Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
December 02, 2024, 02:49:47 am

Login with username, password and session length


Members
  • Total Members: 37984
  • Latest: Joe213
Stats
  • Total Posts: 775356
  • Total Topics: 66588
  • Online Today: 366
  • Online Ever: 5484
  • (June 18, 2021, 11:15:29 pm)
Users Online
Users: 2
Guests: 343
Total: 345

Welcome


Welcome to the POZ Community Forums, a round-the-clock discussion area for people with HIV/AIDS, their friends/family/caregivers, and others concerned about HIV/AIDS.  Click on the links below to browse our various forums; scroll down for a glance at the most recent posts; or join in the conversation yourself by registering on the left side of this page.

Privacy Warning:  Please realize that these forums are open to all, and are fully searchable via Google and other search engines. If you are HIV positive and disclose this in our forums, then it is almost the same thing as telling the whole world (or at least the World Wide Web). If this concerns you, then do not use a username or avatar that are self-identifying in any way. We do not allow the deletion of anything you post in these forums, so think before you post.

  • The information shared in these forums, by moderators and members, is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between an individual and his/her own physician.

  • All members of these forums are, by default, not considered to be licensed medical providers. If otherwise, users must clearly define themselves as such.

  • Forums members must behave at all times with respect and honesty. Posting guidelines, including time-out and banning policies, have been established by the moderators of these forums. Click here for “Do I Have HIV?” posting guidelines. Click here for posting guidelines pertaining to all other POZ community forums.

  • We ask all forums members to provide references for health/medical/scientific information they provide, when it is not a personal experience being discussed. Please provide hyperlinks with full URLs or full citations of published works not available via the Internet. Additionally, all forums members must post information which are true and correct to their knowledge.

  • Product advertisement—including links; banners; editorial content; and clinical trial, study or survey participation—is strictly prohibited by forums members unless permission has been secured from POZ.

To change forums navigation language settings, click here (members only), Register now

Para cambiar sus preferencias de los foros en español, haz clic aquí (sólo miembros), Regístrate ahora

Finished Reading This? You can collapse this or any other box on this page by clicking the symbol in each box.

Author Topic: Tested positive 1/24: My schpiel  (Read 9345 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline tabas1

  • Standard
  • New Member
  • Posts: 2
Tested positive 1/24: My schpiel
« on: January 26, 2024, 02:49:09 am »
Hi all!

I am a 29 yo man. I went for a full panel screening on Monday after a potential drugging/date r*** that happened Saturday to get PEP, and received the call Wednesday afternoon that I was already testing positive. That means I must have already had it and I just didn’t know. I haven’t had any previous sexual contact since I broke up with my ex two years ago, and I had tested negative around a year into that relationship because I randomly came up with chlamydia and gonorrhea (we were supposedly monogamous, also why I wasn’t taking PreP). He convinced me one of us had it latent before we got together.

Summer 2023 I found a horror trove of videos on his private Twitter of him very explicitly taking part in VERY risky sexual behaviors… like dark room anon crazy stuff. We were 100% still together while many of those videos were shot. I now realize I should have gone to get tested again right then, but I was honestly just so blinded by the betrayal that I wasn’t even thinking about it. Looking back I don’t know, maybe I thought I had gotten tested when we broke up? It’s all a blur now. I’ve lived like a nun from the time we broke up to now aside from whatever happened to me Saturday, just been trying to work on myself, finished graduate school, and to become the best me I can be before dating again. And thank God, because I would feel 100x worse right now if I had to go around warning people I might have infected them too.

It’s been a lot of negative emotions swirling around ever since. I was always so careful; I have my masters degree in public health for goodness sake! I know all about sexual health! I had zero symptoms, aside from maybe fatigue which I attributed to depression. I was fortunate enough to get squeezed in at the LGBT center here the very next morning (Thursday), and I am already on Biktarvy now.

Most of my friends are straight, so this is a super isolating feeling; the only person I’ve told is my mom, who didn’t really know what to say. I don’t think I’ll ever tell my friends. I know about U=U and the treatments allowing normal life expectancy, so the health stuff doesn’t really scare me aside from needing a pill for survival every day when I never have before. It’s really the thought of dating again that cripples me. I don’t live in a huge city… word travels fast. I might just not date until I can get to Chicago, or I’ll see how you all deal with that and go from there.

Anyway… Sorry for the wall of text. It was somewhat therapeutic to type this up, feel like I’ve been holding so much in. Thankful for spaces like this. I hope to learn more from everyone here and already feel a tiny bit better seeing so many others going through it.

