these drugs.

- The HVC virus is more agressive when a person is coinfected, that's for a start. But we have in our favour that you've been more than a year with antiretroviral treatment and usually serve to slow down the fibrosis. Or at least keeping it with similar ranges than the monoinfected.

- I don't know, John. Every time I'm coming your consultation it feels like I'm starting over.

- Of course, we're starting over. But we've won one battle. Now we're gonna face the next one. We're gonna be relentless. Well, we're making the test tomorrow. You must come without any breakfast since at least four hours. The protocol is similar than the biopsy.

- How long will be last?

- Are you having any plan? -doctor Deacon smiled joking.

- Quite a few -he smiled, more relaxed.