This is a guide to representative electronic bulletin boards and Internet resources containing information about HIV infection and AIDS. This guide is not a complete listing of all computerized AIDS related services, but has been prepared as an introduction to the subject and can be used as a starting point to locate information.
My name is Kimberly Morris #OB4212. I'm an inmate at SCI-Muncy, a maximum institution for women, in rural Pennsylvania. I'm 28 years old and I've been HIV positive for seven years. I'd like to say a few things about the way that women with HIV & AIDS are being treated at this institution.
PWA's have consistently sought treatment other than conventional Western therapy to support their health care. Traditional Chinese Medicine (including acupuncture & herbs) has always been among the top alternative choices.
When women come for prenatal or primary care, they're often given a stack of papers to sign. Among the things they are signing for is, in fact, an HIV test. When their test comes back positive, they are traumatized and in shock. They've had no pre-test counseling. They had no information that they were even being tested.
It's been a year since Being Alive started a women's monthly social and Bar-B-Q for Women with HIV and AIDS. From the beginning of the program's inception Women members of Being Alive have been successful at building bridges with other AIDS agencies that also provide services to women.
Health & Fitness Associates, & Jennifer Jensen, MBA, MPH, RD - Summer 1994
Diarrhea affects almost all persons living with HIV disease. It can be very hard to control. Often, diarrhea interferes with your eating program; it seems that if you eat, you'll have diarrhea right after your meal!
Recent estimates suggest that, within the United States, as many as 5000 patients per year may have cardiac complications resulting from HIV infection. Cardiac involvement is being identified more often in patients with HIV/AIDS.
It was during my fourth month of pregnancy, when I first became aware of the disease; AIDS. My life had been filled with risks and fears, but hearing about AIDS on a radio, scared the ever-lasting life out of me! I panicked, I went numb all over, I jotted down the number and committed to taking this antibody test, for the sake of my unborn child.
I am a person living with AIDS. Since my diagnosis in 1989, I have consumed approximately 60,000 pills, had at least 150 blood draws, been hospitalized twice, lost more T-cells than most healthy people start off with, dipped into psychotic dementia, lost my family to AIDS, gone broke from the disease, . . . .
My good friend Linda Luschei died today, Saturday June 4th at 8:35 AM. I heard from someone who shared her last few hours that she died peacefully. I was not surprised to hear this because everything Linda did was peaceful. She had a way about her that even when stressed beyond human capacity, she maintained a demure and peaceful manner.
We gather here tonight to collectively grieve over our individual losses. This is the eleventh year of an international expression of sorrow and rage. We are saturated day and night with the awareness of the plague and it's toll. The toll on the gay community can clearly be described as genocide! AIDS continues to take it's toll on women who have been dying in isolation since the beginning of the epidemic.
If anyone with HIV could consider themselves "lucky," I suppose I could. "Lucky" because within one week of my diagnosis, I was fortunate to have found the only support group for women in existence. I was late for the meeting.
I'm a little reflective because another special person left the planet (Linda Luschei died this morning). Having AIDS for 8 years makes me a long term survivor. I alternate between joy at being alive and feeling good, to terror and depression.
My name is Tracye and I'm 29 years old. I first found out that I was HIV positive when my son, Shoney, was diagnosed with AIDS. I figure that I got HIV through unsafe behavior when I was using drugs. Shoney was born in September of 1992. He was an only child. He died of AIDS on July 4, 1993. I miss him very much.
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.