Last One

Wow, I can’t believe this is my last blog for this class. This semester has gone by so fast. This is my last semester at UCF since I am graduating. It is kind of a bitter sweet experience. I feel like I just started yesterday. It hasn’t really settled in yet that I am actually graduating and have to start a new chapter in my life. College has been a wonderful experience. I learned a lot about myself and the person that I want to be in the future.

I can’t believe I was so worried and nervous about this class in the beginning. This class has opened my eyes to a lot of things, not just HIV. I think this class was a great choice for me. I wish I would have taken it sooner. This class allowed me to think about things I would have never thought about. It made me realize a lot about the person I am and how I would react or handle certain things. I learned about HIV is other classes that I have taken but not to this extent. I was always just told what it was, how you get it, how it affects your body, and some statistics. It never really impacted me that much and I never really gave it much thought outside of class until now. I feel like I have a greater appreciation for everything that deals with HIV. Whether it is the people who have it, the doctors who treat it, or the people that volunteer their time and raise money for it. I am truly grateful for everything I have learned and I will take it with me in the future.

Did You Know: Children with HIV

Children living with HIV have many needs including social, psychological, and emotional needs (AVERT, 2010). Emotional care needs to be provided to these children to help them cope with their HIV and possibly the loss of their parents or family members to HIV (AVERT, 2010). They need this support to help them deal with being diagnoses, treatments, handling discrimination, side effects of the medications, and dealing with death (AVERT, 2010). The first line of support for these children are their “families, friends, caregivers, and healthcare workers” but the government also needs to ensure that these children are able to reach services that will help them (AVERT, 2010).

Reference List:

AVERT, (2010, March 11). Children, HIV, & AIDS. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/children.htm

Image 1: (2010). Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://www.topnews.in/files/HIV-logo.jpg

Image 2: (2010). Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://fly4change.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/save-children-logo.jpg

The End is Near

There is really only like three weeks left of classes after this one and then I graduate. I should be more excited but I am really not. I still feel like I am no where in life and have so much more stuff to accomplish before I can actually get to where I want to be in life. This has been stressing me out a lot lately. Thinking about my future drives me crazy and any time I try to talk about how I feel I always get the same answer; it will be worth it in the end. Maybe it will be but right now that is not what I need to hear.

Since I live in Ft. Lauderdale I was not able to make it to any of the panel meetings. So to replace that assignment I had to read the book AIDS in America. It was a very good book and was very interesting. I never realized how many things are contributing to the problem with controlling the spread of HIV in this country. The book talked a lot about President Bush and how his religious beliefs affected things that could have been done. I wonder what President Obama will do to help the HIV problem. I hope he actually makes a huge difference regarding this issue and educating the youth on proper sexual education. It amazes me that many of the problems could have been avoided if people were properly educated. It seems like such a simple solution; add better sexual education to schools. But apparently it’s not that simple when the government and those religious belief groups get involved.

Did You Know: Children with HIV

Children who have HIV have many obstacles to overcome. They are more susceptible to childhood illnesses since their immune systems are weakened (AVERT, 2010). These illnesses include mumps and chickenpox which can affect any child regardless if they have HIV but in children who do these illnesses last longer and do not respond well to medications (AVERT, 2010). Also they are more susceptible to opportunistic infections such as Tuberculosis and PCP (AVERT, 2010).

Reference List:

AVERT, (2010, March 11). Children, HIV, & AIDS. Retrieved April 7, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/children.htm

Image: (2010). Retrieved April 7, 2010, from http://www.hiv-aids-symptom.com/uploads/world_AIDS.gif

Motivation Needed

This week I am so overwhelmed with the amount of school work and personal things I have to accomplish. I have three tests, seven assignments, and I just found out that I have a lot of family coming in for Easter so that gave me a whole list of errands to do. The worst part is that I have no motivation and really don’t want to do any of it. The weather has been so beautiful that all I want to do it go lie on the beach and forget the world. It’s nice to dream, right?

Module eight has been rather stressful. Trying to keep up with all the pills and trying to picture having HIV just keeps giving me anxiety! Also this weeks QOTW made me think about my relationship with my mom and how bad things used to be between us and how great they are now. Thinking about telling my mom that I had HIV was uncomfortable. I tried to think what really would happen but my mom can be so unpredictable that I really wouldn’t have any idea how she would react. I just hoped for the best and wrote how I would hope she would react to the situation.

This class makes me think about things that I normally wouldn’t think about of even want to think about. Sometimes it is a good thing because I think of how I would react to situations and I learn about myself. Other times it just makes me feel nervous and stressed. I am not going to lie. I am going to be happy when this class is over. I mean I am thankful that I have learned so much and that I keep learning but I hate picturing myself having HIV and how my life would be. I am a lot more grateful for the life I have and how blessed I am. So I guess that it a good thing!


