Healthy Living

I think the low CD4 counts of the last year are starting to be reflected in my overall health. I'm just finished on yet another course of antibiotics for an infection. After all the chest infections, throat infections, upper respiratory tract infections, sinus infections and the like I've had this last year, I've just had an ear infection that took me completely by surprise and managed to burst my eardrum.

Antibiotics have helped and it doesn't hurt nearly as much as it did. I'm waiting for my hearing to come back, which is happening all too slowly so far, but in the meantime it's kind of floored me, making me think that this might, in fact, be a reflection of my deteriorating health.

I've got more blood tests in a couple of weeks, along with audiology and the rest. I guess it has to happen at some point that I start on medication; I'm starting to wonder if I'd rather get it done now before any other lasting damage is done... it's a bit annoying.

New Year, Same Old AIDS.

It's the time of year when everyone's talking about their amazing plans to radically change their lives - I thought I'd have a nosey through some other HIV-related blogs on the internet and came across this curious article about people who, through willpower alone, "beat" HIV. It struck me as a little bit sad. Not that I'm denying that remaining upbeat and trying not to allow HIV to make you its bitch can't help with your prognosis, it's just the sense that it's clutching at straws to say things like, "Well done!" to a guy in Berlin who stopped medicating for HIV and has seemingly remained healthy with a barely-detectable viral load. The patient seems to attribute his luck to his will, the doctors are less optimistic, saying that it looks more likely to be something to do with early intervention and experimental drugs if his spontaneous recovery proves to last at all.

The science of it is beyond me, but what interested me about it was the way that it was presented, offering a glimmer of hope to some people who are often quite desperate. I guess I'm pretty well-adjusted about the whole HIV thing - I can get on with life now without thinking about it all the time, I don't seem to be going through the depression or substance abuse that seems to be rife among other people with the virus and I'm pretty sanguine about the whole thing.

It sounds like what gets a lot of people with the virus is a very understandable fear. For my part, if a few people have had the good fortune to have tested HIV positive and now test negative - good luck to them, I say, but I've got plenty to be getting on with without spending half my time on my knees praying for a one in a million shot at divine intervention.