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  1. #1
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    Default A response I recieved to my HIV thread...

    I recently received an email in response to my thread about being HIV positive (This thread is currently locked, prehaps this was why?)

    I am not in the habit of posting correspondence, but as it directly sought to speak for the lack of sincerity of everyone whom posted on my thread, I felt it only right that all of you should be allowed a chance to respond to it. If it's comments were purely directed at me, I would not have mentioned it at all. My response to the person, whose email address I will not repost is also listed below, people views on this would be most welcome, especially from all those who orginally posted or replied to me on the orginal thread.

    Message read:

    hey, I read your thread about being HIV positive and am surprised how you said nothing new about the disease. Am curious why this hasn't affected you enough to give you a personal reaction to the disease. You honestly sounded like you just copy and pasted what you wrote from some book. I hope to see a more genuine post about your status.

    Also you choose to disclose this information on HA which, as unfortunate as it is, full of the most moronic human beings in the world. Sorry to tell you this, but every single "appologetic" reply you recieved was incredibly shallow and fake. I don't think you need sympathy- i think you need strength. What you did, as you admitted, was your own fault, so now what you need is retrospect so as to help educate others about the reality of the disease.

    Yours Truely,
    Henry Fonda's Ghost


    My response:

    I am sorry you feel that way,
    As for it not effecting me personally or having a personal reaction to it, it has changed my whole life upside and seven ways of Sundays, many in ways that I cannot go into.
    If you think my comments are copied and pasted from 'Some book' I would be interested to know from which book you refer. If this a generic statement, well there is nothing generic about the illness as if effects every one from different perspectives and issues. I cannot offer any further anaylsis on it other than those of my own experiences, and it would be wrong of me to do so. I was also diagnosed sometime ago, so if I seem less personal about it now, well that is a good thing, several years ago I was a wreck and would not have posted about it anywhere.
    As for posting about it on hungangels, I was prompted to do so by the death of a friend of mine, who was on the forum. If you think people's responses to my posting were shallow and fake, well your entitled to believe so, personally I do not think that is the case.
    I have spoken to several of them on the phone and have had long correspondence with many others and this has led to some very useful discussions to the benifit of both parties.
    Hungangels is primarily a fun site, but many of the people whom post there are very intelligent and have much to say on life. I posted there because I know HIV is a strong issue in the TS community, it was a spur of the moment decision to do it and I nearly did not, but I have no regrets about it and I am glad I did so. I certainly did not do it to seek sympathy and I actually took a great deal of strenght from much of the correspondence I received in private. I learnt to be strong about this awful thing, sometime ago.

    On the net you can never see a person as totally white or black, we are, while in this medium all shades of grey.
    If none of this makes you think any differently, well there is nothing I can do about that.

    Thanks for your message. I think you should post it on the forum.

    Az x

    PS - I did not say I had AIDS, I said I was HIV positive, there is a big difference.


    'We Are, Marshall... Almost home...'

  2. #2
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    Azanti,

    It's strange that someone should feel that way about the things you wrote and about our responses.

    Looking back at that thread, I can only reiterate what I had written and wish you the strength to live a life as full and as happy as you can. I know that you have the strength and courage inside you to continue.

    And though I never met you face to face, I thank you for helping me to get to know you a little- I was touched by your PM to me and I feel honoured to consider you as close to a friend as it is possible to be with someone on a forum such as this. You have my respect, my admiration and my warmest wishes.


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  3. #3
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    Cheers LG, I never doubted your honesty for one moment on this issue (Or any other)

    I also found chatting with you off forum about it very benifical, your comment about the friendship is mutual (Even if you do have a shrunken muppet head) lol.


    'We Are, Marshall... Almost home...'

  4. #4
    Silver Poster hippifried's Avatar
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    Default

    I came across this a couple of years ago. This looks like a good place to drop it in. I haven't heard anything about it since. Thought it was interesting though. Not sure if the links still work.


    Treatment Turns On Anti-HIV Immunity, Holds AIDS Virus in Check

    By Daniel DeNoon


    Reviewed By Charlotte Grayson, MD
    on Monday, November 29, 2004
    WebMD Medical News





    Nov. 29, 2004 -- It worked in mice. It worked in monkeys. And now in humans, a therapeutic vaccine has stopped HIV in its tracks.

    The vaccine is made from a patient's own dendritic cells and HIV isolated from the patient's own blood. Dendritic cells are crucial to the immune response. They grab foreign bodies in the blood and present them to other immune cells to trigger powerful immune system responses to destroy the foreign invaders.

    HIV infection normally turns these important immune system responses off. But animal studies show that when dendritic cells are "loaded" with whole, killed AIDS viruses, they can trigger effective immune responses that keep infected animals from dying of AIDS.

    Wei Lu, Jean-Marie Andrieu, and colleagues at the University of Paris in France and Pernambuco Federal University in Recife, Brazil, tested the vaccine on 18 Brazilian patients. All had HIV infection for at least a year. Their T-cell counts -- a crucial measure of AIDS progression -- were dropping, meaning their disease was worsening. None was taking anti-HIV medications.

