HIV
I have been on HIGH FIVE as they call it HI-V or HIV all month. Everybody who has HIV in the hospital we hear about it and help take care of them. Everyone who has never been diagnosed and comes in sick and they run a rapid HIV test on them that comes back positive we go and see. in the ER. It is just me and the Infectious disease fellow and we have anywhere between 9-14 HIV patients at a time.
It is so interesting and devestating and inspiring, all at once. the reaction of people. so many reactions for hearing the same news. We have told about 6 or 7 people this month that they have HIV. The big black man with corn rows and a skull cap who who doesn't look at you. Absolute stoic. No questions, just waiting for you to finish. The 33 year old sweet Cameroonian woman who starts crying. Who won't touch your pen because she thinks then you would not want to touch it again, because she now has HIV. She is so straight edge she knows(or you think she knows since she won't tell you) it could only be her husband who has cheated on her and given her HIV.
The gay man who has been in denial and finally gets sick, gets tested and is positive. His reaction, the man, damn it caught up with me. He cries too.
The 50 yr old black woman who lived on the street for two years and turned tricks to get by. Just for a little while, just to get by.
the thing about it is in the states, HIV is a little forgiving. there is redemption. there is some treatment. a chronic disease. something you can live with and stomach. which is not the case for so much of the world. and its fun to watch people who were sick, get on the right meds and bounce back. Yesterday I was shooting the shit with this Puerto Rican guy who was kinda sick a couple weeks ago in the hospital. and he comes in to clinic yesterday in his Sean John t-shirt and baggy jeans, his hair all styled and we talked about NY coffee and People's park in berkeley and the Bay Area record stores.
and then there is this 34 year old man from Honduras who wanted to stay alive till his brothers came from Honduras. And he died today. cancer everywhere and AIDS. and we pulled the tube out and made him comfortable. and his wife was there, but not his brothers. they were caught somewhere between homeland security and honduras consulate.
sri
It is so interesting and devestating and inspiring, all at once. the reaction of people. so many reactions for hearing the same news. We have told about 6 or 7 people this month that they have HIV. The big black man with corn rows and a skull cap who who doesn't look at you. Absolute stoic. No questions, just waiting for you to finish. The 33 year old sweet Cameroonian woman who starts crying. Who won't touch your pen because she thinks then you would not want to touch it again, because she now has HIV. She is so straight edge she knows(or you think she knows since she won't tell you) it could only be her husband who has cheated on her and given her HIV.
The gay man who has been in denial and finally gets sick, gets tested and is positive. His reaction, the man, damn it caught up with me. He cries too.
The 50 yr old black woman who lived on the street for two years and turned tricks to get by. Just for a little while, just to get by.
the thing about it is in the states, HIV is a little forgiving. there is redemption. there is some treatment. a chronic disease. something you can live with and stomach. which is not the case for so much of the world. and its fun to watch people who were sick, get on the right meds and bounce back. Yesterday I was shooting the shit with this Puerto Rican guy who was kinda sick a couple weeks ago in the hospital. and he comes in to clinic yesterday in his Sean John t-shirt and baggy jeans, his hair all styled and we talked about NY coffee and People's park in berkeley and the Bay Area record stores.
and then there is this 34 year old man from Honduras who wanted to stay alive till his brothers came from Honduras. And he died today. cancer everywhere and AIDS. and we pulled the tube out and made him comfortable. and his wife was there, but not his brothers. they were caught somewhere between homeland security and honduras consulate.
sri
posted by srijeeva at 9:18 PM
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