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Author Topic: Better Than A Birthday!!!  (Read 5557 times)

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Offline Amosboy

  • Member
  • Posts: 156
  • Music is the panacea.
Better Than A Birthday!!!
« on: January 06, 2007, 12:00:24 pm »
Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to say that today is my 21st anniversary of finding out that I was HIV positive.  I used to shutter every year when this day would pop up, especially during the first few years.  I remember wondering if I would see myself turn 25, 30, and now I'm 40...officially a dinosaur in Gayville  :D  I celebrate January 6th more than my birthday!  January 6, 1986 was a paralyzing day for a 19 year old who was a Freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill.  Twenty one years later...I'm still kicking and doing well. 

To all those young people who are just now finding out...take note...you can survive this illness and grow old.  It took me many years to adjust my anxiety on this day and turn it into a celebration but here I am.

Today is better than a birthday!  I think I'll go roller skating on this beautiful day (secretly prays I won't break a leg)  ;D

Brooks

And that's something to smile about...right now:
"Love isn't love unless it's not painfully absurb."

-Charlotte Martin

Offline Tucsonwoody

  • Member
  • Posts: 396
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2007, 12:20:11 pm »
Wow!    ....no BIG WOW!! 

I think about what someone my age (way past dinosaur and into fossil I guess) goes through when getting the news after living a pretty full life. In the day of effective treatments especially and then I try to imagine what it must of been like for a young person like you near the beginning of this epidemic, and I can't do it.

I just hope a lot of people read this thread, especially the younger ones who are just finding out. Thanks and congratulations.

Kevin
And I wished for guidance, and I wished for peace
I could see the lightning; somewhere in the east
And I wished for affection, and I wished for calm
As I lay there - Nervous in the light of dawn

Offline Boo Radley

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,252
  • Not a "real man" and damn proud, mithter... FAB
    • Animal Rescue New Orleans
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2007, 12:30:13 pm »
Congratulations, Brooks, for demonstrating there is a (good) chance for life after HIV infection.  Being 10 years your senior I was in my 30s when I tested (in December, 1989, during the Xmas break from work) and can't imagine how I would have dealt with it when I was your age.  At 19 I was definitely on the young and naive side. 

Happy Anniversary!!  We should have gotten you a cake!

Boo

P.S.  Of course you and I know the secret to longevity is having a houseful of cats but not everyone can handle that great responsibility.  It takes a special breed to feed 10 greedy-guts every day... and let's ignore the cat litter issue.
String up every aristocrat!
Out with the priests and let them live on their fat!





Everything I do, say, think, excrete, secrete, exude, ooze, or write © 2007 Sweet Old Boo, Inc.

Offline bear60

  • Member
  • Posts: 4,105
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2007, 12:32:07 pm »
Brooks...
You are an inspiration to all of us.  Congratulations.
Poz Bear Type in Philadelphia

Offline water duck

  • Member
  • Posts: 404
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2007, 12:54:51 pm »
THIS IS SUCH A HEART WARMING READ !!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING , Brooks !!

Siang

Offline allopathicholistic

  • Member
  • Posts: 3,258
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2007, 01:09:58 pm »
take note...you can survive this illness and grow old. 

oh and look like a million bucks too!!

i second "what Bear said"! 21 years wow

Offline rick21007

  • Member
  • Posts: 286
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2007, 01:28:38 pm »
 Brooks,I read your  great post and the first thing I wondered is how you did it.  Ah!  Kissing!!!.  That must be your secret.  I think there ought to be a research study done.  I volunteer for the test group as long as I get to choose my partner.  This could be the break-thru we are all waiting for!!  My CD4 count wouldn't be the only thing kissing would keep up either.  ;D

Rick

Offline rick21007

  • Member
  • Posts: 286
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2007, 01:38:38 pm »
[ I think about what someone my age (way past dinosaur and into fossil I guess) goes through when getting the news after living a pretty full life. 

So Kevin---What's _your_ secret to surviving and looking so sexy while you are doing it??
(looking at your picture and your age ;D)

Rick

Offline Tucsonwoody

  • Member
  • Posts: 396
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2007, 01:48:54 pm »
Ah Rick -

What ya never heard of Photoshop?  :)  I just wish I looked as good at 40 as Brooks does and no amount of Photoshopping could have done that for me....no matter how hard I tried.

But my ego thanks you anyway!

Kevin (aka The Fossil...since Amosboy mistakenly thinks he's a dinosaur)

And I wished for guidance, and I wished for peace
I could see the lightning; somewhere in the east
And I wished for affection, and I wished for calm
As I lay there - Nervous in the light of dawn

Offline AlanBama

  • Member
  • Posts: 3,670
  • Alabama: the 'other' 3rd World Country!
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2007, 02:05:08 pm »
Well Happy Anniversary mister!   You wear it well.....


hugs,

Alan   :-*
"Remember my sentimental friend that a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others." - The Wizard of Oz

Offline ChrisNCoronado

  • Member
  • Posts: 77
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2007, 03:36:32 pm »
Well Happy Anniversary mister!   You wear it well.....

I'll second what the Tin Man with the BIG heart said. 

