AIDS Awareness

[zyzyly]

When I was still a fairly new nurse, not all that long ago, we started seeing AIDS patients on our unit. Some of my fellow nurses would refuse to care for them.

I attended the funeral of a friend who died of AIDS a few years ago. His mom was there, and she told everyone he died of cancer.

I still see patients admitted to the hospital who won't tell their families they have AIDS, for fear of being abandoned by them.

I was talking with someone not too long ago about a mutual friend who had died of AIDS complications. She felt it necessary to point out that he contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion.

I know a priest who is HIV positive, but is unable to share it with his community and receive their support, for fear of being ostracized.

Today I offer a prayer for all those who have died of AIDS, for all those who are battling it, and for all those who work tirelessly to increase awareness of AIDS and search for a cure.

Comments

[one4k4.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[kitsune22.livejournal.com]

This post is very touching. There are people very close to me who have this disease, and it means a great deal that you as a nurse and a cleric are so compassionate to their situation.

[ruralrob.livejournal.com]

Thank you Mike. For reasons too obvious to mention, that is incredibly generous of you.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

to that prayer i say a heart-felt amen.

[pecosbill.livejournal.com]

Amen

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

Amen. May there be peace and comfort for them all.

[mollyx.livejournal.com]

Amen, brother.

You're amazing, Mike. Your generosity and understanding know no bounds.
I wish more people would get it, you know? With an epidemic like this, we are all in danger. Not in a communicable way, but in an "ignorance spreading rampant and leading people to do despicable things to people they love" way.

You are so compassionate and I wish more people in charge of things were like you. Maybe we wouldn't be so ready to be stupid.

[poetbear.livejournal.com]

amen, Mike.~paul

AIDS Awareness day

[idasusan.livejournal.com]

My sister in Tennessee once told me in the mid-90s that their church had welcomed a young man who was HIV positive into their tiny Southern Baptist church. She was quick to point out that he was not a homosexual but had gotten it from iv drug use...

Why do people think that AIDS is God's punishment for sinful behavior?
How many AIDS infected children have engaged in behavior that is worthy of such punishment?

[worldcomrade.livejournal.com]

Well said. Thank you.

[franciscan.livejournal.com]

Thank you and amen.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Amen.

[nickelchief.livejournal.com]

I don't know you, except that I've surfed over from the journals of such luminaries as Fabulist and Daisy Dumont ... I have been reading your journal of late and can only say thank you for sharing so much of your experience, so that strangers like me might come upon it, and feel blessed.

[nickelchief.livejournal.com]

Sorry, brainfreeze, I meant Myasma, not Fabulist ... though Fabulist is a helluva fella ... apologies!

[touchyou.livejournal.com]

again, well said

[melanie.livejournal.com]

hear, hear.

i often ponder the irony of my aunt's death - HIV-positive for a decade, she actually died perfectly healthy - in a car wreck. she was only forthysomething.

[ex-muzer409.livejournal.com]

I just read your last few entries. My heart is full, and sending good wishes your way.

[jeffholton.livejournal.com]

I was told a couple weeks ago by a highly opinionated young man that recent positive developments in HIV vaccines made him think that it would "just be a 'get out of jail free' card for the irresponsible."

I decided it would be inappropriate to hit him.

Twice.

Ok, not really. I didn't hit him. But he really pissed me off.