Week Two: |
|---|
| I Picked
the Right Year to Move After All |
Here's the last of the sn@w in South
Carolina!
Everything would have probably all been melted away by now, but this
was part of the pile of sn@w that I had knocked off the deck roof.
|
 |
 |
Boy, I guess I "picked" the right year
to move away from the cold, sn@wy North. According to my sources,
they have about 2 feet of sn@w and more on the way. So far it's
looking as if this might be the second largest sn@wfall in recorded
history up there in Ohio.
This is Carolynn standing beside some of the first
sn@wfall!
Y'all are all welcome to
come visit me and the boyz down here -
that is IF you can get plowed out enough to get out of your houses!
 |
| The Results are Back
and Back to Stable |
In my last update, I was
still waiting on the results from my last blood work. Those numbers
have come back and I can happily say that they're good! My t-cells
went back up from 209 to 242
, which is actually a little above the
average of the last 5 years of 222. My viral load dropped back down from
120 to <50, which means it's back to being "undetectable".
So all my minor worrying was in vain. 
Thankfully, I'm still basically in the same stable pattern that I've
been in for almost 2 years. |
 |
For a larger version of
this chart, and more info about my lab work,
click this chart. |
| A Member of
the Speakers Bureau |
| Ever since I lost my
second partner to AIDS in 2008, I have wanted to do something, to
volunteer, to somehow give back something. I remember exactly when I
began to think this way. It was one afternoon when a Hospice
volunteer came in to sit by Jim's bedside while I took a couple of
hours to run errands. Although I ran these errands quickly to get
back, and although the errands were all about taking care of Jim,
just being away with the situation of him back at our house, lying
in a hospital bed quickly approaching death, was such a blessing.
For just a few moments, the burden wasn't lying so heavily on my
shoulders. |
| |
| I resolved then and there
that someday, when the current situation was over, I would "do
something" to give back. For a while I thought maybe I could do some
volunteer work for hospice, to sit in for a while and give someone
else a break. God knows I know what I'm doing having taken care of
several friends and two partners during their finally weeks of life.
But, for all the strength I've had to get me through so much, I just
don't think I have the strength to do that kind of volunteer work.
I'm afraid sitting by the bedside of someone else's loved one
crying, even if I was taking care of them properly, wouldn't do
anyone any good. But I still wanted to do something. |
| |
| Unfortunately, doing
something has taken longer than I wanted. After Jim's passing, the
threads of my life began to unravel as I couldn't afford to keep the
car and the house. Even moving into another home with a roommate
wasn't much better, as that person not only barely contributed to
the house and none to the food situation, he also refused to resign
the lease, leaving me only two weeks to find another home just a
year after losing my last home, the home that had been Jim's. |
| |
| However, thanks to the
generous help of my family, I moved from OH, where I had lived 25
yrs with both of my partners now lost to AIDS, back home to the
Carolinas, where I now live in a stable situation in a stable home
with my Mom. It took a while to get the social services to transfer
me from OH to SC, and to get situated with a new doctor, and for the
first time, getting assistance from an actual ASO. But with all that
finally handled, I've found the time and some ways that I can give
something back. |
| |
| Offering at least 20 hours
a month to my ASO/clinic, I've already worked several hours in their
weekly pantry. Handing out rolls of toilet paper and toothpaste may
not be that glamorous of a job; but having spent some of my life,
after my first partner died and I was very ill and on my own, on the
other side accepting that handout, I know just how necessary give-aways
of food supplies or taxables can be to the needy HIV positive
person. |
However, the job I have volunteered to
do that has given me the most satisfaction was joining the Speakers
Bureau at the clinic. As the only ASO, and testing facility, for
three counties in SC (York, Chester, and Lancaster), the Catawba
Care Clinic (http://catawbacare.org/) puts on many presentations throughout these
counties about HIV prevention, information and treatment. With their
Speakers Bureau they try to arrange to have an HIV poz person speak
afterwards telling of their life and experience with HIV in an
effort to put a face with the information.
