I tell the story often of how I became positive. I always want people to know that even with this diagnosis you can over come. I started Salvation After HIV/AIDS because I remember how it felt to hear my mother in Law at that time say, But she ate out of my plate. She sat on my toilet and she bathe in my tub. and my father in law say yall just going to lay up and kill each otheroff. It was crazy. I was expected to just roll with the punches. Folks don’t want to touch you. I laugh inside now because I understand that ignorance is bliss for some and weapons for others. I forgive quick but I was still cut. The damage was evident. Like a car that’s driveable after a wreck. For a while I did not want to share my status. I had went through a divorce. I had been called an AIDS infested whore by my ex-mother in law. Not to my face, but to other people. It was crazy. i remember when I got sick. My lymph nodes were swollen so big behind my ears. i have no idea what it was. Paid no attention to it for a year. I remember i had flu like symptoms and could barely stand up straight. I was attending the family church at the time. I remember the ex father in law came by to pick me up to finish the church sign I was painting. He was rushing me. I finished. Then the following sunday they typed up a letter and asked their son and I to leave. Children and all. Shaking my head at the thought. Years went by and my then Husband went to jail. I lost my apartment and had to move in with my mother in southpark. While he was in jail I found out through a mouth swab HIV test that I was positive. I called his Aunt because I remember when him and I were dating he said something about AIDS. I called her up and she told me that he had been diagnosed with it and almost died. His mother had all of the paperwork. So I called her and asked for the papers and she said it was none of my business. I had to go the CDC for my results and also attend a class about it for a couple of weeks. In the class I learned about opportunistic infections. One of the infections stood out to me because I had heard it before. Histoplasmosis. My then husband had gave a testimony several times at his mothers church services and other functions about how he also died and had suffered from Histoplasmosis. The weight loss and the other symptoms were a result of this. So I am sitting in the class being told about infections associated with HIV/AIDS. I asked his mom a question because he was in jail. Does he have AIDS? She said, “My Son ain’t got AIDS. He had histoplasmosis.” I was devastated. I remember he had got mad at me for breaking up with him when we were dating and he said that why you have AIDS now! I didn’t think he was serious. I thought he was just angry.
Is histoplasmosis an opportunistic infection?
In Latin America, for example, histoplasmosis is one of the most common opportunistic infections among people living with HIV, and approximately 30% of HIV/AIDS patients diagnosed with histoplasmosis die from it. Histoplasmosis is reportable in certain states.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7090190/
To be Continued….
Salvation After HIV/AIDS 