It’s important to know the history and how it affects us. What was it then and what it is now!!!
KEY POINTS
HIV is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system.
The only way to know if you have HIV is to get tested.
There are many ways to prevent HIV, like using PrEP, PEP, condoms and never sharing needles.
HIV treatment helps people live long, healthy lives and prevents HIV transmission.
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).
There is currently no effective cure. Once people get HIV, they have it for life. But proper medical care can control the virus.
People with HIV who get on and stay on effective HIV treatment can live long, healthy lives and protect their partners.
Support: Click and Order today! Help Destroy the Stigma
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.
A year ago I received a message from a friend about taking a dog that her daughter did not want anymore. I was hurting from my previous pet. Blu was his name and Goldie was his wife. i was very attached to my babies. We had been through a lot. I had been ejected from my previous relationship and out of spite he gave my dogs to the pound. Yes it hurt. So when I got this text, no questions asked i took her. I was very depressed at the time and lonely. So Yoshi…That’s her name, came in right on time. I was broken and felt discarded. When Yoshi came into my life she needed me and I her. I started getting up in the morning. I was always chasing her around and hiding shoes that survived her attacks. All my show were on the dresser. Lord have mercy! It was like having a 2 year old. Though frustrated at times I still needed her. I was in weeping spells and she would lay across my lap and go to sleep. We’d wake up the next morning and go through the madness all over again. This literally ran me up and out of depression. Even no when I have my bouts she is there. When no one is visiting and calling I am still ok because it’s me and Yoshi.
Salvation After HIV/AIDS 