(Denise and Telluss speaking to the audience about HIV and STDs) |
 |
| Tonight I had my first
opportunity to be the Speaker. Talking to a mixed crowd of about 50
kids, teenagers, and adults at an event arranged with a local
community center, my experiences blended in nicely with what the two
HIV Prevention Specialists (Denise and Telluss) had presented. |
 |
I was just glad to deliver my speech
because within it are lives are the two men whom I miss the most -
Randy and Jim. I entitled my speech "Two Rings" because I believe
that to tell my story I needed to tell the story of my two partners
(thus the two rings that I wear to this day) that went undiagnosed
and untreated until it was too late.
In case you didn't read my speech yet,
I have posted it below. |
|
|
| Just Not
the Same Anymore |
| For the most part, you
know I'm usually not so maudlin; but the last couple of Valentine
Days have been a bit of a bummer for me. Oh, like many of you I
spent plenty of Valentine Days single, after Randy passed away, and
all-in-all it's just another day. But you know too that Life threw
me that pleasant twist and let me have a second chance at Love with
my Jim. So I forgot what it was like to be single, and in the back
of my mind everything changed so I always just thought I would have
someone to share this day with. |
| |
|
It doesn't help either
that some of the last times that I shared Valentine's Day with Jim
were unusual. One ritual Jim and I had had was to go to Outback
Steak House once a year. (I LOVE their "Steak Sizzler Platter"!). If
we didn't go to the restaurant across from our hotel when we visited
Kings Island Amusement Park every other Summer, then we went out to
eat for Valentine's Day. The last time we were at home to go to the
restaurant, I was just starting to develop one of my week-long
"mystery fevers". The sweet guy that Jim was, he planned ahead by
calling ahead and ordered up our meal to go. Though I didn't get to
do all the hugging and kissing I would have liked to do on VD day
 ,
we did share our meal together by candle light. To have been so
sick, it was a very memorable Valentine's Day. |
|
|
| Unfortunately, things
didn't work out for our last Valentine's Day. Although I did see Jim
in the morning of the holiday, afterwards I spent the rest of the
day riding in the car with Tara as I took a trip back home in NC for
several days. It was during that weekend, that Jim realized that he
just wasn't throwing off the flu, the sickness, that he had been
dealing with the last couple of weeks. I'm sure you remember the
rest of this sad story. I came back home, driving through a blizzard
to end up returning to smoking and having to put Jim into the
hospital. The plan had been to go to Outback on my return to Canton;
but as you can imagine that never happened. |
| |
| Do I regret having missed
that last Valentine's Day with Jim? No, not really because I had
that unexpected opportunity to make another trip back home because
of Tara going that way to see the guy she was dating that lived down
in SC. I figured out a long time ago, after Randy passed away, that
I was living "extra time" and resolved that I would take as many
opportunities as possible and never look a gift horse in the mouth
and not take an opportunity. So I'm not sad that I took the
opportunity to go home for a visit; but, yes, I do wish things had
turned out differently. |
 |
 |
| Jim and the Sn@w Dogs |
The Boyz AND Gabby! |
|
| However the last
Valentine's Day that Jim and I spent together was a good one.
Although Jim had just been permanently laid off from the Cash
Advance Store where he had been working and we were in the second
day of nearly five days of sn@w, the boyz and I had just moved into
Jim's house 2 months prior, so we were all stay "deliriously" happy
just being together. |
| |
|
It's hard for me to really
yet wrap my mind around how much things have changed in just two
short years. On that sn@wy Valentine's Day 2007, I never expected
that Gabby, my little girl cocker spaniel, would pass away 10 months
later, and that Jim, my second long-term partner and the love of my
life, would be gone just 5 months after Gabby. |
| |
| The lesson for us that
still remain though is quite simple. Never take the people (your
partners, friends, family, and loved ones) around you for granted.
Sometimes things can change quite unexpectedly and quite quickly. So
on Valentine's Day this year, don't forget to tell all those people
just how much you love them and care for them.
|
| |
| Since you'll be reading
this just before Valentine's Day, let me tell you how much I love
and care for all of YOU,
my readers! Every time I write a blog entry, I think about many of
you with much fondness in my heart - my two sis-in-laws (Angie and
Lisa); Bill, just down the road in Chester; Jack, just up the road
in Charlotte; Maurice in Canada; Emma in England; my new case
manager, Christine; so many of my friends up in the cold and sn@w of
Ohio (Carolynn and Trent, Richard and Angie, Ritchie, Becca, Mike
and Bob, Rhonda, Ruth and Mac, Gayle, Mike P, and all the rest of
you guys!). The list really goes on and on! I'm a very happy guy for
having all of y'all in my life and I hope you stay there for many,
many more years. |
| |
Happy
Valentine's Day to all my peeps!
