Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Chicago Tribune - June 13, 2004
Devin Rose
"I've had full-blown AIDS for 20 years," he said.
Four years ago, the San Francisco man could barely walk. He suffered from neuropathy, or inflamed nerve endings. "It attacked my feet," he said. "It felt literally like someone had broken glass into fine shards and I was stepping in it. I was pretty much couch- and bed-ridden."
Two doctors came to his rescue. One suggested he put concentrated chili oil on his feet to help numb them (days later, he was walking again); another put him on the drug Fuzeon, which "fuses around the virus and keeps it from attacking healthy T cells."
Apodaca wanted to show how grateful he was for having his life back.
"I heard about the Hawaiian AIDS marathon," he said. "It had a training program, and I thought, 'What better way to thank these two doctors.' So I went to Hawaii, and I was hooked."
Soon, he was calling HIV-positive friends to encourage them.
"I told them, 'You don't have to sit at home and watch "Days of Our Lives." There's more out there.'"
Apodaca now runs several marathons a year--Roche, the maker of Fuzeon, pays his racing expenses--and plans to continue "as long as my health holds up."
"My mission is to show people that having full-blown AIDS is no longer a death sentence," he said. "For so many years, it was all about about, 'Let's take care of everyone who's dying.' I had to get out of that and do something positive. I just couldn't deal with death anymore. I've learned that good health is a matter of eating right, getting good exercise and being disciplined about how you take your medication."
He's also a poster guy for aging well. "I didn't start any of this until I was 58."
Apodaca's fastest marathon time is 4 hours 19 minutes. "I keep getting faster," he said but added, "The real heroes in marathons are those who come in in 12 hours on their crutches."
When Apodaca isn't training, "I go to hospitals, clinics and doctors, and they give me their dated drugs, especially HIV drugs. Those have 90 percent potency rates for a year afterward."
The drugs are then sent to South Africa or other countries that need them. (For more info on this work, go to aidforaids.org.)
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