HIV: Hope Is Vital

Rejection

2010-10-24T02:58:00.000-07:00

Rejection Day One of the things I knew going into life with HIV was that I would probably experience rejection because of the disease, probably from someone I cared about, and maybe from someone I loved. I prepared myself mentally for it and I told myself that when it happens I should be understanding. I told myself that this, David, will now be a part of your life, for better or worse. Just

Hep B: Some (Not Really) Fun Facts

2010-01-21T20:31:00.000-08:00

Hepatitis B is a viral infection of the liver that can lead to cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer, liver failure and death. It's a strange virus in that the actual course of the liver disease with Hep B is largely not predictable, and stranger still is that most people "clear" the disease on their own through mechanisms largely unknown and do not ever have any complications or ever need

Hep B & HIV

2010-01-20T23:58:00.000-08:00

Coinfection with Hepatitis and HIV is a very serious condition (as if either one alone weren't serious enough) and I just discovered recently that my previously latent Hepatitis B infection has been reactivated. This news was shocking and painful; not only because of the potential implications (Hep B is one of the leading killers of HIV-positive folks), but also because of what it says about the

The Day I Told My Mom

2009-06-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

My mom is in town visiting from Southern California and I'm really excited to have her here and it's especially wonderful to be able to spend time with her knowing that she knows about my HIV status and knowing that our relationship is strong. In fact, I believe that my disclosure has made us much closer and looking back on my road with HIV I can honestly say that the day I told my parents was

Thank You Betsy & Kenny

2009-06-09T19:13:00.000-07:00

I wanted to express my sincere appreciation to Betsy and Kenny who left me wonderful and heartwarming comments on some recent posts. I haven't been able to update my blog the last month because I've been fighting a nasty nasty flu that my body just can't seem to shake. I also lost my job because I had to miss too much work, which meant I couldn't afford the out-of-pocket expenses to see my

What's Obama going to do for the trajectory of HIV in public health?

2009-04-29T01:47:00.000-07:00

What are the details of the universal health plan?Do any of the details address HIV specifically?Does it address prevention, treatment, or both?What are the benefits and drawbacks to his universal health plan?What does it mean for HIV-positive?

The swine flu and HIV

2009-04-29T01:05:00.000-07:00

Those who have compromised immune systems, that's us HIV folks (that's up to 40 million of us by the way), should take extra precautions to avoid contracting the swine flu. The flu could possibly be more severe in people with a compromised immune system, but they are not anymore at risk of catching the flu virus. This is because it is not really CD4 cells that fight the influenza virus; so the

Bea Arthur's dead

2009-04-26T23:07:00.000-07:00

GoldenMaude Well, there's really nothing like a death to remind you how fragile life is. Bea Arthur died yesterday and I'm pretty bummed. I don't know why but the possibility of death is becoming more and more comfortable as I get older. I don't want to die, but I'm not like mortified of it as I once was. It's a little humbling seeing sixty year old's die and realize that I might be halfway

The autoethnography blog

2009-04-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

Autoethography Blog The autoethnography blog (autoEblog?) is a kind of an experiment I'm doing with this blog to expose and prove the necessity of autoethnographies to be dynamic in nature; that is, autoethnographies should be explored being done in blog format. By design a blog is dynamic and autoethnographic to some degree it's just that maybe by making it explicit something cool might

Social and Health Psychology PhD schools

2009-04-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

PhD here I come! I guess I'm really going for the PhD thing. No more worrying about whether or not I can maintain a sustained interest in research; I've proven that I can because well I've been in my master's program for three years and I still love it and still feel like I have so much to learn! I'll be applying to eleven schools this fall for my doctorate program in psychology. Most of my

Charice - original song - new single?

2009-04-26T01:05:00.000-07:00

I came upon this Charice song on youtube and I was wondering if it was her new single or an older one. In either case, it's pretty awesome. Check it out below: I've been a huge Charice fan since I saw her on Oprah last year. Her voice is inspirational and her story even more so. Getting discovered on youtube! How cool is that! If you're not familiar with her, you should definitely youtube

Legalize marijuana - YouTube round-up - May 2009

2009-04-24T01:53:00.000-07:00

I found these videos on marijuana that I thought were interesting. I picked these because I think they are representations of what life is like when a person needs marijuana for medicinal purposes. I've been using marijuana as medicine for years now and I have to say that (a) I'm lucky to live near San Francisco where it's pretty well accepted by most people I meet, and (b) there's a lot of

Research study - Do poz look for hiv careers to bypass disclosure?

2009-04-24T00:41:00.000-07:00

Google me! I think it would be interesting to see if men and women who are HIV positive go into HIV-related careers partly due to a desire to bypass the difficulties of disclosure to sexual partners and new people they meet. I know a few people who google just about everyone they meet and I admit to googling interesting people I meet either at conferences or just in my normal life to get a

National marijuana day - Happy 4/20!

2009-04-24T00:40:00.000-07:00

San Francisco diversity I live in the San Francisco Bay Area where I realize life is much different than in most areas of the United States. For one thing, San Francisco is the gay capital of the world which brings with it an amazing amount of tolerance and diversity. San Francisco is truly an amazing city where styrofoam food containers are banned (we use corn meal based containers) and I

Research study - conversation analysis of comments on Susan Boyle youtube video

2009-04-24T00:39:00.000-07:00

I can't stop watching the Susan Boyle video on youtube. I'm still mesmerized every time I watch it... and I'm wondering why? And where's the evidence? I'm interested in doing a study using discourse analysis on comment boards specifically right now I'm thinking I would want to do an analysis of the comments on Susan Boyle's videos. Also interesting would be a conversation analysis of the

Why we love Susan Boyle

2009-04-24T00:05:00.000-07:00