Welcome to my blog.  I have had a blog for more than a year, but never posted after the first entry.  Maybe it was due to poor health and lack of energy and motivation, but I was also trying to be super-geeky and host it at my own domain. Hopefully, hosting here at WordPress will simplify the process so I can focus on writing, rather than FTPing and troubleshooting upgrades.

I will soon be posting a critique of the recent Ideas for change in America project at change.org, but didn't want that to be my very first post here.

My story, I survived AIDS without drugs is posted as a separate page, rather than a blog entry, as I want to keep that information available as long as this blog is active.  It's a long read, but hopefully it will help you understand why I am here today.  I intend to write about a lot of things, not just "AIDS", but I can't deny it has affected my life more than anything else.

Feel free to do all the things a budding blogger hopes his readers will do:  comment, contact me, link and most of all...  Enjoy.

Wait... there's more!

97

97

97. That’s my latest CD4+ count, less than half the count from six weeks ago.

That’s it. I have tried as many alternative treatments as I can think of to reverse the decline. I will be starting my third round of pharmaceutical ARVs as soon as I can get a prescription and fill it.

This decision has been a long time coming, and in hindsight, I probably should have restarted a few months ago. There’s nothing magical about 97, or being below 100, but it’s as good a breaking point as any. I’ve long argued that there are two things to keep in mind about CD4 counts: one is the long-term trend; the other is single- or low double-digit counts.

By any other name

By any other name

A whole year?! It’s hard to believe that it has been more than a year since I’ve written anything on my blog. I don’t even know how to begin to catch up. I blame Facebook, mostly. I’ve been addicted to the lightning-fast pace of information exchange there, and I’ve written hundreds, maybe even thousands of posts and…

Reduce AIDS drug toxicity and side effects

Reduce AIDS drug toxicity and side effects

I embarked on my third course of ARVs since 1998. For ten of the sixteen years I have been HIV-positive, I was able to manage well enough without ARVs and I continue to believe there is no reason for otherwise healthy HIV-positive—let alone negative—gay men to take these drugs. To those who want to wave a recent study about the benefits of early intervention in my face, I would ask them why they put so much faith in a science that has utterly failed us to date.

The truth about Truvada: PrEP won’t stop AIDS

The truth about Truvada: PrEP won’t stop AIDS

I’m willing to grant that gay men are entitled to use PrEP… provided they have access to all the information they need to make an informed decision. Informed consent has been a hallmark of the HIV and AIDS research and prevention efforts for three decades, and that shouldn’t be waived for the campaign favoring PrEP.

Gay men deserve to know that all the claims for Truvada reducing the risk of acquiring HIV-positivity  are based on trials—funded by Gilead—that emphasized the importance of using condoms…

3 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *