World AIDS Day

[AlanBama]

Well, it's official, I am getting OLD OLD OLD....The new issue of POZ magazine made me feel 'old and out of touch'.   After reading a thread in "Living With" about how everyone celebrated their WAD, and how much fun they had, etc....I have just decided that I don't fit in anymore with the "AIDS crowd".

What happened to remembering those we have lost? What about shedding a few tears on Dec. 1st?  I know the young people dealing with AIDS today have a whole different reality than some of us did/do....but really!

At our clinic, we can't get anyone to participate in things if they're under 50.  I feel that we are beating our heads against a brick wall. (and I'm real tired of it).  We have so many patients now, and the goal seems to be "get them undetectable". That may take a lot in some cases, as some come in with "full-blown AIDS" before ever being tested for HIV.  So much effort is concentrated on them that those of us who are already undetectable get strung out to 6 mo. or 1 yr. appointments -- never mind that fact that we may take 15 or 20 prescriptions each day....and have other major health concerns.

I have no solutions.  I am resigned to just go with the flow, roll with the punches, you know how it goes....at least I have learned to be adaptable over the last 25 yrs.

Alan 

[edfu]

Bravo!  I couldn't agree with you more and appreciate your courage in stating  this opinion.  I don't see a solution to this problem and  have long fervently believed in the "generation gap" I see not only with PWA's but also with gay men in particular.  We lost almost an entire generation of gay men, and there is a woeful lack of communication now among THREE generations, let alone two.  For some of us who have survived, the youngsters today are the equivalent of our grandchildren, not just our children, and they are really not interested in learning our histories and our stories.  For those of us on the other side of the two-generation gap, however, even when we try to communicate, it's hopeless.  To them, we're just ridiculous old farts.  This is yet another facet of the tragedy that has decimated the gay community.   

[aztecan]

Alan, I hear you!

I deal with this all the time. I know young people who fret about a line on their face but are completely careless about their meds.

When it comes to support groups or any other projects, it is those 45 to 50 and older who get involved.

The youngsters aren't interested if there isn't a "dating opportunity."

I guess we can only do as you suggest, roll with the punches. After all, we are the ones who have survived the worst.

I doubt many of these younger people have the chutzpah to survive a hang nail.

HUGS,

Mark

[leatherman]

while it saddens me to read this thread, it at least makes me understand that the situation I find myself in here in SC isn't any different than elsewhere. How sad it that! When I find out how messed up the situation is in other places, it gives me some understanding and acceptance of how messed up things are in the situation where I am.

Last night at a local university, we held a WAD film festival (screening the movie 'deepsouth'), I was surprised when I found myself having to explain over and over just what the red ribbon meant. Afterwards I could only scrape together a handful of people who still cared enough to hold a memorial this year. Out of the fewer than 2 dozen people gathered, only 2 were below the age of 35.

Then when I think of the stat of only 28% actually remaining adherent to meds, I am afraid of another disaster in the making.

[BT65]

Alan, I totally get it. 
Twenty-some years ago, I got to be best friends with another single mother who had AIDS, and ended up passing.  Anyway, she had two daughters who went through hell at their school.  Their stepmother had let out the fact that their mother had AIDS, so kids started teasing them, and their teachers wouldn't shake their mother's hand when she went in for conferences.  Her youngest daughter, who was like 5 at the time, drew a picture (with no prompting) of the world, and put a band-aid on it.  Underneath the drawing, she wrote "the world is hurted."  What insight for such a young person.

Flash forward to this year's WAD at our agency.  The young lady who drew the picture had seen it on my boss' facebook page, as her mother gave it to the agency 20-some years ago, and got a hold of my boss to find out where the office was.  She actually came in!  It had been years since I had seen her.  She asked me a lot of questions about her mother.  I told her about her mother's last Christmas, where this man who died from AIDS bought her and her sister toys galore. She got tears in her eyes and said she always wondered where those toys came from.
 
Hardly any of my clients were positive back then.  And now, lot of them just take a pill and go on with their lives.  And I don't have many positive friends outside of my clients.
 
It sucks, but I'm like you I guess, and roll with it.  And We Remember........

[minismom]

sorry, after posting, I remembered where I was.

[Fisher]

I’ve been positive all along, almost since the beginning.  But I’ve also been absent all along, till recently.  I’ve been a publisher all my life. I’d love to learn about, document, learn for myself, and present to the rest of the world the (hrdra) heart of HIV and AIDs. Maybe build a bridge or two.