Just heard Chimp gasp in the other room while opening the mail. My XMRV results are back.

I came back “none detected” for culture and for serum antibodies.

I’m pretty disappointed, although I know, of course, that this doesn’t mean I don’t have a gammaretrovirus. Cheney has said about 10% of his patients are coming back negative, at least to start. It also may be, simply, that I have the P variant and not the X variant, which this test wouldn’t find.

So I won’t know exactly what the next steps will be until I see him on Monday, but there will definitely be a retest in the works. I may have to retest under an “immune challenge,” like going off artesunate for a while longer than I did for this first test, or deliberately getting a cold. (The other immune challenge is getting a flu shot – which, no. He’d never ask me to to that. He’s counseled me not to have another one, ever.)

Additionally, the chemokine IL-8 is another way of telling whether there’s an active infection. So I’ll have that test, and that will be another part of the puzzle that would allow me to get on GcMAF even if I come back negative for XMRV again.

I am disappointed, as I said, and a bit frightened, honestly. I feel like I’m in a race against time. My sleep cocktail keeps coming apart and I’m afraid I don’t have much time left before it breaks altogether. Neither my GP nor Cheney have any new drug ideas for me to try for sleep. The reason I moved up my annual appointment with Cheney from late May to this Monday was hoping to get on GcMAF as fast as possible because of the sleep problems. And now this.

So there will be a retest. And we will know more on Monday.