July 2019...

[flashdance]

So little posting for the last few weeks....on my return visit....I just had to open up a post and attempt to start some dialogue.

-1- Biktarvy...I wish everyone well with this and any other prescription. What do you think pushed Biktarvy to have such a vocal advertising? I would think Truvada may have proceeded Biktarvy with advertising...but I cannot recall any other "HIV med" using marketing at such a large level as these two meds. 
 
-2- With the chatter for reparations due to the history of slavery...should Longterm Survivors start asking about reparations for the history we have thankfully lived through?

-3- Since most of us are mature and have much experience...have you had any luck in trying to establish dialogue with individuals from younger generations? Since I seem to be surrounded by aged beauties...I feel like I am missing out on a dialogue that might change my perspective on things. Have any of you had any profound conversations with younger people concerning life and HIV?

I am just hoping to start some fresh conversations.

[leatherman]

-1- Biktarvy

I am amazed by their advertising. I mean, percentage-wise there just aren't that many Americans living with HIV, so why nationally advertise any ARVs on television? It irks me as a PLWH who advocates for how health care is delivered to other PLWH to see that money spent on advertising when it could have been part of a price reduction strategy or a plan for providing more meds to people who currently aren't on meds.

-2- should Longterm Survivors start asking about reparations

ouch! comparing slavery to an epidemic is pretty shoddy logic. Slavery is something inhumane that someone did to other people. An epidemic is simply nature, biology, and a mild sprinkling of risk-taking. While descendants of slavery are still dealing with the detrimental historical repercussions (economical, political, social) of abuse to their ancestors, long term survivors should be thankful that science, health care, and pharmaceuticals thwarted a deadly virus. Until someone can figure out a way to legally demand that "Mother Nature" repay for the negative consequences of having only one of thousands of diseases, then no, there will be no reparations for LTSes. Just like the people who have survived ebola, influenza, cancer or the plague, our "reparation" is that we are still alive

-3- Have any of you had any profound conversations with younger people concerning life and HIV?

all the time! I have volunteered with several clinics and several Ryan White programs for the last ten years. As a peer counselor, I have spoken with hundreds of young PLWH across North and South Carolina. My words of wisdom come down to this:

• whatever you imagined in your teens and 20s was probably never going to come to pass because life has an annoying habit of getting in the way. The object is to keep working towards your goals, or make new goals, whenever you hit a roadblock.
• Anything can be made better. well except for death. You can't fix death but you can fix anything else. It's just going to take time and work. maybe a lot of time and a lot of work, but given enough effort anything can be made better. so get off your dead ass and start working.
• Follow the money. always follow the money.
• Don't take the meds and you'll die. Take the meds and go live you life.

oh, and I never ever tell them crap about pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps or any other wisdom from the previous generations. even though technically I was born at the end of the "baby boom", unfortunately the circumstances in my lifetime have been like those of "gen x" and the "millenials", so I commiserate about the ever-increasing, seemingly-unsolvable problems of employment/waging, climate, housing, healthcare, and politics

[em]

I tried to contact a local AIDS organization. they sent me for some reason a psych contact referral? I was rather offended but not surprised.  I also thought that a more relatable method of explaining the rise and fall of the virus and the resulting conflict
 in an immune response that did not use two dimensional graphing might be worth telling. but alas it was not meant to be   

so I am here trying to reach others like myself

EM

[em]

the title july 2019,

I recall around 1990. A friend had said to me where do you see yourself in the future?

ten years twenty thirty ? I figured at that point,  that I would be lucky to have five years before dying

the date made me recall this old memory.  2019 who would have thunk it ?

EM

[flashdance]

Thanks, Leatherman for the expounding upon the idea of reparations. Hopefully I have not offended anyone. That topic crossed my mind for some odd reason when the news was chatting about reparations...and Reagan was the next story....so my mind wandered. I have learned something, today....so tnx, Leatherman.

Thanks, em!! July 1990 was when I started popping AZT. who would have thunk that we are still kicking in 2019. The moment the doc announced my poz status...he laughed and asked if my will was ready. I swore at the time I would never die of HIV.

[leatherman]

I swore at the time I would never die of HIV.

LOL the opposite of me. I was resigned to dying both times I almost died. Of course, after I didn't die that second time I figured I was just going to have to live with it... and that's what I've been doing ever since. Now we're about to celebrate my Grandmother's 102nd birthday, and with me having inherited genes from her side of our family, I'm pretty happy/scared about being only halfway through my life

Hopefully I have not offended anyone.

I live in SC (you know, the first state to secede from the Union ) and I work with info and people representing PLWH dealing with the disparities of race, so the topic of reparations is touchy. I think you have to be a fool to not understand how slavery disaffected a huge portion of our population for generations; but many of my less educated (SC is 49th in education) neighbors (the white ones with the Rebel flag flying off the back of their pickup trucks) aren't too keen on reparations... or anything that requires an intellectual discussion seeking reasonable resolutions.

and Reagan was the next story....so my mind wandered.

I don't know if LTSes need reparations but there are about 658,507* people in the USA who have died of AIDS who might not have died (from either the slow start to dealing with the epidemic to the stigma and lack of access today that keeps people from getting meds in time) who deserve reparations. Unfortunately resurrection is not a real medical treatment/reparation.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_the_United_States

[flashdance]

Tnx for another great response, leatherman....you stated things perfectly.