Day 10: Appointments to Keep

I woke at 6:30 am, threw on some jeans and a t shirt and walked through the dense fog to the UCSD testing center located 6 streets over. The hardest part of my morning was walking up the hill to University.

The first of many appointments today was of the testing consultation.

I sat down with the nurse and we went over my results and opportunities. Apparently tons of stuff come with disabilities. Thanks to the Ryan White foundation I will always have medical, dental, etc. even if I lose my job/insurance! I am sure it won't be as fancy as my current one but it is better than post-college having to real job, insurance and everyone else struggling thanks to a couple of towers falling.

I received several referrals to local doctors as well as counselors. Apparently my plan has some of the best! The nurse knows this because her insurance is one step down from mine!

We chatted a lot about how HIV is no longer about the disease. It's about self image. People struggle with themselves more than they do with the disease.

She was inspired from seeing her friends die from AIDS complications. She said I am very fortunate with opportunities available. Apparently medications don't have as many side effects and can have your viral load as undetectable. According to some studies in Sweden and Africa, heterosexual couples where one partner is pos and the other is neg, using medication can have a less than 1% transmission rate.

This had some bad side effects as more people were having unsafe sex. There are still precautions needed in that if two viruses mix you can develop a resistance to medications. Thankfully there are 28 medications on the market now and the resistance rate to them was very low for people who maintain their wellness.

Side effects to new drugs are almost none and can be taken indefinitely which is crazy to think of the cocktails that were used recently and a resistance is formed.

I was referred to local doctors and instructed what my next steps are.

After initial infection people develop 3 baselines. From these you can tell how long it will take before you need to start medication. The baseline is an indication of how our immune response is to the disease. Some people are naturally able to fight off the alien babies while others need some help.

After that I headed to the Center where I had my first counseling appointment. I was still filling out paper work on the way there. (There was a HUGE stack of paper work).

I made it and met Jackie my new therapist. We talked a lot about me! It was boring and long winded. What came out at the end was that I had an amazing support group, I lost a lot of anxiety I held and that I am preparing for the bad days that might come.

Because of the Ryan White Foundation, they receive grant money to cover counseling for those people with HIV, family counseling and individual counseling of family or those primarily affected by a person they know with HIV. I thought that was amazing. If any one of you people are feeling down I no long have to console you, you can get a free therapist or come with me to a session!

I invited my sister to my session not next week but the week after.

Today she begins reading my blog!

I just want to thank everyone who has helped me past this first week and a half. Everyone has been wonderful and I can't tell you how the text messages, comments about the blog, and in short shout outs to me make me feel.

The downfall is that this may continue for a couple of months and decline. You, my friends, need to break the standards and please show me that you can badger, her-ass, throw naughty pictures and flip me off well past this initial week and well into the rest of my life. I realize that everyone reading this will die before me, so I promise to thank you at your funeral and "Do onto others as they do onto me." No asshole straight male friends that does not mean I will make out with you. I don't care if the chances are nil and we are drunk. No means no!