Leatherman
LOVES you very much! |
|
|
Week Three: |
|---|
| Trouble |
| This update starts out
with some troublesome news; but the outcomes seems to be okay. |
| |
|
So leatherman
was just surfing along (but you know him
he was probably illegally downloading music
or looking at porn)
when all of a sudden the virus scanner alerted him to a potential
threat. He clicked to quarantine the file and the antivirus program
responded just fine. Immediately afterwards, he got another alert,
and when he clicked to quarantine this file, the computer buzzed at
him and shut down!
And wouldn't boot back up! |
| |
| Leatherman moved out of
the way and let the ComputerTutor take over.
After trying numerous fixes, the ComputerTutor was still unable to
get the PC to completely boot up, and had to resort to reformating
the computer. Thankfully, mIkIe was smart enough to have a backup of
his files on an external hard drive. Although it took the
ComputerTutor over 24 hrs. to put the computer back to the way it
was, in the end everything was ok. |
| |
|
| Because it was for mIkIe,
the ComputerTutor fixed the computer pro bono and wasn't paid for
all those hours or effort. However, the ComputerTutor did get the
satisfaction of spanking leatherman (who probably just enjoyed it
)
and making him promise not to do it again. Neither mIkIe nor the
ComputerTutor thinks leatherman will stick to his promise though
about staying away from those "bad sites".
|
|
| On a much unhappier note,
my poor little Aries had another seizure. Every night as I get my
bed together (by folding out the couch, tossing an air mattress on
top, and making up the covers), I let the dogs outside for a last
trip at night, as I close up the doggie door for the night. I had
just finished up, opened the door to let the boyz in from the cold,
and saw poor Aries falling off the deck as he was trying to make his
way inside even though he was in the middle of a seizure. I got the
poor guy, brought him in and cuddled him while he went through the
spasms. |
| |
| Recently, Mom has had to
put one of her Chihuahuas, Rudy, on Phenobarbital because he has had
numerous seizures this past month, rather than every
few months like had been happening to him. Luckily, Aries isn't that
bad off as he seems to have about two a year, with his seizures seeming to come during Aug-Sept and
March-April. This one was a little early and a little soon after the
seizure he had back in Sept. right after we had moved here; but Aries seems
to be doing ok. |
They Don't Stay Young Long
and
We're All Getting Older! |
It's time to start the two month
Birthday Festival!
It seems that quite a lot of our parents were fooling around during
the Summer months of June and July. So, viola! Here "we" are
celebrating our bdays in February and March.
Little Jonathan (who isn't so little anymore; but there's more about
him in just a minute) starts off the festivities on Feb. 11th,
followed by his mom Lisa on Feb. 21st, my cousin Terry's son,
TJ celebrates on Feb 23rd, then my brother Donny has his bday this month on Feb. 27th,
and finally our Aunt Ann closes out the month with her bday on Feb
28th |
 |
| There's a whole gang of
birthdays next month; but I'll tell you about those when we get to
March. However, don't forget if you're going to get them a present,
Ritchie starts off next month with his bday on Mar 1st. and his mom
Angie gets another year older on Mar 3rd. I only mention their
birthdays now, because you know I won't have an update online by
then.
|
|
| Unfortunately because of
scheduling, timing, and pricing, neither Mom and Dennis or I
were able to go to Jon's party which was held at a Japanese steak
house. The pictures they sent us later sure made it look like they
all had a lot of fun with the food cooked right there in front of
them with fires flaming, knives flashing, food being thrown and
caught, all sorts of fun. |
 |
 |
Lisa's kids, Lara's kids, Angie's kids
All the Cousins!! |
|
You may notice that Jonathan is holding up his present -
well part of his present.
