by admin
I am very fortunate. I’ve been able to educate myself to the graduate level. I hold down a really decent job. I make, in nonprofit, nonprofit-decent money. (Laughs) That’s a disclaimer. I think to live with HIV you have to have a lot of support. And if they’re not coming from your family? You have […]
Categories: Age 50-54, Female, North America • Tags: Jamaica, United States
by admin
I don’t feel OLD old, ‘cause I’m still feeling young, because I’m still here, you know. I feel really grateful that I don’t ponder on, oh, you know, I’m turning into this old woman or anything. I used to be offended when, say 10 years ago, when people would stand up for me in the […]
Categories: Age 60-64, Asia-Pacific, Female • Tags: Australia
by admin
By the end of ’99, I’d really been living with HIV for over a decade – my health was going downhill rapidly. I was doing a PhD thesis. I was telling people, check the hard drive in case I die, check the hard drive. Everyone was saying, go on the medication, Susan. I saw all […]
Categories: Age 60-64, Asia-Pacific, Female • Tags: Australia
by admin
Doris: I was caught up in my addictions, and I thought the weight loss was connected to my substance use, until I started seeing other complications with my health. And that’s when I went for an HIV test. While waiting for my HIV test, I made the decision to go back home, because […]
Categories: Age 55-59, Female, North America, Trans / Non-Binary • Tags: Canada
by admin
I just remember being very naïve, you know, and people would tell me to do something, and I would do it. I didn’t know any better. The good news is is that they told me– this is when AZT was the only treatment. And they put me on AZT and I just took it, because […]
Categories: Age 55-59, Female, North America • Tags: United States
by admin
Getting older is like, um… Things are happening with my body that I don’t like. You know, my mind is still 25– my mind wants to be 25, my body is not. You know I wanna, like, run around with my 15 year old step son, and I can’t. For me, getting older with HIV […]
Categories: Age 50-54, Female, North America • Tags: United States
by admin
I’m one of the long-term survivors. I’m not use medicines because my viral load is undetectable and my CD4 cell is still high. I have a healthy lifestyle. I’m thinking positive. And also, I love myself. I’m one of the public speakers in my country, in Suriname. I was living in Holland, and I got […]
Categories: Age 60-64, Female, South America • Tags: Suriname
by admin
Edward: She used to follow me around all the time. I was 15, she was 11, so I looked at her like a kid, like my little sister, and she became my best friend. Andrea: We lived in the same neighborhood in New York. Long Island. I’ve always been in love with him, […]
Categories: Age 50-54, Age 55-59, Female, Male, North America • Tags: Couple, United States
by admin
I always knew that there would be a possibility. I had some friends that passed away. I was a intravenous drug user. My lifestyle prior, from ‘80 to ‘88, wasn’t the nicest thing. But I stepped out on faith and changed that on my own. By 1988 I had changed my whole life around. I […]
Categories: Age 50-54, Female, North America • Tags: United States
by admin
It was the 15th of January, 2002. I had a needlestick injury from one of my HIV patients. I’m a nurse, a retired nurse. Once I’d finished with my patient, I got in touch with my superiors. I was taken to hospital. I had blood tests. I was put on prophylaxis straight away, within two […]
Categories: Age 60-64, Asia-Pacific, Female • Tags: New Zealand
by admin
Ron: I found out my status when I was incarcerated, as a result of seeing a dentist. The dental hygienist dropped one of the tools and it pricked her on the leg. And as a result of their protocol they asked everybody who had saw the dentist that day to take an HIV […]
Categories: Age 55-59, Female, Male, North America • Tags: Couple, United States
by admin
I decided to go back to school after I got fired from Barclay’s Bank because of my status. I was diagnosed in January 1988. My daughter was breast feeding at the time. I just got sick, and went to one doctor, another one, and another one, and it wasn’t getting better. And so eventually the […]