    After getting three under-the-skin injections of the tailor-made vaccine, the amount of HIV in the patients' blood (called the viral load) dropped by 80%. After a year, eight of the 18 patients still had a 90% drop in HIV levels. All patients' T-cell counts stopped dropping.

    The findings appear in the December issue of Nature Medicine.

    "The results suggest that [these] vaccines could be a promising strategy for treating people with chronic HIV infection," Andrieu and colleagues write. "The significant decrease of viral load as well as maintenance of ... [T-]cell counts observed at one year after immunization are particularly promising."

    The researchers warn that their study is only proof of principle. It's still not clear which patients do best with the vaccine, although there's evidence that vaccination should be given as soon after HIV infection as possible. Only clinical trials comparing people who get the vaccine to those who don't can show whether this vaccine really is an effective AIDS therapy.

    Similar approaches are being explored for the treatment of cancer and long-term viral infections such as hepatitis C.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    SOURCE: Lu, W. Nature Medicine, December 2004, advance online publication.




    RELATED LINKS

    Study Raises Questions About Oral Sex Safety

    Huge Racial Differences Remain in HIV, AIDS

    U.N.: ABCs of HIV Prevention Failing Women

    Human Test: Novel Vaccine Stops HIV

    Read more in the HIV/AIDS Health Center

    Looking for support? Visit our AIDS/HIV message board.




    © 2004 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.

    This sounds really promising. Hopefully it can be used as a preventative also. The technique might far reaching applicatons throughout the realm of virology.


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  5. #5
    Platinum Poster MrsKellyPierce's Avatar
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    Sweety I think the mere fact you were so forthright and welcoming not only to support but also ridicule was brave. Even if it is online. It will help educate people. Too many people throw the aids thing around as a way to talk bad about someone or to demean someone.

    You are a true sweetheart, and intelligent, from what you write obviously. And it's ridiculous that the person said it was copy and paste and not personal. I think your first post was to the point and very open and honest. And if they feel you didn't do it right, they themselves should write up what or how it should be said.

    Kisses Kelly




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  6. #6
    Platinum Poster Ecstatic's Avatar
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    Azanti, first thanks for PM'ing me about this email reply you received. I cannot fathom why someone would not only attack you in such a manner, but also defame those of us who stood up and expressed our support, solidarity, sympathy, and encouragement for you in that thread. That is a deep insult to both yourself and to all of us.

    I looked back at the thread and realized that I was the first to reply, and I kept my reply very brief. Honestly, at the time I felt compelled to express my support and appreciation for your courage, particularly in taking steps to notify people of your status, but I said no more than that as I was at a loss for words (yah, it happens to me sometimes). Then LG, Kelly and others in that thread and here have expressed those thoughts very sincerely and movingly. Shallow? Only as the Pacific Ocean, my friend. Whoever HFG is, he should be deeply shamed.



  7. #7
    Gold Poster peggygee's Avatar
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    They say that no good deed goes unpunished.

    This would be a classic example of that. You have
    altruistically chosen to share a very sensitive and
    personal aspect of your life, and this is a response
    you get.

    I can only wonder at the persons motivations for
    making the comment that they have. Perhaps they
    miunderstood the tenor and tone of your post.
    Perhaps they themselves are experiencing a similiar
    difficult situation, and are having a problem coming
    to grips with it.

    Azanti, I would like to re-iterate my previous sentiments,
    and I feel safe in saying that those of us that responded
    to your thread feel that you did a very courageous thing,
    and that you are to be held in the highest regard for doing
    so.

    Peg....



  8. #8
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    Default

    Azanti,

    You communicate with the written word very well. I suspect this person interpreted this wrongly, hence the copy-paste comment.

    Bea



  9. #9
    5 Star Poster TJ347's Avatar
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    Default

    There is perhaps no better reason for someone to have made such comments to you than the simple fact that "idiots abound", as my dad used to frequently say. There are, as we all know, those who witnessing something in others that they themselves lack, try to diminish that person in some pathetic way, clearly evident in this case.

    However, people who have sense recognize this sorry attempt to diminish you for what it is, and are no less impressed than they were previously by your courage and resolve. I am certain that even as you continue to hold your head high, the person who wrote that message to you crawls deeper beneath the rock under which he lives, his shame multiplied by each and every response to this very thread.

    Continued blessings to you, Azanti.


    "We are irritated by rascals, intolerant of fools, and prepared to love the rest. But where are they?"- Mignon McLaughlin

  10. #10
    Silver Poster Quinn's Avatar
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    Azanti,

    Do not waste your time giving consideration to the narrow criticisms of lesser men who attack from the shadows without accountability. You, by contrast, have been forthright about your condition and have accepted responsibility for your circumstances. Stay positive and focus on maintaining your health -- and don't forget about that beer.

    Regards,
    -Quinn


    Life is essentially one long Benny Hill skit punctuated by the occasional Anne Frank moment.

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