>> A support team is greater than the medication.
I think I would be lost to the world if I didn't have the people I do have
in my immediate circle.
They will remind me when necessary; don't forget to bring your pill.
If I'm to go out of town someplace, if I'm to spend the night
over at somebody else's house right before I go to sleep they'll say --
they'll ask me have you taken your medication yet?
And if not, I can then -- then take it right before I go to sleep.
So I mean my support team has been awesome.
>> My mother, my grandmother and my sister three key ladies in my life whom I love and cherish
and it was important for me to -- to be regimented with --
with my medicine because I saw the fear in their eyes.
My sister, it's just her and I, she's the one who knew you know that I had to take my medicine
in the morning with food and I didn't take the Sustiva until the evening
because of some of the side effects.
So she -- she was my nurse essentially.
They were supportive in that you know they attended every doctor's --
every doctor's appointment with me and learned a lot about HIV and AIDS.
And so they never nagged they were actually very informative.
>> I had people that had been very supportive of me taking medications and adhere
to medication especially my family.
And they are the ones that continually ask me not necessarily have you taken the medication?
But how is your health and how is your t-cell count?
And how is your viral load?
I think that those are the two questions that I always have been asked by them.
>> With the original regimen I used -- I used daily reminders and I used pill boxes.
And I would fill them at the beginning of every week so I'd know that if
at 3pm there was still six pills there then I clearly missed the morning dose
and I would catch up on it.
I would also write things in my planner and color code until I became very comfortable
with -- until it became second nature.
>> Then I started to get all these tools and how to do it using little alarms.
And carry a couple of days supply with you so if you're not home at that time of day.
And I have a lot of education behind it right now.
What makes it easier is that I know that it works better with food so plan that time frame.
I take it later in the day as opposed to first thing in the morning.
I have alarm on my music which is usually in my ears most
of the time will tell me that it's time.
I keep a supply handy right there in -- within eyesight because if it's --
I can't see it sometimes it doesn't exist.
So I keep it a six day -- a seven day supply here, a two day supply in my pocket book
so I know when it's five o'clock no matter where I am it's within an arm's reach.
And that's how I work it.