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

Stressed

This week I have been stressed and have fallen behind in all of my classes. I have to be caught up by Friday since it is my birthday and I know I will not be getting any work done this weekend.

The QOTW this week was interesting. I really liked that it gave me the opportunity to ask the people close to me about HIV/AIDS. Some of the responses were surprising but other then that my two friends and my mom knew as much as I thought they would. My two friends knew more about HIV/AIDS since it has been taught in school and if they ever had a question they could just ‘Google’ it. My mother on the other hand did not know that much. When she was growing up people didn’t know that HIV/AIDS even existed so I wasn’t surprised when she couldn’t answer some of the questions I asked her. What surprised me was how totally comfortable both of my friends were while they were talking about this and when I asked them if they had ever been tested. This is not a topic that people freely discuss so I thought there would be some hesitation on their part but there was not. My mother did not think people could live for long after they had HIV and when I told her they could she was surprised. She thought that once you were diagnosed you died within a few years. I liked being able to educate all of them on this topic because it is so important for everyone to know about.

Also I have not finished reading my book for assignment three which is due Friday. I hope to have in finished by tomorrow. Writing the assignment does not stress me out it’s the reading that does. Like I have previously written I am not that big of a reader!


Did You Know: Children with HIV

Each year in the United States “there are 6,000 to 7,000 children who are born to HIV infected mothers” (Children’s Hospital Boston, 2005). In 2007 it was estimated that there were 3,793 children under the age of 13 that were living with AIDS in the U.S. (Avert, 2009). These children most likely acquired HIV from “their mothers during pregnancy, labor, delivery or breastfeeding” (Avert, 2009).

In 2006 there was an estimated 28 pediatric AIDS cases which is significantly less then 195 cases in 1999 and 896 cases in 1992 (Avert, 2009). The decline in cases is believed to be due to the HIV testing of pregnant women and the use of antiretroviral drugs (zidovudine/AZT) (Avert, 2009).


References:

Web: (2005). AIDS/HIV. Retrieved February 17, 2010, from Children's Hospital Boston: http://www.childrenshospital.org/az/Site550/mainpageS550P0.html

Web: (2009, December 4).United States Statistics. Retrieved February 17, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/usa-statistics.htm

Week 5 of Classes

The weeks go by so fast and I still feel overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do in each of my classes. Now that I have a routine I am able to get everything accomplished in time and I have been receiving good grades too. This class makes me think! Which I know I should be saying about all of my classes but I can’t. This class makes me think about things that I have never thought about before or have even wanted to think about and that is one of the things that is making me like this class more and more. For example the QOTW’s make me not only think about HIV but make me think about how I would react in any of those scenarios. Also module one surprised me greatly with the Florida static’s. I never knew that the city of Ft. Lauderdale had over 16,000 reported HIV cases in 2007 and that is where I live (Douglass, Slide 71). I have a few friends that are pretty irresponsible when it comes to their sex lives and now I am nervous for them. I’ve talked to them about this class and how I have to go get tested and a few of them said that they wanted to get tested too. I think that if more people were aware of the HIV statistics in the place they live they would be more likely to use protection and get tested.

Did You Know: Children with HIV

Treatment for children with HIV is more difficult then treating adults. Not all off the antiretroviral medications can be used on children and some of the ones that can do not work as well. There are currently 12 antiretroviral medications that are approved for children (AIDS.org, 2009). The correct doses of these medications are not known and some are based on the children’s weight or body surface area (AIDS.org, 2009). Because of this the doses are adjusted as the child grows to stay effective. The medications come in the form of liquid, powder, granular form, and pills (AIDS.org, 2009). Children that can take pills have more options in medications then children who can not (AIDS.org, 2009). Without the proper treatment “about 20% of children die or develop AIDS within one year” (AIDS.org, 2009).

The video below I found on YouTube and shows a mother who has two children, one who is HIV positive and one who is not. It is eye opening and sad. Take notice to the part where the mother is giving her daughter her medications. There are so many and she has to take them every day to stay healthy.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI7p7zlfEi8

References

Slides: Douglass, S. (2007) Statistics, HSC 3595, University of Central Florida.

Web: (2009). CHILDREN AND HIV. Retrieved February 10, 2010, from AIDS.ORG: http://www.aids.org/factSheets/612-Children-and-HIV.html

Web: Duncan, E. (2008, March 1). INVISIBLE: Children living with HIV/AIDS [Video file]. Video posted to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI7p7zlfEi8

What a Week

For the past week I have been in a terrible mood. I haven’t been feeling good and I have been completely stressed out. I moved back to Ft. Lauderdale at the beginning of this semester so I’ve had to find all new places to study and even new doctors to go to. I normally go to a library to study and use the internet because the internet service at my house is not that great. I finally found a library that I like to go to and they found two of the movies that I want to watch for assignment four and ordered them for me. The biggest issue about having to use public libraries now is the hours they are open. I was so used to the UCF library staying open to one in the morning and since I am a total night owl I loved it. The latest the libraries here stay open is eight at night (not that great for me).

