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encouraging
Okay , so we live longer.. however it seems you all forget, what about the long term effects being on HIV meds. They have done so much damage to my body that it's so difficult to even think about living anymore.there is not one single doctor that can say there is no long term side effects from HIV meds. Thanks for your time. most sincerely- Rain
Being poz now for 30 years, I can say based on past experiences with various ARVs, clinical drug trials and doctors, the key to survival is finding the right ID doctor and right ARV regime. The key points in my life with HIV/AIDS has been the access to care, something my community of Austin takes great pride in providing for us who are living with this disease. Don't give up!
to Andy, you need to recheck what you're been hearing. Read some package inserts for the ARVs to see how rar side effects actually are. Complications like you're insinuating happened with the early drugs not with most of the stuff on the market in the 10-15 yrs. As someone who has been infected for three decades, I'm no where near a "vegetable" and I am living with ZERO complications from Reyetaz/Truvada/Norvir.
I suspect I was infected in the 70s. I tested + in 1985 when the test was available. I was fortunate to remain healthy long enough to make a difference, unlike my partner Dennis, and so many, many friends. I was on some of the first very toxic HIV meds, and feel that so much damage has been done with complications and side effects that I don't expect to be here in another 10 years. I feel very grateful for the time I've managed to have since 1985 when I was told I wouldn't see 40. I'm now 60!
Being positive for 20 years I have found that if you take your medicine and listen to your body (eat when you are hungry and sleep when you are tired) and make healthy choices you are going to have a long life. If we are positive physically there is no reason why we can't be positivly mentally.
Who cares? What kind of life do we have? We're constantly being told that ARVs are getting us to "near normal lifespan", followed by endless horror stories about complications, that we're going to be reduced to vegetables within a decade of infection, and that the host of other diseases we're afraid of is darn near unavoidable. We're hounded by a world that hates us and reduced to second class citizens. "Near normal life expectancy" is a completely hollow victory as we live it.
Matte
i truly believe that this is all just to keep people sick so that doctors and pharmas can make money on the backs of the sick. If you have found a way to control the disease then you can cure it. by the way it was a hospital that infected me and they are hiding theirs heads behind the fact that you can not prove how you got infected. What a perfect excuse! way to go Montreal general
December 2, 2013 • laval