"Writing this from my hospital bed -- I am obviously new to the site and have been reading a lot of the posts for information over the past several days. Two weeks ago I had some flu like symptoms and I thought it was just the flu, I continued to work and go about my normal routine and my condition seemed to stabilize. Then last Wednesday (4/9) I was having serious trouble breathing and was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. They initially treated it like a standard case and I did not respond -- was in fact getting worse -- then they did the HIV test and determined that I had PCP and was HIV positive. Its been a scary number of days in the hospital -- at points I felt like I wasn't going to make it out. Good news is I have responded the to the treatment for the PCP and my breathing and overall condition have improved to the point where I can most likely go home tomorrow (4/19)."
	dolcevita08's "Came down with PCP, diagnosed in the hospital...reeling..."
	"My lower back HURTS all the time. I had a back injury in '88 and had it under control, until July07. Sometimes when getting up, or sitting down, it freezes, and Katie looks over and I manage to spit out..."a little push here", and she does and once in motion, I can keep moving. Doctor says that is all probably related either directly or indirectly to the HIV, and yes, the aging process. They will have pursed lips and call me a 'young man' as they are in their 60's and 70's and still going, and, welcome to life after 50. I wish they would hurry up and approve my meds. I am ready to knock HIV down and get on to aging....gracefully...."
	rondrond's "HIV or just getting old?"
	"Jean-Marc was beautiful, intelligent, funny, indescribably generous and capable of the deepest love. He was also a habitual liar, mercurial and exacting, occasionally cruel. He had more demons than anyone I've ever met, and I became intimately acquainted with them all. "If the utter pathos of his death occasionally obscures the real man inside, it is never for long. The parts of my brain that hold memories of those two years we had together never stills. And his shade has never left me, even if sometimes it feels that way. I must say that he makes a shitty guardian angel, but that was never his responsibility to me so I cannot complain, not really."
	Bucko's "The Cruelest Month"