Living with HIV in the Philippines: Email 307: NEVER too late to Start!

Hi Pozzie,

call me JUAN, im a PLHIV since December 2010 ...

ngaun lang ako ngkakalakas ng loob n tanggapin ung sitwasyon ko... althought mag 3years na ako PLHIV inignore ko un... ksi akala ko nuon mdling tanggapin although alam ng ibang friends ko sitwasyon ko at ng family ko... may mga bagay p din na di nila maintindihan.. piniplit ko lng ipakita sa knila na OK ako, na kaya ko...deep inside ang tagal ko ntanggap s srili ko na di na mwawala na postive ako.... 3 taon, pinilit kong mbuhay ng normal, pinilit ko ausin sarili ko.. akala ko ok n ang lhat pero khit anong gawin kong takas ndi maalis na positive tlga ako...

khit isang laboratory wala pa ako ngawa, sa PGH dpat treatment hub ko kso di ko pingptuloy... dhil takot ako... ala ako laks ng luob para gwin pa ang mga test nuon... ni ndi ko nga alam kung ok pa CD4 counts ko...

ngaun npag isip isip ko na... ayaw ko pa mamatay dhil madmi pa ako gustong gawin... ayaw ko pa mwala sa mundo ksi lalaban ako... gusto ko magsimula, at sinimulan ko n un s pagtanggap sa sarili ko na PLHIV ako...

i nid someone na mkkpag advise sa akin ng mga dapat kong gawin... ksi gaya nga ng sbi ko di ko alam pano ito sisimulan ulit ...

slmat sa pgbabasa ng email ko ... i hope mabgyan mo ko ng advise...

regards,

JUAN

TRANSLATION

Hi Pozzie.

Call me JUAN. I am a PLHIV since December 2010.

It is only now that I had the courage to accept my situation. I ignored being a PLHIV for 3 years because I thought that it would be easy to accept it. Although some of my friends and my family know about my situation, there are still things that they can't fully understand. I was trying to show them that I am OK, that I can handle it, but deep inside it took a long time for me to accept that being HIV won't go away. For 3 years I tried to live a normal life, to fix myself. I thought everything will be ok but no matter how i tried to get away from it, the fact remains that I am still HIv positive.

I haven't done even one laboratory test. My hub was supposed to be in PGH but I didn't go because I didn't have the courage to take all the tests then. I don't even knowif my CD4 count is still ok.

Now, I started thinking about it. I don't want to die because I have so many things to do. I don't want to disappear from the world because I now want to fight back. I want to start again and I already started by accepting that I am a PLHIV.

I need someone who can give me an advice on the things that I need to do, because like what I said, I don't know how to start it again.

Thank you for reading my email. I hope that you can give me an advice.

Regards,

JUAN

POZZIEPINOY’S RESPONSE

Hi JUAN.

Thank you for your email. Thank you for reading my blog. I hope you can find all the answers here.

I am glad that you have finally turned things around, that you have finally accepted our disease. Even though 3 years have passed since your diagnosis, I can say that when a person has a strong conviction to fight, it is never too late to start. In your case, your conviction to be better, to live and reach all your dreams again, to be healthy once more will definitely pull you through all of this.

Now let us go through the process of treatment.

1. Present your HIV confirmatory test to PGH-SAGIP or to any treatment hub of your choice. Click this: HIV/AIDS Treatment Hub .That is the only thing that you need to bring at the moment. If in case you have misplaced it or lost it, you can do the following:

a. Go back to the clinic that you took the test and ask for a copy if they have it.

b. Retake the HIV again. Click the links below:

- RITM Satellite Clinic

- HIV Testing Centers

c. According to Dr. Ditangco, the head of RITM-ARG, you can go to DOH-SACCL and procure your document with a minimal fee.

2. The hub will then ask you to take their baseline tests including the CD4 test. Some hubs provide cheap and or free tests.

3. There is a waiting period for all the lab tests to come out depending on which hub you go to. Some will only take a few hours, some will take days. Once the results are out, you need to come back for the consultation with the HIV doctor.

4. The HIV doctor will:

a. advice you if you need to proceed with the ARV treatment depending on your CD4 count.

b. tell you if you need to prepare your PhilHealth documents.

c. advice if you need to take more lab tests for possible opportunistic infections

d. prescribe you with other medicines

For a more details of the process you can refer to the flow chart below:

Like what I said, even though you are just starting now, it is never too late to start again. Just keep that courage in you to take the right steps to treatment this time and follow all the things that I told you to do. Then finally you can tell yourself that, really everything will be OK.

I hope I was able to answer your concerns. Feel free to email me again if you have other questions.

Please read these blog entries to empower you more:

NEXT STEP ENTRIES:

1. Where To Start?

2. New Pozzie Needs Direction

3. What to do Once You Are A Pozzie

4. Next Steps?

5. Taking the Next Steps

6. Waiting for the Confirmatory Result

7. Our Next Steps

8. Where Do I start?

9. Answers to Questions