Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

re: Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

tearsofacid — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:10:25 GMT

if you can say you wouldn't cry at being diagnosed with HIV then you don't know enough about it. Yes, HIV has shifted from a short-term infectious disease to a chronic one, but the management of the disease is pretty intense. Not only are ARV's toxic, expensive, and hard to manage, but they also interfere with any health problems you might have (a co-infection of HPV and HIV make a person over 20x more likely to develop cervical cancer). I could go on, but the only thing that needs to be said is that contracting HIV is worse then a perpetual kick in the junk.

re: Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

Turk Dirty — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:56:33 GMT

Wow dude. That was intense.

I think what your Dr. did is very irresponsible and cruel given he is supposed to be providing you with health CARE. Let me know if you wanna sue the bastard :)

I've been reading all your stuff for a while now. Its really good and in some weird way I feel proud - like when I read people's compliments on your writing I think "Yeah bitches, that's MY friend."

re: Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

zeitgeisty — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:46:43 GMT

shit.... GOOD vibes!!!!

re: Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

farktastic — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:32:09 GMT

@ zeitgeisty: POSITIVE vibes? You truly have a sick sense of humor.

re: Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

zeitgeisty — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:17:56 GMT

hang in there buddy, sending you positive vibes...!

re: Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

amboabe — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:16:32 GMT

z: It's either depression/stress or cancer. Another exciting quandry to consider :)

ahg: I do have a decent understanding of how HIV works. I did spend 2 years of my life working as an HIV educator, after all. Still, like cancer, there are no hard and fast rules for how the disease will affect everybody. There remain a wide variety of life expectancies and growth rates. It is certainly not an immediate death sentence, but it's life altering and trying to reckon with my life being altered so dramatically out of the blue was a difficult experience. Some people survive for years with single digit t-cell counts. Others have mutations, adverse reactions to retrovirals, or just don't survive as long. It's hard to take comfort in statistics right at the front when it's your own life on the line.

Me: Different people respond in different ways. There's no right way to handle something. This was how I handled it.

re: Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

airheadgenius — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:15:14 GMT

Me - I can pretty much guarantee that I wouldn't.

re: Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

zeitgeisty — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:28:21 GMT

I know that if some shmuck dr. called me and said I might have been exposed to HIV, without first just saying I should get more tests to find out why I had a low T-cell count, I'd fucking sue him for scaring the shit out of me unecessarily....

re: Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

Me — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:22:59 GMT

Who here believes that Ms. 'It's Not A Death Sentence' wouldn't be crying like a baby and self-absorbedly(er) blogging about it constantly if she found out she had HIV?

re: Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

zeitgeisty — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:32:24 GMT

it may not be a 'death sentence', but it's not anything you wanna have!..

question... what did the dr. say may have caused the low count?

re: Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

airheadgenius — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:14:05 GMT

I am very glad to hear you got a good result, but even a positive one would have been unlikely to cause you to die before your parents. This is not 1984 and many people live comfortably with HIV for decades without it becoming full blown AIDS. I am HIV negative and hope to remain so and would probably have the same immediate panic that you did, but you might want to research the topic a bit in case there is ever a next time.

I've a friend who has had full blown AIDS for over a dozen years, has a ludicrously low T-cell count, plus survived cancer about 6 years ago - totally unrelated of course - and continues to live a "normal" life. "" because his normal involves flamboyant parties and much jet setting.

The point being that HIV is not a death sentence.

re: Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

Thea — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:19:05 GMT

It was really hard to read this without scrolling down to the last line but I'm disciplined... what a horrible phone call especially if you couldn't get your blood drawn IMMEDIATELY, what a relief. Someone threatened me with a gun once and I just remember things going kind of fuzzy in a comforting way like all personal responsibility flushed out. And I remember thinking 'ok, that's another Real Life Experience to check off the list.'

re: Sex Machine: There's a Possibility You've Been Infected With HIV

vix_en25 — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:56:03 GMT

glad to read youre ok