New Approach...

This article talks about a new approach to directly administer HIV meds to the brain.  Due to the blood-brain barrier very few meds can actually reach the virus hiding in the tissue.   Making the brain a great hiding spot for HIV.  There are other places were the virus can hide as well but the brain is potentially the most difficult to treat.  If this approach is perfected it could alter treatment for not only HIV, but other illnesses where the brain is directly affected, yet hard to treat.

The article was rather brief, but promising.  I'll be keeping my eye on this research.  At this stage it wouldn't work for me.  It's based on AZZTP, which as far as I can tell is related to AZT.  I'm very reactive to that medication.  However, maybe this is just the 1st med they've tried with using this procedure.  Could prove interesting.

Cya...

Across The Universe

I went out this morning to give the outdoor cats some food.  It had been raining and was beginning to snow.  The white was just covering the ground and the roads were probably fairly slick.  I heard the garbage men coming.  I couldn't help be thankful it wasn't me out there in that cold, slick mess.  Before I walked in I looked into the grey morning & lightly said, "watch over them , keep them safe."  I was talking as much about the cats as the men retrieving the piles of refuse.  If anyone had heard this they'd had thought I was praying.  I suppose I was, just really not to God or not one most people perceive as I do.

I'm not special. GOD doesn't speak to me via visions, signs or even text messages.  I just don't buy the world's consensus on the GOD phenomenon.  Do I believe in a god?  Yes, just not the one from the Abrahamic religions;  like Judaism, Christianity or Islam.

What is God?  Better question, what isn't?   I believe that God is the universe & the universe is God.  I believe that every little thing is divine & natural, because they are the same thing.  I do not believe in the supernatural.  Not because I don't believe in ghosts, magicks or faeries, but because I believe if they exist then they are an aspect of nature we simply have yet to understand.  It is not possible for something to completely unnatural.  It can be processed like Velveeta Cheese or utterly man-made like Retrovir, but it is still natural.  Man can not create anything out of nothing.  All the components came from nature, they may be altered, processed or even unrecognizable, but it is still man-made & man is natural.

So where did God come from.  I don't know, I wasn't there. How is that even relevant?  Perhaps the Big Bang was God's birth.  God may have been there before or not, I don't know & it isn't something I feel the need to spend my time pondering on, there are physicists & spiritualists for those concerns.

If I have to label myself, I guess I'm a Pantheist.  What in the world is a pantheist? (Check out the link).  I believe the natural is indistinguishable from the divine and vice versa.  The little prayer I said  for the cats & garbage men was to the universe.  Be thankful for those things around you.  Remember those things are just as relevant as you are, so show some respect, even reverence. A concept I have trouble with myself.  Say your prayers to whatever.  Whether they're words to the winds, fruits left at crossroads, milk & eggs left for the little folk or whatever.  Just be thankful any of this was here it all, considering this all could just be some cosmic fluke.

I couldn't write this without a link to the Beatles Across The Universe.

Be thankful, be respectful, smell the roses, take the proverbial road less followed... Just freaking live a little bit already & don't be the Man Who Sold The World.



Yes, I know David Bowie did it first, but I like this version better.

Getting through the days...

About a year after my diagnosis, I went to the hospital for extreme anemia, a reaction to Retrovir aka AZT.  This was the last straw on the camel's back and since then I've been on SSI disability. Some say great and it did cover most the bills, but being home all day, everyday is taxing. Barely enough $ to make ends meet and no where near enough to do much in the way of diversion.

Rituals, habits & patterns become important to you in ways you never considered.  They're your clock & calendar.  Oh, it's time to dishes, it's Thursday better vacuum, it's second/fourth Monday of the month better mow the lawn.  Those things that mark your time between sleeping, week passage or next month's bills become the things that get you through the day and the things you really despise.

It's almost a crisis when something happens that doesn't fall into your daily rut.  How bad will this throw me off, how much $ will this take, or just WHAT NOW!?  Even if it's a good thing or something just slightly diverting, you somewhat resent it for not having the decency to be planned into your day ahead of time.  In situations like mine surprises are rarely good and almost never welcome. Whenever you're dealing with someone in a situation similar;  an elderly relative, a sick friend, or your sibling at home with three kids, remember you may have just thrown their entire system out of whack, so be a little patient and understanding.  I know it's way OCD and limiting but it's what I/we have.