HIV: Knowledge is POWER!

        I have been writing all week trying to decide what my next topic should be. Yes, I believe the art of writing and brainstorming with a pen and paper will soon be extinct, yet I will never quit. Thumbing through pages of writing, so many ideas running around in my head yet none gave me the passion I needed, at this moment, to type. That is until I heard the television. As I looked up, CSI was on and for the third time this week, my few moments of TV touched on the topic of HIV. The two other shows were House & Law & Order:SVU. (On a personal note, I will rewatch these two shows along with Friends & Charmed until the end of my time on this planet. I never understood before how "BAN" could watch Andy Griffith & Seinfeld over and over again laughing at jokes that he knew by heart. As I have grown up, I understand the emotions and comfort tied to the familiar characters which believe it or not impact your life in more ways than you will realize)
        As relieved as I was that someone somewhere was trying to have a voice and educate the general population, these shows still tackled it with the same taboo and propaganda that has been going on for years thus negating the entire point of the meger attempt at education! My relief slowly fills with fury! How could they? It's always a child born of a drug addict mother or a drug addict themselves, a reckless gay man or a convict with sloppy tattoo work. I realize this makes for good television, however the realistic approaches make more of an impact on people's lives. Imagine MY STORY being told on a episode of Law & Order:SVU. A women simply trying to concieve a child with her fiance whom had swore that he was tested yet had never been tested once. "Jay Jay" had HIV for over a decade and had no clue because he thought it could never happen to him. How many of you are thinking that right now? The reason I am so strong, healthy and fighting as well as I am is because, against doctors orders, I DEMANDED to be tested! I had done my own research about why I was sick and within the first six months of contracting it, I was able to get on anti-retro-virals which not only stopped the HIV from multiplying in my blood but flushed out so much of it from my system that the concentration of HIV in my blood is so low that even the most sensitive of laboratory tests cannot detect it. I may not be cured, I may have to live with side effects to my ARVs for the remaining years of my life, but my loved ones are safe and that is all that matters to me.
          It is true there is no cure for HIV yet. BUT THIS IS NOT A DEATH SENTANCE! Spend a few hours of your life and get tested! You may have used protection your whole life (as I did up until summer of 2010). You may have never gotten a tattoo (mine were all sterile needles). You may have NEVER used intervenous drugs (as I have NEVER done). The truth is once outside the body HIV does not live very long. But I bet you as some point in your life you HAVE had a fresh cut on your body that did not have a band-aide on it. I bet you HAVE had oral sex and had your partners fluid in your mouth. I bet you HAVE kissed someone when you had a coldsore, cut, or bleeding gums. Truth is, no matter how much you nag, no matter how much you demand, no matter how deny it. IT'S OUT THERE and there are few as brave as I am to make their status public to the general population. So the real question is how well do you trust every person you know with your future & your life? GET TESTED! No denial, no fear, no "ifs" about it! Do it NOW! And if you need a friend to hold your hand, you know where to find me! All you need to do is ask! Do not be ashamed of getting FREE HIV testing be PROUD of it! Be proud that you are taking control of YOUR life for knowledge is power and my little army of readers are more powerful than I could ever hope for!