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From members of the Youth Awareness Movement Against AIDS in Africa(YAMAA),base in Nigeria, we are sending our love to you. love is a four letter word that can kill stigma if only we can express it.In our organisation, we are ambassadors against stigma and discrimination and ordained as prophets of love...yamaamember@yahoo.com
David, I know the courage it took you to post your picture and I am so very proud of you.
THNKS for saying what is all too true, even ther poz guys have trouble dealing with us. every time i tell someone im poz they stop talking to me or ignore me. i dnt have time t deal with their ignorance, keep the faith rex
Your accomplishments are impressive but would be more so if you had used your talents to represent ethical, law abiding clients instead of coke smugglers and terrorists!
Hello David. This post fills me with admiration for you and gives me a role model for the ambitious life I plan, as a 48-year old HIV positive man. I have been reading your blog for a month and I find your writing to be unusually well-grounded, hopeful in tone, and yet frank and blunt about our challenges as poz people in our society. Thanks for your contributions. You rub off on others in ways you will never know.
Hi David ,I must say tumbs up and hats off to you.I am more than greatful for the blog u posted .You have just given me reasons to go on also to try and accomplish all my goals in life i would like to accomplish.my girlfriend from jamaica is also impressed,what more can we say all but you just made our day.keep doing this.I do hope the folks from my country Guyana read this and start being moore positive in all the do
Hi – It was interesting to hear from another long-termer. I was diagnosed about when you were, and I guess that I was one of the lucky ones. I didn’t really need any meds until there were at least some alternatives to that horrible little blue and white capsule of AZT that was about the only thing available when my partner at the time was diagnosed. Granted, he wasn’t diagnosed until he was full blown, but I'm still certain that the stuff hastened his deterioration. Anyway, the virus progressed fairly slowly in me and there was one thing I took that I can't remember the name of and then I graduated to 3TC and d4T, with one of each every morning and evening. Those two kept things well in hand until earlier this year and I was changed to Truvada. As soon as Atripla was released I changed to it not so much from necessity as for the convenience of only having to take one pill per day. Somehow through all this I managed to escape having to deal with the carefully time controlled use of the handfuls of pills that one reads about, and never did have to even think about such things as Protease Inhibitors. So now here I am, not without medical problems, but none that seem to have any relation to HIV. As the headline in today’s newsletter says about the lack of relevance of worrying about heart problems, the meds certainly haven’t led to any trouble in that area for me. I stand a much greater chance of having my liver kill me than the HIV. I'm pretty sure that the HEP C is the result of some rather bad habits that I had for a while in my remote past. At least for quite a while now I've changed to completely remove any danger of infecting anyone else with what I've got riding around inside me. But what the heck, getting here has been quite an adventure and it seems like every day I see people of my age, 57, in the obits so it seems that somehow fate is smiling on me and its getting to be that each day is almost an unexpected dividend. Sure there are challenges that come along, but without them life might actually get boring. I guess I'll relinquish this page by urging anyone who may have joined our ranks recently to: first, be responsible in your relations with others and second, if you’ve been started on any meds be sure to take them as prescribed. In this country there is really no reason to let HIV take you out, and with pill protocols being as they have come to be there's really no reason for anyone who doesn’t have a need to know to have any idea about your condition. Good Luck!
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March 31st, 2008 I just watched the interview with Jake Glaser this morning and felt it was very SAD that this story came out to "promote" AZT, a drug that probably caused his mom and sister's death - and his life is saved because he is not on such a drug. Why didn't that show do a story on the December 2007 VERDICT of the women that won millions because of the HIV tests - and showed she had signs of AIDS "from" the medicine? I had hoped the days were over that the pharmaceutical companies were going to cover for these drugs. I do not believe there is anything called HIV (no virus), but that the HIV medications CAUSED AIDS. Instead Jake Glaser - in my opinion should be SUEING for wrongful death of his mom and sister, and not promoting AZT as a miracle drug - when it could have been what killed two members of his family. Maybe he just believed a LIE all these years, and needs to know the truth, and can "someday" be a spokesperson to really HELP. Please get this information to Jake - so he can at least do his own research on HOW his mom and sister died. The truth sets us free! I don't think he knows the truth. Jake seemed like such a nice kid - I felt he really should have this information. I know someone from high school that took AZT and died too, and left behind a daughter with no mom (she also died after her boyfriend died). I also believed the HIV lie too - UNTIL I meet a homeless man in Times Square that told me and someone I was with that day..that he was diagnosed with HIV back around 1982 along with about 5 of his friends (all drug users - with needles) and his friends took the AZT and felt great for weeks (as at first it killed off all bad viruses in their body assumably - but THEN it supposably kills off your natural immune system - what fights sickness and ends up killing you from my understanding) and then a long painful death that took about 8-9 years. The homeless man lived on the street - did drugs and drank alcohol, smoked - etc., and is a HEALTHY man to this day...still living on the streets and NEVER got AIDS - and still reads HIV positive. The ONLY one of his friends ALIVE and the difference is - he did NOT take the AZT and his friends did. I hardly call AZT a "miracle drug", maybe a better word could be (in my opinion) is a DEATH SENTENCE to those that take or took it. I am not sure if they even use it anymore - because of so many deaths and the controversy of the drug. He needed to take a look at these webpages: http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/07/15/aids_experiments_on_children_in_new_yorks_incarnation_center_a_human_tragedy.htm http://www.flingr.com/blogs/action/showblog/ToDate/-1/UserID/521/ Posted: 11/27/07 4:55 am RETHINKING AIDS............. http://www.rethinkingaids.com/ http://www.rethinkingaids.com/quotes/rethinkers.htm http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/aids.htm Also - a good webpage is: www.chick.com :)
March 31, 2008