Monday, April 14, 2014

My partner who loves me

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We were hopeful that he was not infected as he got a clean bill of health prior to my diagnosis. It was not to be.

Truth be told, we had no idea where it came from, or rather, whose fault it was. While we must have wondered about it privately, he has not pursued it with me even though I suspect it may have been my ex whom I broke up just before meeting the current one.

In a weird way, it has brought us closer together - this big secret of ours. Us against the virus. Us against the society. For me, the protective instinct has never been stronger and I would do anything to keep him safe and healthy.

Regrets? Sure. I beat myself up from time to time for being careless - for harming the one I love. But I also know it does not do much. Might as well channel the energy towards something more useful.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Immunity

Source : Wikipedia

Funny thing this immunity..... I had been regularly getting sinusitis for a long time (partly due to smoking), so when I had a bad bout of sinusitis turning into a bad cold that lasted for weeks, I didn't think much of it. It wasn't when my partner was diagnosed with HIV exactly a year ago that I realised that I may have HIV.

My CD4 reading was still above the threshold so the doctors told me that I didn't need to start with HAART or ARV yet. But I was also warned that the CD4 reading will continue to decline until a point I needed HAART if I wanted to survive. My sinusitis/ colds continued pretty much on a monthly basis then.

Thus a long year of reading up on the body's immune system and how we can improve it. Lots of food, drinks, supplements all claimed to improve a body's immunity but they just didn't seem to click with me. I was also surprised to find out that a lot of other diseases were related to the immune system (or lack of) including diabetes (yes, that stumped me at first!), cancer (who knew?), rheumatoid arthritis (double take here), and a whole bunch more.

Keeping Healthy
By pure dumb luck, I met this guy who was telling me about his wonder herbal
extract that is helping many people control their diabetes/ blood sugar level. In fact, this person had told me about it even before I was diagnosed but it never clicked as my blood sugar was normal. As I connected diabetes with immune system problem, I started to wonder if it would help me.

I have been on it for past 5 months (though I need more discipline taking it!) and it has shown some results. But I will reserve judgement until I take the next test due in April.

Wish me luck!


Monday, February 17, 2014

Latest Results

14 Jan 2014, my latest result for CD4 was 527 and CD4% was 21% (up from 20%). I had an infection in the leg from a scratch 2 weeks prior so I probably shouldn't have done the test. Anyway, the numbers looked like they were improving. Overall, I am doing fine, and I remain hopeful. No major illnesses, and my GP actually remarked that I haven't been in for cold/flu for a while :)

Improving CD4 %