By the time my registration/confirmation email arrived I’d forgotten that I’d ever found it.
I think I saw in some of the discussion that there’s about 1500 folks nationwide who’ve been positive for more than 10 years…which tells me that I’m not alone and I’m not special. Somehow that knowledge doesn’t make me feel much better.
I have (virtually) nothing useful to add to the discussion around here, at least not at this point. I was looking for HIV support groups and info recently when I found this site, registered, and then waited long enough for the confirmation email that I became distracted (got hungry, got bored, saw something shiny, etc.) and ultimately decided this site was down for the count; I’m glad to see I was wrong.
I see moffie65 has got me beat, at least as far as knowing goes. I guess I found out sometime in the summer or fall of '84. I’d gotten tested back in the spring or winter of '84 and then just took that long to check the results as I hadn’t seriously expected to test positive and was in no hurry to find out. The window in which I could have gotten exposed closed about 2+ years before I tested and opened sometime back in the late 60’s when I was less than 6 years old…so I’ve known for more than 22 years at this point, but have been infected for at 24 or 25 (quite possibly more).
I mentioned my existence on a craigslist disability discussion group about 5 or 6 months ago and a couple of people suggested I start a blog, which I have done:
/NonSequitursSoldCheap.html
I just finished my first drug holiday last Monday (3/05/07) and I’m now taking a 1 pill cocktail.
Please look at my blog and then tell every person on Earth to do the same…with any luck enough people will view it and become sufficiently enamored with my writing (or insanity) that I can parley my mundane history into a full time writing gig…it’s good to have goals.
Having little (or nothing) else useful to add here I’d like to point out before I go that I’m glad this site exists and wish you all the best. While I don’t wish my unique set of issues on anybody it is somehow comforting and/or reassuring to know that I’m not the only one out here who’s dealt with HIV for more than 20 years.
Good luck to you all.
Interesting blog. You write well.
I wonder if you would agree with me that this disease tends to make people withdraw into their own world.
That’s an issue I’ve been dealing with for the 13 years I’ve been pos.
I’m tired of living in this closed up little world of my own problems, of being HIV+ day after day.
The introspect and focus on me and my condition is not making it. Not anymore.
What I’m trying to say is life isn’t all about me, all the time.
And I think half the victory in this experience is learning to get beyond that.
That’s what’s important to me now.
I stopped seeing mysel as a person living with aids years ago.I see it only as another one of lifes inconviences. It does not make who I am. And if it does get put on the list it is on the bottom. I refuse to see myself as one that has an illness that could end my life. I’d rather view it as a time in my life that has given me an appreciation of life. Would I like to have perfect health? I don’t believe anyone has such a thing. How would one define " health" It is more than just the body. Just as healing is more than just the body. I believe it’s a matter of self perspective.