If you can't tell what it is,
MouseOver the picture to the right. |
 |
| Still can't tell?!?!? Then
check out these pix!! |
 |
 |
| Yeppers! Sixteen and Jon's
driving his own vehicle now! |
| I Spoke Too Soon! |
| Karma! I still don't think
I believe in it; but it sure comes around to bite you in the butt
sometimes. There I was bragging about all the sn@w that had piled up
onto all my ex-homies (all my Ohio peeps!), and karma got me. South
Carolina got sn@w! I mean real sn@w! An actual three inches! What's
worse the whole state got hit, even clear down to the state capital
and over to Myrtle Beach! |
|
|
| |
 |
| MouseOver and see who
thinks "I" should come out into the sn@w too. |
The Sn@w Cream Queen!
Mom braved the cold and several inches of sn@w to go outside and retrieve a
bowl full of sn@w to make a rare Southern treat - sn@w cream. Our sn@w cream
was made with about 1/2 c. sugar, 1 c. cold
evaporated milk, and 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Gradually stir in sn@w,
mixing until it's the consistency of ice cream. Make sure to get
clean sn@w and a whole bowlful as it will take quite a lot. |
 |
| Night and
Day Pictures |
|
|
| |
|
 |
| The sn@w still "falling"
the next morning in the side yard |
 |
All through the morning, the sn@w fell
off the trees nearly as fast as it accumulated the night before. |
| |
|
 |
 |
| Aries checks out the 3 inches of sn@w
in the yard |
Joxer is wondering if we really ever
left Ohio |
 |
| The sn@w falling off the
tree made a mini sn@w storm beneath the branches |
I haven't had one of these in a while,
and what better day than a sn@w day to get a GBS!
MouseOver CloseUp of Rudy's GBS
For my newer visitors a quick explanation.
Throughout the years of taking pictures, I have often found that the
pictures have included either my butt or someone else's butt. After
a while, there was nothing else to do butt laugh (pun intended LOL)
and begin to showcase the "Gratuitous Butt Shot" pictures. |
 |
| |
 |
Ohio or South Carolina??
It's hard to tell when there's this much sn@w on the ground. |
|
|
| It's easy to see from
these pix that Mom took the following day, that the sn@w was already
melting and the nuclear power plant was running full steam heating
up the homes of all the frozen South Carolinians. |
|
With this much fluffy sn@w
fall all through the area,
everyone was out the following day
getting pictures of the rare sn@w day in the south. |
 |
Lisa's sister, Lara, got these pictures
of the sn@w around her home |
| |
|
|
|
|
Covered up by the white sn@w, NC kind of look like Ohio. |
Lisa, like me, must have been out
late at night taking
pictures as the sn@w fell. |
 |
 |
Lisa and Jon's Shepherd "Riley"
She's not lying down;
but standing up in the sn@w. |
| Surf, Sand and . . .
Sn@w ?!?!? |
| These disgusting, yet
beautiful, pictures of sn@w at the beach are courtesy of my cousin
Laura |
 |
 |
| |
 |
Laura lives south of Myrtle Beach
proper, in a marshy area which looks especially beautiful with the sn@w
piled up on the reeds. |
| |
 |
Now this picture is just
WRONG!
The sand on the beach should never be covered in sn@w |
 |
 |
These two pictures are
pretty wrong too.
Whose
going be buying any beachwear? That store ought to be selling
sweaters and gloves. And the sn@w-covered flamingo - I don't think I
need to say anything about why that isn't right. |
| |
|
| Elsewhere in the Myrtle
Beach area, Mom's friend Guy took these pictures. |
 |
 |
| |
 |
 |
Spanish moss and palm tree
under the sn@w.
We sure didn't have sights like that up in Ohio, that's for sure. |
 |
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| |
 |
|
| Here Today,
Gone Tomorrow |
 |
Thankfully, this truly was a South
Carolinian sn@w and as the afternoon wore down, the sn@w was melting
right away. |
| By the following day, the only sn@w I
could find to photograph was this tiny bit left behind the deck.
