Archive for the Health Category

I’m HIV-Positive, and I Have No Interest in News About HIV Cures | Philadelphia Magazine

Sorry, "Jawsh," but HAART does not "eradicate" HIV. Undetectable ≠ Destroyed. And that's just that. #journalism #writing

I’m HIV-Positive, and I Have No Interest in News About HIV Cures | News | Philadelphia Magazine.

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New skool ignorance [Updated]

New Skool

I don't even know where to begin.

First of all, this guy (with a Grindr profile photo of some shrubbery!) is 20 years-old! I've been HIV+ since before he was born! I'm not about to be schooled in “proper” HIV+ sex practices by him. Please.

Secondly, Grindr really isn’t the place for this sort of discussion unless we were planning to hook up which we weren’t. His initial message to me arrived out of nowhere. I don’t initiate contact with youngsters, especially anonymous ones.

Finally, my sex life is no one’s business except mine and those I choose to share it with, even though this blog might indicate otherwise. The same goes for my T-Cell count and Viral Load, so STFU, Mary, unless you were invited which you weren’t.

It would be nice if this kind of “sex shaming” would  end in the age of PrEP and HAART. I guess there will always be ignorant young people.

FYI: The risk is essentially eliminated, not “huge.”

I guess my problem with this whole episode is not that he’s ignorant of the facts. Most people are, really. It’s that he is so loud about his ignorance and he’s decided to spread it around. I had hoped that, in the five years when I was off the market, things had changed. I guess not.

UPDATE: I sent a link to this blog post to Mr. Shrubbery. He blocked me, of course.

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My demise

Ida Nelson

I used to think that I'd die from Aspiration Pneumonia, since I routinely inhale food. I’m now certain that I'll trip over Ida Nelson and crack my head open on the way down. Then she and Taffy Davenport will eat me when their feeder is empty.

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Josh Kruger Big Lie of the Week

Then again, I actually take responsibility for the fact that I behaved, obviously, in a way that opened me up to possible HIV transmission and do not talk about my own seroconversion in an abstract, hands-off manner that completely absolves me of my own actions.

This from the man who texted his partner's friends and coworkers, claiming he got infected because of a broken condom during their monogamous relationship, and thereby outing him as HIV+. Josh didn't mention to them the countless nights he spent blind-drunk and unconscious  at the baths. Earlier this year he said a year-long case of gingivitis was the source of his infection. I guess that's what the kids call “taking responsibility” these days.

Via Josh Kruger.

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Thank god for HIV!

Maine budget committee votes to cap Medicaid to childless adults | The Portland Press Herald

I suppose I should be grateful this doesn't affect me because I have the HIV waiver but that's always been such a mixed blessing.

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Down

Pez!I was talking to The Crusher on the phone around 5PM and my host left the apartment. After I hung up the phone I took a nap and woke up around 7:30. I had a cup of coffee and wanted to go back to sleep right away. I couldn’t do anything. The urge to sleep was nearly impossible to fight off but I did it. It was incredibly hard to not just walk back into the bedroom and lie down.

I made myself take a shower which didn’t help much. Then I forced myself to sit at the computer and finish up some banners for Cruising for Sex. By this time it was about 10:30 and I still wanted to just be unconcious. I figured that I needed to get the hell out of the house and headed out to The Phoenix. I didn’t have the car so I had to take the streetcar and walk through The Quarter. I left the iPod home because I figured this wqould give me time to just be with myself without distractions and with no possibility of just lying down and ignoring everything.

I’m pretty familiar with depression, having struggled with it for years but it’s been a long, long time since I felt like this. Let me tell you, this was terrible. It’s as close to suicidal as I’ve ever been. The walk did the trick, though, and I think I have it figured out. (He said, hopefully!)

I’m leaving New Orleans in a week and, for at least a couple of weeks after that, will not really be living anywhere. Money is tight partly because of my ongoing iBill problem which I won't go into now. (I sent out some invoices this week, some of them nearly a year old, so that problem should resolve itself soon.)

Mostly, though. I think the problem is that I’m 51 years old and I’m absolutely not prepared to be an old person. It’s not that I feel old or look bad or anything like that. And my life had been lots of fun, for the most part. I just feel as if I’ve wasted a lot of time that could have been spent preparing for the time of my life when I won’t be able to run around and have a good time.

It’s not like I chose a responsible career or anything which would help me prepare for my future. No! I decided to be a pornographer and move to a different city every couple of years! My god!! What have I done?? as David Byrne once sang back when he seemed talented.

Anyways, I think being so sick for a couple of weeks and having to have “Same-Day Surgery” the other day and having to leave this place before I have another place and really not wanting to even be in this apartment anymore has finally just left me feeling really overwhelmed. I just want to sit and stare out into the air and I can’t, dammit! I will just have to get over it, I guess.

Well, The Phoenix was fun and, I think, just what I needed. More about that tomorrow. Also, I talked to The Crusher on the way home and he was a soothing balm—well, that’s what he would say.

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Reverse Peristalsis

The CulpritSorry I've been kind of quiet lately. A tiny piece of General Tsao’s Chicken took a liking to my esophagus the other night and refused to leave. It rendered me completely unable to eat or drink even a sip of liquid for about 18 hours. Needless to say, I was a bit cranky and not in the mood to write!

This has happened before but never for longer than a few minutes. I went to the local emergency room after a couple of hours. The attending physician, Dr. Camero, was really great. He was informative, answered all my questions thoroughly and asked if I had more, let me make my own decisions, did not talk down to me and was extremely cute. Unfortunately, he couldn’t really help and I had to wait until the next morning to contact my PC who found a GI specialist to treat me.

They had to do an endoscopy to remove it. They numbed me out (very nice!!) and gave me Merced, a drug which is supposed to make the patient forget the procedure even happened. I’ve been intrigued by that stuff for a long time and was kind of excited about taking it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work on me and I remember every hellish second. Luckily, the procedure itself worked and I can eat again. My fantasies about a future of eating strained peas through a feeding tube are fortunately going to remain unfulfilled for the time being.

Moral: Chew your food thoroughly.

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Taco Bell = Death

Believe it. I have food poisoning.

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