PLHIV Story: "Don't Give Up"
Posted by Pozziepinoy on 6:41 AM
Hi. Im living with HIV currently on my 8th month of anti-retroviral therapy. I contracted the disease in the late 1990's when I used needles in line with my drug addiction. I am also coinfected with hepatitis C virus,again, because of my teenage needle use. Unknowingly lived with it for a decade and a half. As years passed, i started getting throat infections and weird flu-like sickness for no reason. then it became more and more frequent. at least once or twice a month.Then mid-December 2012, i was hospitalized and quarantined for severe signs of opportunistic infections such as candida bacterial infection from my mouth down to my intestines, pneumonia and dyslipidemia. Blood was the only liquid coming out of my rear and my mouth. my throat was constricted and could not talk. i couldn't swallow anything for weeks. erratic and convulsing fever. My whole body was swollen and it was just rashes all over. I lost 20lbs in a matter of days. I was dying. My doctor gave me 50/50 chance of recovery and one word to describe my whole ordeal: HELL
So my doctor did a quantitative hiv test and i got whooping 10million+copies/ml viral load & low cd4. My world was crushed when i found out. Although i have to say, years before, i've started suspecting i was hiv+.I honestly thought it was all too late and that was the end. However, god gave me a second chance in life. I started responding to the hi-dose antibiotics they were giving me. Then i started and deligently followed my cocktail of arv's. im taking lavimudine ziduvudine & efaverinz. Also taking cotrimoxazole to keep me from pneumonia and fibrates to control my spiking cholesterol levels. And lots of supplements. through all the specialized care & medical follow-ups, i recovered. I rested for 2 months after my hospital admission. Now i feel i'm back to where i was before i got sick: Normal.
"WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.
NO PLHIV is alone with his or her struggle with HIV!"
-Pozziepinoy-
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Tags: HIV Manila, HIV Philippines, AIDS Manila, AIDS Philippines, HIV/AIDS Manila, HIV/AIDS Philippines