I got taken advantage of recently in a major hurtful way and I can't seem to let it go. I already know my inability to do so is about the manifestation of (other) things that are out of control in my life. Still fucking stings though. I'm a Scorpio. We are known for grudges, lol. Without going into a lot of detail, my mom passed away recently and the funeral home (whom you want to be able to trust) took advantage of our grief and forced us into a position of having to come up with considerable funds the day before my mother's funeral, while the entire time we were working with them (over a...
Red40something's blog
The Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC) conference was held in Tampa, FL in November of this year. The theme for 2022 was EQUITY, COMPASSION & SCIENCE - KEYS TO ENDING THE EPIDEMIC. Tampa was a controversial place to hold this meeting because of the political climate.
The 24th biennial International AIDS Conference took place from the end of July into the beginning of August this year, and I was happy to have been able to attend.
You don't have to. You. Don't. Have. To. No tienes. Tu n'as pas. I can't repeat it enough. You do not have to take everything that comes to you. Not everything you find is yours to pick up and not everything you pick up is yours to carry. You don't have to let it in your spirit. The mess. The emotional stress. The guilt trips. The pain. The baggage and trauma other people lay on you because they are tired of carrying it. It's cool to be a listening ear. To let people lean on you. It's what we're taught right? To be a "good" person and friend. You don't have to and it doesn't make you a...
Have you ever heard a doctor, advocate or friend say "you probably know someone living with HIV and you just don't know it"? People hiding in plain sight. I've said that to people. It's a way to get them to consider HIV in a way they never have before. To humanize the scary HIV acronym and make them think about the nuances of what it must be like to live with it. The 2022 CROI conference did that for me in an unexpected way this year. Humanized science when science isn't exactly popular for having human qualities. Not to mention the challenge of yet another virtual conference platform...
If you can read this, or let someone read it to you, and you are sexually active – and you don't know your status or the status of your partner(s), you are at risk for HIV. Yes, YOU TOO! Woman, man, nonbinary, trans-experience – aged 15 or 75. Doesn't matter what kind of sex, even if it's just the tip - there is risk. Go get tested. That's it. That's the whole blog. Kidding. Not knowing, believing in, or recognizing risk is one of the main factors in HIV transmission. It could be, but it's not. I want you to be fully informed so you can operate from knowledge and not from fear or ignorance. By...
I recently "came out" with my HIV status on Facebook even though I've been quietly doing the advocacy thing in the background for a while now. Caring for my patients, using my writing, some small speaking engagements and such. Not hiding it per se- just not shouting it out. I just decided it was just time. I got things to do, stigma to fight and goals to accomplish. Things better done out loud and front and center. Can't even lie. It was emotional. Not really scary after all this time, but there was absolutely some anxiety. I am so grateful it was on my terms and not some foolish, petty human...
I attended the virtual USCHA conference this year put on by NMAC, supported by too many sponsors to name and I want to start by saying this: I love us. "Us" as in the HIV community.
As a woman, I know what it feels like to be invisible. As a Black woman that feeling is sometimes intensified. It gets juxtaposed with occasionally being the person everyone is looking at, but not really seeing.
One of the most powerful things a patient said to me was "Just because I hear you doesn't mean I understand what you're saying". His regimen was changing because he had some resistance and I was doing the nurse education part of the visit right before discharge when we reiterate what the doctor has said and ask if there are questions. After having discharged patients a hundred gazillion times, I could tell by the look on his face that something wasn't clicking. His response also resonated with me because I could remember leaving appointments with doctors early in my diagnosis and scouring the...