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< Posted 2009-11-27 15:31 Only show this user's posts
Living with HIV --- People and their stories
There is no easy way of telling you this... Below are real stories of how HIV affects different people.
1. Struggling with HIV
“I have been diagnosed for 15 years. It destroyed my routine and ended my career, but it also forced me to find new ways forward. The treatment takes its toll. There is no cure. HIV owns my mornings. No days off. 365 days a year. Once I've taken 14 pills and they take their effect, then my day begins. It can be as long as 5 hours every morning to deal with medication and side-effects. People say it's on par with diabetes but its not.” Steve, 43
2. Getting tested
“I got a HIV related illness, although I didn't know it at the time. I was incredibly ill for a year- stomach pains, diarrhoea, weight loss. I ended up in hospital. It wasn't until I was in hospital that the doctor suggested an HIV test. As soon as the doctor came in, it dawned on me it was bad news. But to be honest by then it was almost a relief; it meant they could treat me. I wish I had been diagnosed earlier, I think I was partly in denial. If I'd had a test sooner I wouldn't have been in hospital.
Being that ill has taken a physical toll on my body. They caught it just in time, they told me I could have been blind by April and dead by June. If I could turn back the clock and have a test earlier I would.” Gary
3. Know the risks
“I do think about HIV quite a lot, as a young gay man it's always something at the back of my mind. I did always think of it as something other people get until a friend of mine got it, that was a wake up call.”
Rob, 22
4. Common myth
“They think my children have HIV, just because I do. They don't. You can have healthy children even if you have HIV.” Leah, 30
“People think HIV is a death sentence. It isn't. Like any illness or condition, providing it is caught in time there is no reason not to enjoy a normal healthy life.” Andy, 41
5. Telling people
“Daisy helped me so much when I told her I had HIV. When I was diagnosed I was stigmatised, I was laughed at, I lost my husband. It was very overwhelming. Daisy was a true friend. She supported me, she did not judge me. She helped me get back on track. Without her I wouldn't be here today.” Anne, 50
6. Stand on your own feet
“It is generally believed that AIDS patients must be immoral persons, like drug-addict, prostitute or homosexual, which I really can't agree to, and I believe time will prove anything, ” said Zhu Liya, the first college AIDS students to come into the open. “I got the disease due to my ignorance, and many girls today have followed that disastrous road，thus I want to warn them. I can't just sit by, without doing anything about it.”
Zhu Liya got the disease from her foreign boyfriend in her first college year. After she was confirmed to be an AIDS patient in April 2004, she was totally depressed, and even thought about committing suicide. However, in the end, she chose to come into the open, to tell people to be alert to AIDS.
Her story impressed the WHO and UNICEF, and the latter invited her to take part in the Global Juvenile AIDS Forum held in Toronto in the middle of August, 2006.
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