POZ Community Forums
Main Forums => Pre-HAART Long-Term Survivors => Topic started by: Ithaca_Nights on June 07, 2007, 02:30:34 pm
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Just wanted to share with all of you my 19th anniversary of testing HIV +. It sure has been a long road to travel, but I can not say it is all bad. I first tested positive in June 1988 after my partner at the time tested positive. I think the hardest part for me is all the people that I have lost along the way. I am thankfull for all the friends I have made along this journey. I am also thankfull for this site and am very thankfull for this new forum for us long term survivors. I am inspired by a lot of the folks that post on this site. Although I do not post much, I do read a lot of what is said on here.
Thank you all again!
Dan
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Right behind you, Dan. I'll be there in three months (diagnosed September 1988).
I agree it seems like a long road sometimes, but I'm grateful for the advances that have come about in that time too. I raise my coffee mug in toast to you and wish you many more good years to come.
Daniel
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Hey Dan,
Are congratulations in order? I think so. Anyone who makes it as long as you have deserves a hearty pat on the back and at least a nice dinner.
I understand completely the feeling of loss when I think back over the years about those who are no longer with us. That has made it hard. I especially have a hard time with those who almost made it to the triple-drug cocktail era, but not quite. That still gets me at times.
But this is no time to be morose. I still think you should go out for a little special occasion, if only to celebrate the fact you are still here.
It is rather like I feel toward my upcoming 50th birthday. Am I sorry I managed to get this old? Heck no! For someone given two years to live in 1985, I'd call it a milestone!
So, too, is your 19th anniversary. At least, I think it is.
HUGS,
Mark
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Dan, I am only a month behind you. I tested poz in July of 1988, I have told my family that next yr. i am going to have one heck of a party to celabrate being alive and liveing with this bug. It has been hard at times, but it has not been as hard for me as for some on this site. I want to celabrate liveing. I didn't think i would be here to see my youngest graduate high school, he is now 23. So yes go have a nice dinner or have a party you deserve it.
Wendy
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I have my 14th anniversary this months (of diagnosis, not infection). Congrats on your perseverance.
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Thank you to all of you for your replies. We are very fortunate to still be here and hopefully let those who are newly infected that they can live a long life as well.
Cheers!
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Where's the cake. . .Just keep on counting those anniversaries ;D
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I had my 18 year diagnosis anniversay in February of this year. I think we all deserve more than cake.
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I just realized it was 23 years ago today that I found out. Cake definitely cake. chocolate..mmmmm Congrats to all of us!!!!
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Hey Everyone, Glad to hear that you have made it this far. I have been diagnosed AIDS for over 11 years now, who knows how long it was before that I was infected. Near as I can figure, due to the minimal number of partners I had before diagnosis(3), it must have been as much as 8 years beforehand.
It has been a long, sometimes rough, road getting here. Just the week before last, my wife and I went to a family(hers) reunion in Va. Beach. The night that we were to leave Indiana for Virginia, I had to go to the E.R. because of extreme difficulty breathing. Turned out that I had caught a severe lung infection. After diagnosing the infection, it was also found out that my 30+ years of smoking had caught up to me. I have been diagnosed with COPD. I now have to be on a nebulizer for that.
The thing that really perturbed me was that, once in Virginia, my sister-in-law, a registered nurse, really let her phobias show. I find it incredulous in this day age, that a health care worker would be as phobic of me as she is. Upon arrival at the house her family rented, my wife's sister made everyone write their names on their cups so that nothing could be transmitted! Later, in an unrelated argument, where some rather nasty words flew from her mouth, she outright told me and my wife, in front of everyone on the shuttle bus, that she didn't want me there on this trip because of my having AIDS.
Needless to say, I was pretty PO'd with her. Still am. Now I know where the ill will has been coming from after all these years. The rest of my wife's family is also PO'd with her for interupting an argument my wife and I were having, and spoiling the whole trip and causing the early return of the only grandson in the family(my wife and I brought my 1 year old grandson along to spend time with the rest of her family). BTW, at the point that she interupted the argument, my wife and I were about to make up.
Back to the point, it is unbelievable how phobic healthcare workers, these days, can be. But, cheers to all of us that have made it this far(I am now 46years old :D), condolences to all of us whom have lost so many great friends along the way, and a prayer for all of those that have been lost along the way. I am hoping that soon they will find a way to make the drugs affordable, if not a cure.
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Congratulations to all of you Long-Term Survivors! You are truly an inspiration to me in dealing with my diagnosis. I found out on August 10, 2006, so it will soon be 1 year for me. I would like to know what advice would you give to newly infected individuals or those who have been diagnosed less than a year or so?
I LOVE ALL OF YOU LONG TERM SURVIVORS! YOU ARE DEFINATELY HEROES IN MY BOOK!!!!
Good Bless!
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Just wanted to share with all of you my 19th anniversary of testing HIV +. It sure has been a long road to travel, but I can not say it is all bad. I first tested positive in June 1988 after my partner at the time tested positive. I think the hardest part for me is all the people that I have lost along the way.
Hello Dan,
And wishing you many more years ahead of you. I also understand about losing friends along the way. It has been one of the most difficult things, that I've had to to deal with these past 22 years. Lost too many friends.
Stay healthy/wishing you the best----Ray