So with regards to this class I have been staying on track pretty well. I found a few test centers that I can go to, to get my HIV test. Now I just have to call and see which one is the best one and make an appointment. I am not really nervous about getting tested because I have already been tested before. I also need to start reading my book choice for assignment 3. I am actually looking forward to reading it, now I just have to find some free time to get it done. Also I realized that I won’t be able to make it to a panel meeting since I live three hours away and I ordered the book I need to read to replace that assignment. I feel like this semester I have had to do so many reading assignments not only in this class but in my other three as well. I am not that big of a reader with the exception of the Twilight books (love them) so this is rather new to me! Also I got 100% on assignment two which made me very happy since I was not happy at all with my assignment one feedback. All in all this class is going well for me and I still feel overwhelmed at times but I am much more confident then when I started.

Blog Add On:

The AIDS organization that I found is called UNAIDS. It is one of the United Nations programs located in Geneva, Switzerland. This program works in 80 different countries and works to “prevent new HIV infections, care for people living with HIV, and mitigates the impact of the epidemic” (UNAIDS, 2009). Their main goal is to “stop and reverse the spread of HIV” (UNAIDS, 2009). They eventually hope to provide “universal access to prevention, treatment, and support services” for people who have HIV (UNAIDS, 2009). They also research which countries are in need of HIV programs and work to get programs placed there to help educate and treat the people of that country.

Did You Know: Children with HIV

In infants and children HIV develops rapidly because their immune system is not fully developed. If these children do not receive treatment a third of them will die before their first birthday and half will die before their second birthday (Pembrey, 2009). In the past few years the number of children that were getting antiretroviral therapy (ART) has increased but in 2008 less then 40% of the children who live in low-middle income countries were not receiving ART (Pembrey, 2009). The availability of these medications is not the only problem that is causing children to die from HIV, the time it takes for a child to be tested is a bigger problem in these low-middle income countries. In countries that are developed children can be tested within 48 hours after birth but it countries that are less fortunate it could take up to 18 months for a child to be tested (Pembrey, 2009). From what I previously wrote you can see that a child that has to wait 18 months to be tested most likely would not still be alive when they are allowed to be tested if they were HIV+.

References:

Web: UNAIDS, (2009). Uniting the world against AIDS. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from UNAIDS: http://www.unaids.org/en/

Web: Pembrey, G. (2009, December 22). HIV Treatment for Children. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/hiv-children.htm

The Beginning

Initially when I signed up for this course I thought it was going to be like the numerous other online courses I have taken and I soon found out that I was wrong. At first I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of assignments that we had and I even thought for a brief moment about withdrawing. After I calmed down I realized that the class itself was not going to be hard in my opinion but it just required a lot of hard work, time, and dedication. I knew that by the end of this semester I would most likely have learned a lot and be grateful that I stuck it out and did not try to take the easy way out.

Reading the discussion topics for the past two weeks actually made me angry. I felt that there was a lot of negativity being given off and that was something that I had never experienced before in a class. It was a little upsetting and it actually made me not want to continue reading the discussion posts. I felt that some students were being disrespectful and I also felt that both Teach and Linda were not that kind in some of their responses back to the students. I get that everyone is stressed and everyone has a lot to do but I felt like everyone was taking out their own personal stresses on each other and that is completely unnecessary. On the 24th I read the discussion “Observations from the Old Guy” from Jim Vokoun and I felt so much better about everything. I could not agree more with everything he said. I also was glad that I was not the only one who noticed all the negativity. If any of you have not read his message I highly suggest you do it will make you smile (it is under the main discussion tab).

Now that it is week three I feel more confident in this class. I’ve made myself a schedule so I can make sure I get everything done in time. I now also know what is expected of me in regards to assignments. I turned in assignment one and felt confident but my feedback was not that great. I did receive and A on it and to most people that would be enough but not for me. I’m the type of person that gets mad if I do something wrong and get bad feedback on assignment even if I did get an A. I guess you can say I am a bit of a perfectionist, which like we all know is not always a good thing.


Did You Know: Children with HIV

There is currently more then 2.1 million children worldwide living with HIV (Berry, 2009). The majority of children with this virus live in countries that have been plagued by HIV for many years. For example 9 out of 10 children who live in Sub-Saharan Africa are infected with AIDS (Berry, 2009).

I found the video below on YouTube and I thought it was both interesting and sad. It gives you a look into the children’s lives who have HIV and who have lost their parents to it. It also discusses an organization called PLAN which is helping these children (PLAN, 2007).

Video: Impact of HIV/AIDS on Children in Uganda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWzHwlFP8Z4



References:

Web: Berry, S. (2009, November 30). Children, HIV, and AIDS. Retreieved January 26, 2010, from Avert: http://www.avert.org/children.htm

Web: PLAN. (2007, March 5). Impact of HIV/AIDS on Children in Uganda [Video file]. Video posted to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWzHwlFP8z4