Online Jim Allen

  • Administrator
  • Member
  • Posts: 23,165
  • Threads: @jim16309
    • Social Media: Threads
Re: Tested positive 1/24: My schpiel
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2024, 03:21:09 am »
Hiya,

Firstly, I'm sorry to hear about the sexual assault last weekend, and I hope you are getting the support you want/need to help you. 

On the HIV front, I'm glad to hear you have access to and started treatment so quickly. During yesterday's clinic visit, did they take additional labs and set a follow-up appointment for results, or did they just provide Biktarvy?

I'll ask you to post only in this thread until you have the labs in, like VL & Cd4 counts. You can post any questions, vent or share here, and the other forum members will reply and offer support in this thread.

Take it easy.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2024, 03:30:52 am by Jim Allen »
HIV 101 - Everything you need to know
HIV 101
Read more about Testing here:
HIV Testing
Read about Treatment-as-Prevention (TasP) here:
HIV TasP
You can read about HIV prevention here:
HIV prevention
Read about PEP and PrEP here
PEP and PrEP

My Instagram
Threads

Offline tabas1

  • Standard
  • New Member
  • Posts: 2
Re: Tested positive 1/24: My schpiel
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2024, 10:31:50 am »
Hi Jim,

Yeah they took around 20 vials of blood yesterday, I’m still just waiting to get results. I apologize for not waiting until I have my numbers, I’ll come back when I get those results. And thanks!

Online Jim Allen

  • Administrator
  • Member
  • Posts: 23,165
  • Threads: @jim16309
    • Social Media: Threads
Re: Tested positive 1/24: My schpiel
« Reply #3 on: January 26, 2024, 12:26:30 pm »
Yeah they took around 20 vials of blood yesterday

Yeah, you get used to the vampires. Next time it will be less than 20 vials once you are just going for routine clinic visits.
HIV 101 - Everything you need to know
HIV 101
Read more about Testing here:
HIV Testing
Read about Treatment-as-Prevention (TasP) here:
HIV TasP
You can read about HIV prevention here:
HIV prevention
Read about PEP and PrEP here
PEP and PrEP

My Instagram
Threads

Online Jim Allen

  • Administrator
  • Member
  • Posts: 23,165
  • Threads: @jim16309
    • Social Media: Threads
Re: Tested positive 1/24: My schpiel
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2024, 12:47:36 pm »
Quote
Most of my friends are straight, so this is a super isolating feeling; the only person I’ve told is my mom, who didn’t really know what to say. I don’t think I’ll ever tell my friends.

Almost all the people I know are straight, except the guys here on the forum, and everyone knows I have a touch of AIDS; I never had any bad reactions. Except for dentists, GPs and nurses... Its Ireland

But there is no real reason to tell your friends ..unless you want their support? Many people have manageable health conditions and don't make it public knowledge, live long enough, and odds are you will have more than one, and so will your straight friends.

Remember that once you tell someone something, what they do with that information is outside your control.

Quote
It’s really the thought of dating again that cripples me. I don’t live in a huge city… word travels fast. I might just not date until I can get to Chicago, or I’ll see how you all deal with that and go from there.

Well, I live in catholic rural Ireland. Being straight is a plus point, I suppose, in dating; all I can say is HIV has never been a barrier for me; most of the towns I live in have 10K or smaller populations, but I manage to get laid all the time, and everyone knows.

But I don't know, maybe HIV is just less of a barrier to dating and sex in the straight world ... You wouldn't have thought it, though.

Anyhow, you are new to HIV and still digesting the diagnosis and the assault as well so I would suggest giving yourself time to process that before worrying about dating.


« Last Edit: January 26, 2024, 12:52:05 pm by Jim Allen »
HIV 101 - Everything you need to know
HIV 101
Read more about Testing here:
HIV Testing
Read about Treatment-as-Prevention (TasP) here:
HIV TasP
You can read about HIV prevention here:
HIV prevention
Read about PEP and PrEP here
PEP and PrEP

My Instagram
Threads

Offline Tonny2

  • Member
  • Posts: 3,199
Re: Tested positive 1/24: My schpiel
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2024, 03:12:53 pm »



              ojo.           Hello there!… welcome to the forum and I’m glad that you found us. It seems that you are getting the diagnosis not too bad because of the information you have learned about the treatments. I as Jim said, for you to start dating you need to digest your new you. It takes time to adjust to our new normal, the sooner you adjust to this new normal the better for you. So here we are for you and hopefully your numbers are not too bad. It doesn’t matter how you got the virus, now, you know you have it , now you treat it… good luck and please keep us posted. Remember that you’re not alone we are here for you whenever you want a shoulder to lean on.

 


Terms of Membership for these forums
 

© 2024 Smart + Strong. All Rights Reserved.   terms of use and your privacy
Smart + Strong® is a registered trademark of CDM Publishing, LLC.