You For You...

 

We're that it's our responsibility to take care of ourselves.  To do what we can on our own.  To an extent that's fine, past that it's BS.  That's fine until people feel you're pushing.  By pushing, I mean, when you start advocating for yourself.  Many of us don't have anyone else to stand up & speak for us.  We have to do this for ourselves.  If not, someone may make a decision that doesn't work for or nothing will get done at all.

When your HIV+, advocacy will be necessary.  Throughout your life, you'll need to stand up for yourself.  Here are some starting points.  Be as educated about the subject as possible & that includes information about yourself.   Read, search, discuss & go over it all again.  Become the expert on you & your particular situation.  No one knows you better than you.

Be proactive when you can & stay on top of things.  Make appointments & keep them.  Have questions prepared about what you need to know.  Be ready with statements about what's going on with you & what you need.  

These things can be emotional, but you need to remain as calm.  Some people will use your emotions against you.  Communicate as precisely as possible about your situation, needs & areas you need more information about.  

Be thorough.  Follow up on our appointments, get referrals, do your regimen.  If something doesn't seem right, see about another opinion on the matter.  

The last area is harder.  If you can, build support.  There's nothing in my area, but some cities have support groups & outreach centers.  If there's nothing local, check online.  That may not fill the void you need for socializing, but there may be info you're lacking.  People there may know about meds, exams, doctors & what to expect down the road.

You're going to have bad encounters.   There will those who won't do their jobs well, people who discriminate, those that avoid you...  You can't do anything about those people.  The best you can do is avoid them if possible.  Know your rights as a client/patient & make sure they're upheld.  File complaints, as objectively as possible.

So, identify your situation & needs.   Educate yourself & try to form a plan.  Communicate your needs.  Then do it all over again until things run smoother.  There will be adjustments down the line.   Things will change for the better & worse, that's life.  Go back to the beginning & reformulate the plan again.  

Advocating can be tiresome & never ending.  But if you don't, it's possible no one will.  You deserve the best chance you can get.

Cya..

3 Things...

 

Found 2 interesting pieces this morning.  1st, an article over HIV & the gut.  It talks of the gut's relation to the virus & possibilities in treatment.  The gut & gut biome have been historically left out of many medical conversations.    

The 2nd was a piece over care centered on a person's involvement with their own HIV journey.  This starts with a person's active involvement in prevention of HIV.  Patient centered care should have always been the push, but it's easier for the medical professionals to say "just do this."  People must be active in their healthcare.

Finally, the ongoing.  The car is back & it might work.  Next appointment is a brake job.  Things are coming together for my roomie's personal plans.  There's a lot more planning there.  For the moment, I think we're as caught up as we can be.

That's all for now, take care.

Cya...

Last Saturday of February...

 

The month is closing down.  Yesterday was the final Friday.  This  hasn't been an awful month, but it hasn't been great either.  There was a lot of weird, stressful crap that popped up.  Most of it had nothing to do with us directly, still it's affecting our lives.   

That's the problem with philosophies that push utter self reliance & personal responsibility.  They're complete BS.  You should as self reliant & responsible as possible, it's your life.  However, many of the trials people face were there before them or due to outside forces that were never within their ability to control, evade or influence. 

If a person with rain gear & an umbrella still gets wet in the rain, that's life.  They were prepared, proactive & did their best, still they got wet.  Even the best plans fail.  What happens when something was so unexpected there was no plan?   The best you can do is roll with it & that isn't a plan.  So much for utter prep.  You do your best & move on.

February wasn't the best, we got wet even though we didn't go out in the rain.  Most the issues of the month were outside our household.  Still, they happened.  We've done what we could & we're trying to move on.  Hopefully, these things will sort themselves out & not cause us more grief or agitation.

February gets a 5/10.  That's better than most of 2023.

Take care.

Cya...

Cards We're Dealt...

Many of us would like it if the hand life dealt us looked like the one above.  However, that isn't usually the case.  Yeah, some people have that hand dealt to them & some figure out ways to get to that point.  For most of us though, Our hands look more like this.

What the hell are you supposed to do with that?  When's the last time a pair of deuces won a hand?  Well, you have options:

1. Hope you're not playing Five Card Stud.
2. Cash out & cut your losses before they get any worse.
3. Bluff like hell.

People with hands like this learn to adjust & to adapt to the situation at hand.  These people have two choices, take life as it's thrown at them or make their own luck.  The one's who get the super royal flush hand don't have to adapt or change.  Therefore, they have little call to ever learn anything new.  Why should they adapt when the have the perfect hand?   They are counting on nothing ever changing & that is rarely the case. What will they do if & when they meet another person holding the same hand in a different suit?

My roomie plays The Sims.  She's not as much of a junkie about it as she used to be & that is entirely the game designer's fault.  Maxis, the developer of the game dropped the ball on the latest edition of The Sims.  They led people to believe that there would be more development with the game than there has been.  Gamers respond to this type of situation in many ways they might; stop playing the game, refuse to buy any more product from the developer,  download custom made content or take the matter into their own hands.

My roomie opted to play less & not purchase any further content.  However, yesterday she found that another player had taken the matter into her own hands.  One of the add-ons to this version was Sims: World Adventures.  This introduced three distinct lands to the game.  These brought in new skills & activities.   The idea was that Maxis would continue to develop new worlds.  They did it once with a piratey one  & charged an unrealistic amount.  This world wasn't well received & they haven't bothered to produce anymore. 

The player in question on the hand did continue development.  She developed an entire world based on a moon base.  She not only developed it, she did so in a more fully rendered & flushed out manner than any of the other preceding worlds.  Guess what, she put it online & it was free.  Add to that, she wasn't the only one.  There are other player developed worlds out there for my roomie to explore via Sims.  Great, the addiction is back.

The point is no matter how crappy a hand you've been dealt, if you try, you can make it work for you.

Have a good day