Did You Know: Children with HIV

There are many problems faced by children living with HIV. A major one is not receiving the proper drug therapy (AVERT, 2010). An estimated 62% of children infected with HIV are not receiving drug therapy (AVERT, 2010). This is because of the lack of drugs available, high drug prices, and lack of trained health care workers to treat these children (AVERT, 2010). Many of the young children have trouble swallowing so they need the drugs in the forms of syrups or powders but these are not available (AVERT, 2010). So to treat them they are given adult tablets that are broken into smaller pieces and this does not ensure that the children are being given the proper dosages (AVERT, 2010).

Reference List:

AVERT, (2010, March 11). Chuldren, HIV, & AIDS. Retrieved March 31, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/children.htm

Image: (2010). Retrieved March 31, 2010, from eHOW: http://i.ehow.com/images/a05/67/jh/right-hiv-combo-800X800.jpg

Super Tired

I think I am getting sick because the past couple days I have just felt exhausted!! I hope I start feeling better soon. Other then that there is really nothing new or exciting going on in my life. As for this class I feel completely content and am no longer overwhelmed. I actually laughed at myself the other day over how freaked out I got over all the work when this class began. I have been able to do it all and I have been getting good grades as well. Ever since I got my test results back I haven’t been thinking about HIV as much and I am no longer thinking that I have it, which is a good thing.

This weeks QOTW I thought was interesting. I thought I answered it well and the whole concept of the family being not that welcome to the idea of someone who had HIV I could kind of relate to. Not in my immediate family but in my extended family. I have some family members who are very close minded and believe that they are always right when it comes to certain things. So telling them that someone who they have known for many years was HIV positive would be something that I would not look forward too and would most likely keep a secret.


Did You Know: Children with HIV

“Every minute a child under the age of 15 is infected with HIV” and every day AIDS kills 1,000 children (MSF, 2007). In 2006 it was estimated that there was 540,000 children in the world newly infected with HIV and 470,000 lived in Africa and only 700 lived in either Europe or North America (MSF, 2007).

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is more commonly known as Doctors Without Borders. Their fact sheet was very interesting and too see the entire sheet go to this link: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/hiv-aids/MSFChildrenAndAIDSFactSheet2007.pdf



References:

MSF, (2007, July 1). Children and HIV/AIDS. Retrieved March 24, 2010, from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) : http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/hiv-aids/MSFChildrenAndAIDSFactSheet2007.pdf

Back to Work

I had a rather uneventful Spring Break but I was happy I didn’t have to think about school and assignments. Now its back to studying and homework! I like this weeks QOTW very much. It takes on a different view and I think that since some of the people in this class actually have children the responses should be very interesting to read. Also I am in the middle of module three. It is interesting to see all the tests that can be used to test for HIV. I took a class called Quantitative Biological Mechanisms a few semesters ago. This class was all about the different tests used to test samples and in the lab I performed some of the tests we have to write about. So I have a better understanding of them, because I know they can sound confusing.

After getting my results back I was relieved. After learning so much from this class I would always wonder what if I have it, what will I do, it was crazy how much it was always on my mind. Now I am grateful that I have a better understanding of what HIV truly is and how it affects people. After seeing what so many people go through just to get through a day living with HIV, I think I have become more appreciative of life and how blessed I am.

Did You Know: Children with HIV

The best chance for an HIV positive child to have a long life is to start antiretroviral therapy (ART) as early as possible. In Brazil, Thailand, Kenya, Africa, and Asia there have been positive outcomes for children in the pediatric ART programs (Avert, 2010). In a study in Brazil it was shown that three-quarters if HIV positive children that were treated with ART were alive four years later (Avert, 2010). Also in 2007 a study was done in Africa and Asia that looked after 586 HIV positive children using ART (Avert, 2010). After two years of treatment 82% of these children were still alive (Avert, 2010).

References:

AVERT, (2010, February 4). How effective is antiretroviral treatment in children?. Retrieved March 16, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/hiv-children.htm

Image: (2010). HIV Treatment for Children. Retrieved March 15, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/hiv-children.htm

Good News!

This week has been a great week so far. I found out today that I am HIV and STD free!! That was a huge relief. I really didn’t think I would be positive for anything but after learning so much I found myself thinking that I had HIV and I would start to worry for no reason. I hated waiting for my results and I completely played the “what if game”, which drove me crazy. After interviewing my friends and my mom for that question of the week I was happy to know that if by any chance my results did come back positive I could tell them and they would understand and support me.

Watching the movies for assignment four has been an eye opening experience. I watched Common Threads, Silverlake Life, and The Age of AIDS. Out of all of them I liked Silverlake Life the most even though I cried the hardest. Nothing usually freaks me out or grosses me out. I wanted to be a surgeon ever since I was little so I would watch surgery constantly on discovery health. But when Tom died in the movie I couldn’t deal with it. I think it was the fact that I knew I was looking at an actual dead body and then to see how emaciated he was it was terrible. I had to stay up and watch TV for awhile so I could calm down enough to go to bed.

