7 Years Undetectable, Cell by Cell, Year by Year

A couple of days ago, I woke up to one of those Facebook memories — the kind that stops you before your feet even hit the floor. 
It was the post I made seven years ago, announcing that I was undetectable. 💖

Reading it again hit different this time. I could feel that moment all over again — the disbelief, the relief, the tears running down my face as I typed, still weak and bruised, but alive. 🙏🏼 I remember writing that I had gone from one of the highest viral loads my clinic had ever seen to undetectable in barely two months. The doctors had said "if" we chose the right medication, it could take six months to a year, best-case scenario. But in my case, it happened fast enough to shock even them.🌈

Back then, I called it a miracle — and I still do.
But what I didn't understand at the time was that miracles don't end at the lab results. Sometimes they're just the doorway to everything that comes next. 💫

These last seven years have been about rebuilding from the wreckage — layer by layer, cell by cell, day by day. 🧩
When I came home from that hospital bed, my CD4 count was practically nonexistent — just 34. I had no immune system left. I was alive, but barely.
Today, seven years later, my CD4 has climbed into the 700s.
Fitting, isn't it? Sevens upon sevens.🕊

In these years, I've learned to rebuild not just my health but my relationship with my body. To listen when it whispers. To rest when it needs it. To feed it with care and protect it like the sacred home it is.🪬

I've learned that being the center of my care team doesn't mean I have to do it all alone — it means I get to lead the conversation about my body and my healing. It means I ask questions, I stay curious, and I advocate for myself the way I once didn't know how.✊🏽

Because of that growth — and every milestone I've hit along the way — this past July, right on my seven-year anniversary of becoming undetectable, I transitioned to a long-acting injectable ART treatment. 💉 That change felt symbolic. Like my body and my spirit had both reached a point of balance and trust. Like my healing had come full circle. 🌻

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Photo courtesy of author

Seven years of undetectable. U=U
Seven years of learning, unlearning, forgiving, and rising. Seven years of educating others about HIV/AIDS. ☀️

The woman who wrote that first post didn't know if she'd ever get here.
She was just grateful to still be breathing.
But this woman — me, now — understands that survival was only the beginning.
The real work has been in the rebirth. 🌹

There's still no tidy ending, no perfectly wrapped-up version of this story.
Just me — still here, still healing, still becoming, still undetectable.
Still proof that what once tried to destroy me became the very reason I live on purpose. 💪🏽

If you're reading this as someone newly diagnosed, someone afraid, or someone still trying to find your footing — hear me when I say this:
HIV is not the end of your story. 🩶

You are capable of healing. You are allowed to hope. You are allowed to dream about a future that's bigger than your diagnosis. 🌅

Medicine has come so far. But so have we.
We are not just surviving — we are rebuilding, reclaiming, and redefining what it means to live with HIV/AIDS. ✨💃🏼

If my wreckage can become rebirth, so can yours. ❤️‍🔥

XOXO🧁