Best to you, Brooks.

Chris
xxoo

Offline Ihavehope

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,366
  • Yes, I'm a cry baby, AND WHAT?
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #11 on: January 06, 2007, 03:39:21 pm »
Hey there

Congrats on you Anniversary. I am so proud of you and you give us newly infected folks hope for the future. Keep up the good work.
Infected: April 2005
12/6/06 - Diagnosed HIV positive
12/19/06 - CD4 = 240  22% VL = 26,300
1/4/07 - CD4 = 200 16% VL = ?
2/9/07 = Started Kaletra/Truvada
3/13/07 = CD4 = 386 22% VL ?

Offline aupointillimite

  • Member
  • Posts: 3,233
  • FUS DO RAH!
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #12 on: January 06, 2007, 04:58:27 pm »
Happy Anniversary! 

That's effin' awesome, Brooks!

I'm thinking about doing something for my 2nd HIV B-day in February. 

It's funny that you celebrate that... I've been throwing an "X Years, Still Queer" party for the anniversary of my coming out in late November 1999. 

And I wouldn't call you a dinosaur.  You're more like a saber-toothed tiger.  Not as old and infinitely more hardcore.  ;D
Your tastebuds can't repel flavor of this magnitude!

Offline Teresa

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,755
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #13 on: January 06, 2007, 05:10:41 pm »


Wishing you many, many more!

BIG HUGS
Teresa
Hubby HIV+ 5/5/06
CD4:320
  %: 26.7
 VL: <20
Atripla (started it 8/24/06)

Offline poet

  • Member
  • Posts: 934
  • Poet living and working in Central Maine
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #14 on: January 06, 2007, 05:11:17 pm »
Something to smile about indeed, Brooks.  Congratulations on the date, on having turned it around, in being an inspiration for those who are 19 now and being diagnosed.  Of course you have agreed to be our poster boy, correct?  So we get to see lower down, front, back sides, etc. also correct? :)  Don't break a leg unless the sex was worth it.   ;D Best, Win
Winthrop Smith has published three collections of poetry: Ghetto: From The First Five; The Weigh-In: Collected Poems; Skin Check: New York Poems.  The last was published in December 2006.  He has a work-in-progress underway titled Starting Positions.

Offline Queen Tokelove

  • Member
  • Posts: 6,031
  • Smokey the Smurf
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #15 on: January 06, 2007, 05:19:00 pm »
Happy Anniversary, my man. Life does go on no matter how you look at it. It's just how you choose to live it. It seems to me you have been doing well, obviously, you are still with us. And you will be for awhile!  :-*
Started Atripla/Ziagen on 9/13/07.
10/31/07 CD4-265 VL- undetectable
2/6/08 CD4- 401 VL- undetectable
5/7/08 CD4- 705 VL- undetectable
6/4/08 CD4- 775 VL- undetectable
8/6/08 CD4- 805 VL- undetectable
11/13/08 CD4- 774 VL--undetectable
2/4/09  CD4- 484  VL- 18,000 (2 months off meds)
3/3/09---Starting Back on Meds---
4/27/09 CD4- 664 VL-- undetectable
6/17/09 CD4- 438 VL- 439
8/09 CD4- 404 VL- 1,600
01-22-10-- CD4- 525 VL- 59,000
Cherish the simple things life has to offer

Offline Longislander

  • Member
  • Posts: 2,489
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #16 on: January 07, 2007, 12:55:12 am »
great stuff! Happy Anniversary stud! ;)
infected 10/05 diagnosed 12-05
2/06   379/57000                    6/07 372/30500 25%   4/09 640/U/32% 
5/06   ?? /37000                     8/07 491/55000/24%    9/09 913/U/39%
8/06   349/9500 25%              11/07 515/68000/24     2/10 845/U/38%
9/06   507/16,000 30% !          2/08  516/116k/22%    7/10 906/80/39%
12/06 398/29000 26%             Start Atripla 3/08
3/07   402/80,000 29%            4/08  485/undet!/27
4/07   507/35,000 25%            7/08 625/UD/34%
                                                 11/08 684/U/36%

Offline Strayboy74

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,054
  • tastes like chicken
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #17 on: January 07, 2007, 01:00:27 am »

I'd like one of those for my birthday, too! :)

-joseph

Offline lydgate

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,022
  • Virgin, can't drive
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #18 on: January 07, 2007, 01:03:07 am »
Three cheers! Hip hip hurray!

You've made me actually look forward to August 23rd this year (it'll only be my second anniversary); last year, I shuttered myself in on that day, worried that I would fall apart. I didn't, but I did need the solace of much wine.

And, if it's not insensitive prying, I'd like to hear more about that 19-year-old in Chapel Hill and his college experience in the fear-filled days of the late-80s.

 :-* Jay



Her finely-touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

George Eliot, Middlemarch, final paragraph

Offline Eldon

  • Member
  • Posts: 2,664
Re: Better Than A Birthday!!!
« Reply #19 on: January 08, 2007, 03:10:19 am »


Hey Brooks,

I see that you have become the poster boi. LOL! Happy Anniversary!





"What can I notice right now that makes me smile?"



 


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