Have you ever been given a death sentence? To say that it's life altering is an understatement. We all expect to die someday but when you have an expiration date hanging over your head you now have a completely new expectation of death, because now it's more imminent. Suddenly you have an expiration period to anxiously wait out, and the tick of the clock takes on a whole new meaning, believe you me.
I was diagnosed with AIDS in June of 2000, I had a CD4 count of 42 and my viral load was about 800,000 (an AIDS diagnosis is when the CD4 count drops below 200). I had PCP pneumonia (an opportunistic illness caused by HIV and a devastated immune system). I was by all accounts dying and told to get my affairs in order. Continue reading...
