I remember when I was in secondary school, there's this aunty in our area that we got to know about her status, she wanted to get admitted into a nursing school in the town and one of the prerequisite is hiv testing, which she tested positive, she was denied the admission, the news got out while she was fighting the decision of the school. Then we all started avoiding the family like a plague, stopped playing with her younger sister because of her. That was around 1997.
She was one of the person that spoke against stigma, she became an advocate, anf was very popular , she started getting recognition and was being invited to speak about the virus all over the country and even outside,.
I remember a very popular magazine editor who talked about meeting the lady in a spa after shaving her brows that she was scared after seeing the lady's well calved brows that hope it wasn't same equipment that they use for her, the editor received lots of backlash then and she had to apologise and later used the lady as a cover in her big magazine then.
She was one of the people I searched for immediately I got my diagnosis and she was helpful
The lady we all thought was about dying back then is now a nurse in the USA married to a black American. If you see her , you wouldn't believe she's been living positively since 90s, I know she'll have her own struggles but who doesn't?; her children all grown up, I think she stopped associating with the community to protect her children from bullying cos she doesn't talk about it again.
Know your status today, beat hiv before it beat you. Most people I met at the center almost 2 decades ago that got tested early and adhere to their drugs are still there, looking same way I knew them, some were even looking more beautiful. Though the drugs has it's own side effects like most drugs but if you monitor your health well, you will be tolerate it without affection you.
I check my liver and kidney once a year and so far so good.
Please if you're also living positively, you can also share so we can learn and those that are negative can stay negative cos no matter what living without it is the best. You don't want to know the mental struggles, please if you're not infected, try and stay like that. This virus is plenty in town more than you can imagine, do not trust anyone until the lab confirmed the person is clean . Don't share sharp objects
Stay alive
She was one of the people I searched for immediately I got my diagnosis and she was helpful
The lady we all thought was about dying back then is now a nurse in the USA married to a black American. If you see her , you wouldn't believe she's been living positively since 90s, I know she'll have her own struggles but who doesn't?; her children all grown up, I think she stopped associating with the community to protect her children from bullying cos she doesn't talk about it again.
Know your status today, beat hiv before it beat you. Most people I met at the center almost 2 decades ago that got tested early and adhere to their drugs are still there, looking same way I knew them, some were even looking more beautiful. Though the drugs has it's own side effects like most drugs but if you monitor your health well, you will be tolerate it without affection you.
I check my liver and kidney once a year and so far so good.
Please if you're also living positively, you can also share so we can learn and those that are negative can stay negative cos no matter what living without it is the best. You don't want to know the mental struggles, please if you're not infected, try and stay like that. This virus is plenty in town more than you can imagine, do not trust anyone until the lab confirmed the person is clean . Don't share sharp objects
Stay alive
Thank you so much ma'am for the enlightenment
ReplyDeleteGod will help us all
ReplyDeleteThe Most Complex B
Thank you for sharing. God bless you and family
ReplyDeleteBefore my wedding, we were mandated to go to a lab appointed by the church and run series of tests. As someone with extreme trypanophobia, it certainly wasn't a thing I was looking forward to. The thought of finally knowing my hiv status then only further compounded my agony.
ReplyDeleteI had really been around town. I lived a life as a young man that looking back now, feels me with shame. I was something of a sexual deviant. If I fancied it, I explored it. At a point I dated a lady for 7 years. I never knew she was positive. She was very clever in taking her medication. I never noticed. I never knew she was still sleeping with her ex and in a fit of jealousy, he sent me an SMS telling me she was positive. I confronted her and she denied. She even went to an actual lab and brought a fake hiv negative report to me. I was dumb enough to believe it.
Fast forward a few years later and I was randomly arranging the room. A medicine container fell out and upon close inspection, I observed the drug name zidovudine. I knew what class of medicine that was and my world shattered. I held myself and waited for her to return from work.
I confronted her with the drug container and that's when she admitted her status. Her ex wasn't lying. I went to the lab and ran a test and came back negative. I was perplexed. A year later, I still repeated the test and I was still negative. That's when she explained CD-4 count and viral load to me. Hers was at a neglible level.
Did I break it off? Nope. I spoke glowingly about her in yesterday's Friday night gist. You see nothing confuses a man like a woman who gives very great head, the best sex of your life, can cook, very submissive, neat and your exact spec but very dumb. I guess she rubbed that dumbness off on me too because I kept that relationship going for a number of years.
Over the years, she would point out people who had it. Some were people I knew. One of them was my pastor. Everyone was living a normal life too. She introduced me to PrEP and I regrettably took that to be a licence for carelessness. I had no fear of hiv again.
At a point a man does get tired though. I found me a lady who I thought we could do well building a future together. Once every test came back green, we made it official.
No one deserves hiv infection. Some can be extremely wayward as I was and still come out clean. Some keep themselves and the one or two partners they have and they get infected. Having sex without protection is simply Russian roulette. Sometimes, the best move to win is not to play.
i remember when i saw an aids patient for the first time in my life. it was terrible. a very beautiful lady
ReplyDeleteIs there like a group or dating site for people living with HIV, if you want to date in your status cycle is there a way to go about it, I'm positive and 32 tired of being alone
ReplyDeleteThey're many on Facebook, you can create a new Facebook profile and join, be careful before unveiling your identity cos I've seen cases where some people only joined to out the people they knew on the platform. I wish you all the best
DeleteThanks for sharing your experiences,Hiv is not a death sentence truly.
ReplyDeleteThank you
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this. I'm positive too but I'm scared of dating because I will have to tell the person and I'm not only scared of rejection but also the person might not be matured enough to keep the secret. God please help me
ReplyDeleteNice one
ReplyDelete