Oh one more thing, I am so excited for Spring Break!!

Blog Add On: People with AIDS

Anthony Perkins: He was a bisexual actor who played Norman Bates in Hitchcock’s Psycho (Laurie, 2007). He found out that he had AIDS in 1990 from an article he read about in the National Enquirer (Laurie, 2007). The magazine had illegally tested his blood sample that was used for a palsy test and tested it for HIV (Laurie, 2007). He thought he had AIDS for 6 years previous and has said “"I have learned more about love, selflessness and human understanding from the people I have met in this great adventure in the world of AIDS than I ever did in the cutthroat, competitive world in which I spent my life" (Laurie, 2007). Anthony died in 1992 from pneumonia that was brought on by his AIDS (Laurie, 2007).

Pedro Zamora: He was on the MTV show the Real World San Francisco (Laurie, 2007). He was an openly gay Cuban man who found out his status during his junior year of high school (Laurie, 2007). He had donated blood to the Red Cross and it was flagged “reactive” (Laurie, 2007). After finding out he was positive he became a very active public speaker about AIDS (Laurie, 2007). He died in 1994 (Laurie, 2007).

Did You Know: Children with HIV

Discrimination from HIV/AIDS not only happens to adults, it happens to children as well. Some children are teased and harassed so badly that they have to change schools. This is what happened to a boy named Michael in Great Britain (Avert, 2010). Below is a quote from Michael’s foster mother describing what happened.

"At first relations with the local school were wonderful and Michael thrived there. Only the head teacher and Michael's personal class assistant knew of his illness… Then someone broke the confidentiality and told a parent that Michael had AIDS. That parent, of course, told all the others. This caused such panic and hostility that we were forced to move out of the area. Michael was no longer welcome at the school. Other children were not allowed to play with him - instead they jeered and taunted him cruelly. One day a local mother started screaming at us to keep him away from her children and shouting that he should have been put down at birth…. Ignorance about HIV means that people are frightened. And frightened people do not behave rationally. We could well be driven out of our home yet again” (Avert, 2010).

Also children who have been orphaned by AIDS can encounter “hostility from their extended families and/or community, may be rejected and/or denied access to schooling and health care, and left to fend for themselves” (Avert, 2010).

The picture above is a poster in America from 1987 discussing discrimination against people with HIV (Avert, 2010). It was inspired by Ryan White who was a 13 years old and was barred from school in 1985 because he had HIV (Avert, 2010).

Reference List:

Web: Laurie, W. (2007, July 24). Famous People Who Have Suffered from AIDS. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from Associated Content: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/320685/famous_people_who_have_suffered_from.html

Web: AVERT, (2010, February 4). AIDS Stigma. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/aidsstigma.htm

Image: (1987). I Have AIDS Please Hug Me. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/aids-picture.php?photo_id=593

Long Week Ahead

I had a wonderful Birthday weekend and I still have not gotten all of my motivation back for this week. The QOTW was simple for me. I am going into the medical field so my instinct is to help people no matter what. I feel like in a situation where you are at risk you should try to protect yourself as much as possible but you need to help the person in need as well. I could not live with myself knowing that I could have helped and instead I did nothing and someone died. Even if that person is a complete stranger they have loved ones and deserve the right to be helped.

I like this class more and more as the semester progresses. I think it is because I am learning so much and this class makes me think out side the box. I read the book At Risk for assignment three and it was a great book. It made me cry but the way it was written made me know that everything was going to be fine in the end. I have been frustrated regarding my blog group. It seems that only some of us actually post a blog each week by the due date and some don’t even post a blog at all. I hope this changes soon! As for the movies we have to watch I honestly haven’t watched any of them yet but I have them. I am going to watch Common Threads tonight and Silverlake Life tomorrow along with Age of AIDS. I saw on the discussion board that we shouldn’t watch Silverlake Life alone because it is intense so I got my best friend to agree to watch it with me. I am a very last minute person but I always make sure I get everything done and that it is done well. I look forward to watching these movies because I am sure I am going to learn a lot.


Did You Know: Children with HIV

In 2008 it was estimated that there were 2.1 million children living with HIV/AIDS worldwide (Avert, 2009). Also in 2008 it was estimated that there were .43 million newly infected children with HIV worldwide (Avert, 2009). Finally it was estimated that in 2008 there were .28 million children that died from AIDS worldwide (Avert, 2009).

Each year 390,000 children die of AIDS and within the next two years 580,000 children will die (Avert, 2009).



References

Web: (2009, December 4).Worldwide HIV/AIDS Statistics. Retrieved February 24, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm

Image: (2009, December 4). Stop AIDS in Children. Retrieved February 24, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/stop-aids-children.php