The Story of Someone Living with a Positive Diagnosis

Most people see hiv as the end of life,I mean who doesn’t? I see it like that too until if happened to me. I never I’m my wildest dreams thought I could ever get it, I mean I’ve only been with very few guys and some people that are opios will never jam it.

I remember when I was in secondary school, there’s this aunty in our area that we got to know about her status, she wanted to get admitted into a nursing school in the town and one of the prerequisite is hiv testing, which she tested positive, she was denied the admission, the news got out while she was fighting the decision of the school. Then we all started avoiding the family like a plague, stopped playing with her younger sister because of her. That was around 1997.

She was one of the person that spoke against stigma, she became an advocate, anf was very popular , she started getting recognition and was being invited to speak about the virus all over the country and even outside,.

I remember a very popular magazine editor who talked about meeting the lady in a spa after shaving her brows that she was scared after seeing the lady’s well calved brows that hope it wasn’t same equipment that they use for her, the editor received lots of backlash then and she had to apologise and later used the lady as a cover in her big magazine then.

She was one of the people I searched for immediately I got my diagnosis and she was helpful

The lady we all thought was about dying back then is now a nurse in the USA married to a black American. If you see her , you wouldn’t believe she’s been living positively since 90s, I know she’ll have her own struggles but who doesn’t?; her children all grown up, I think she stopped associating with the community to protect her children from bullying cos she doesn’t talk about it again.

Know your status today, beat hiv before it beat you. Most people I met at the center almost 2 decades ago that got tested early and adhere to their drugs are still there, looking same way I knew them, some were even looking more beautiful. Though the drugs has it’s own side effects like most drugs but if you monitor your health well, you will be tolerate it without affection you.

I check my liver and kidney once a year and so far so good.

Please if you’re also living positively, you can also share so we can learn and those that are negative can stay negative cos no matter what living without it is the best. You don’t want to know the mental struggles, please if you’re not infected, try and stay like that. This virus is plenty in town more than you can imagine, do not trust anyone until the lab confirmed the person is clean . Don’t share sharp objects

Stay alive