That's the same place I had sn@w left over that I was "bragging"
about back after the last sn@w. I'm not bragging about this batch,
I'm just pointing it out. |
 |
| Joxer was out standing by
the sn@w shovel the next day. I bet he was pretty confused. First we
had that good amount of sn@w and he had to wonder if we were back in
Ohio; but then it melted so fast. He's never seen sn@w come and go
so fast. |
 |
| "I miss the sn@w. It
reminded me of up North where I was born." |
| Borky,
Bork, Bork |
| Though not Swedish like
the muppet, I do have a friend that's a Chef. Dennis from Wooster OH
is known as ChefDD online. After winning in a recipe contest last
year, Dennis has entered another this year. |
 |
According to the
Canton Repository, the contest will be held April 11-13. So I
want to wish my friend Good Luck ,
and here's hoping you get FIRST place! |
| “I’m doing ‘Oh My Ganache’ Cherry
Macaroon Torte,” said Deel, 52, a part-time social worker who got
serious about entering food contests in 2004. Deel has enjoyed
several wins, including a second place in the Food Network’s
Ultimate Recipe Showdown last year |
| Six Months
in South Carolina |
| I had been a little
troubled initially when my first lab numbers after moving to SC
(back in Sept) weren't as good as they had been in the last two
years in OH. Then again, during those two years, I had gone through
losing my partner, losing our home, moving into a new home with a
roommate, losing that home and then leaving Ohio after 25 years and
moving to SC to live in my Mom's house. To be honest, I was more
surprised that my numbers had actually remained stable (undetectable
and average - at least, average for me anyway - t-cell count)
throughout that whole time than the drop in t-cells and ever so
slight bump in viral load after I had finally gotten settled into my
new home. |
| |
| So now I'm been in the
boyz and I been in our home for half a year and things have settled
down. I've gotten all the social services changed from one state to
the other (not as easy a task as I had thought or hoped). I've
gotten my med costs covered and even have my meds delivered to my
front door. I have begun volunteering for my new ASO, by working in
their "pantry" and having had the chance to "tell my story" after an
HIV information and prevention program, putting a face to all that
factual information. |
| |
I've even gotten a new friend, another
pozzie who's only a little older than me, been poz a little longer,
and has gone through a lot of the same meds over the years. I
wouldn't say that I'm actually dating Bill, unless you think
spending time shopping at home improvements stores is dating (well,
I do love doing "projects"
). However, I have been enjoying
spending time with him , and I got a nice card and this stuffed
animal on Valentine's Day from him. |
Horny the Rhino |
 |
| I do want to show you one
picture from the outside of Bill's house. MouseOver and
you'll see that the feature in the center of this rock garden area
is a fountain! That just proves that Bill must be a good guy
- he sure can't be bad if he's got a fountain.
I really do miss my old fountain at 14th St. house. Perhaps this
summer, I can see about creating something similar somewhere out in
the yard so me and the boyz can enjoy the sounds of splashing water
once again. |
|
| Maybe
Change can be a good thing |
| |
| Here at six months, I had an appointment with
my doctor this week. I'm happy to report that my numbers
are back to being "stabilized". (these are actually the numbers I
got from my case manager last week) Once again my viral load is
back to undetectable (down from a blip of only 120) and my t-cell
count is back up from a "precarious" 209 to a whopping "242" (the
average over the last 6 yrs is only 222). I got my finally
vaccination from the clinic too, so now I've been inoculated against
H1N1, pneumonia, the flu, Hepatitis C and Hepatitis A. |
| |
| After all these years, my
new doctor has suggested a med change. Wow! How novel an idea too -
changing meds to make the regimen easier rather that changing
because of resistance or side effects. He wants me to drop the Videx
EC that I take in the morning (it has 2 hr food restrictions and I
don't eat breakfast, so I have been taking this first thing every
morning) and the Viread. I would then change over to Truvada (a
combo pill of Viread
and Emtriva), meaning I will take one less pill a day. Also by
taking all my Acyclovir at once, that will allow me to take all my
meds at one time each day
(with dinner because I don't dare take the
Norvir without food). |
| |
| Wow!
Starting with 16 a day, going to an all time high of 32 pills a day,
to 15 with tablespoons and tablespoons of liquid Norvir, to 8, to 6
and now to only 4 pills a day - and only one time a day with no real
food restrictions.
WooHoo!
Plus stable numbers!
Double WooHoo! |
| |
However there seemed to be
a "fly in the ointment"
 once
I got home and was thinking about this med change. I was checking
things out on the net, and found that having a mutation in your HIV
to be resistant to Epivir usually meant that the virus would also be
Emtriva (which is part of the new med). I double-checked and that
was the mutation reported by the genotype test done back in
January 2002. Well, the last
thing I was to do is switch to a med that's not going to work! |
| |
| I checked back in with the
doctor (and read even more on the net) and found some pleasantly
surprising news. First, having been undetectable for a couple of
years, there's a chance that the slight amount of HIV in the
reservoirs inside of me could no longer have that mutation. The Viread that
I've been taking has been proven to kill off HIV with that mutation. |
| |
| Secondly, having that
mutation isn't as bad as it seems either! The virus particles with
that mutation are actually less viable than without that mutation
(instead of being a more potent virus, it becomes a weaker virus).
In my case this means that taking the Emtriva (in the Truvada) could
work better and boost the levels of the other meds in my system
(since the unviable mutated virus can't fight back), actually making
this new regimen more potent and effective. |
| |
I'm going to wait until
this weekend to start this new med
(just
in case I have to deal with any side effects )
and will let you know how I'm feeling in a week or so
- and of course how the next blood work turns out. |
| They Called
It Puppy Love |
 |
If I could have gotten to the camera a
split second faster, I could have had documented proof that the
twins love each other.
Zeus came up to kiss Aries, who kissed back. No growls, no barks, no
fights.
I may not have the picture proof but I saw their brotherly love. |
| It must be leftover Valentine's Day
love
floating around. After kissing his brother, Zeus went over kissed
his older brother Joxer on the head, and then curled up beside him
to take a nap. |
 |
| More
Volunteering |
| I did some more volunteer
work for the clinic this week. On Friday, I worked in the pantry
once again. And once again, no one showed up!However,
the agency did have the other guy and I put together some bags,
stocked with soap, shampoo, razors, etc. that will be given out at
the local men's shelter; so it wasn't a waste of my time. |
| |
| The following day, I spent
several hours at a health fair being held at that same rec center I
was at a few weeks back. This fair included a table from the
hospital doing sugar and blood pressure tests, a church with a full
stock of clothing to give-away, several substance abuse centers,
United Way, and a few churches that had social service programs. |
 |
The Catawba Care Coalition hosted a
booth with red ribbons, info about HIV, STDs, and the services of
the clinic, along with free condoms. It wasn't a hard "job" at all
to sit there, explain a little about the clinic and hand out of
literature. |
| Of course, CCC also had their
prevention/testing staff (Monica and Telluss) on site too doing the
oral quick-test for HIV. With a quick swab inside your mouth, they
could get results on your status with 20 minutes! (Nothing like the
old day when all there was was a blood test that took 2 weeks to get
the results back.) |
 |
| Over half a dozen tests
were done. Unfortunately, one person was found to be positive.
Fortunately though, Catawba Care Coalition is more than prepared to
help with social services, counseling, case manager, a medical
doctor, clinic facilities, and access to meds. |
Upcoming Events
and some updates |
| As I close out this early
last update for February, I only have a few more things
that I'm expecting to have happen this month. On Monday,
I have a return visit to the gastro doc, where I expect
to tell him a hearty "Thank You!" for a job well done.
I haven't had any issues with swallowing since the
procedure. (Update: Saw the doctor and saw a picture of
the inside of my esophagus. Cool. He explained that scar
tissue from thrush and the excessive barfing I've done
on so many of these HIV meds, had nearly closed off my
throat and he was surprised that I was able to swallow
much of anything!
I'm sure glad that's fixed!) |
| |
| On Wednesday, I have a social
worker paying a house visit. I'm not really certain what
that's supposed to be about; but as long as it keeps the
meds and doctors paid for, I'm all for having a visitor.
Hopefully this case worker likes dogs.
I'll just have to block off Mom's four dogs in the
sunroom and my three boyz outside for a while.
(Update: Things went well and quick with this social
worker. I really don't need any of their home health
services; but it's good to have my name on the list just
in case. The dogs were fine for the half hour that I had
them blocked off in other rooms) |
| |
| And finally, I'll
be taking this new med. Hopefully, I won't have any side
effects; but the bottle has a fluorescent sticker that
even warns about dizziness and nausea, so we'll see what
happens.
(Update: don't know if it was the meds or the pizza from
Ci-Ci's but I spent an unpleasant third night on this
med losing fluids and food through several orifices.
Let's hope it was just bad pizza) |
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