INTRODUCTION TO FOCUS ON LIVING WELL WITH HIV/AIDS

I am a Nurse Practitioner with many years of experience caring for and about patients. I have spent the past 6 years treating patients infected with the HIV virus. Due to funding cuts at the Not-for-Profit agency where I was working, I was recently laid-off. While I am looking for work in the HIV field, I have been busy keeping up with the developments in the field of HIV treatment by reading, attending conferences and continuing education programs, and networking with other providers in the field. I am now in the process of developing an informational website for HIV infected individuals and anyone else who wants to learn about all aspects of this chronic disease.

Over the years, I have attended many continuing education conferences, read extensively about HIV disease, and have become certified as an HIV Specialist by the American Academy of HIV Medicine. Although this knowledge is what makes me competent to care for patients, the fact that I truly care about each and every one of my patients and have been able to gain their trust and confidence by getting to know them as people is what makes me good at what I do. I love this specialty, and feel that I have truly found my "niche" in the treatment of HIV.

This blog will emphasize living with HIV, and living well. This is a chronic disease which can be treated, managed, and controlled. It is not a death sentence. In fact, it can be compared to living with any serious chronic medical condition, such as Diabetes. If an HIV positive person is diligent about staying in medical care, follows the directions of his/her health-care provider, and lives an overall healthy lifestyle, then he/she can expect to live a normal life, with the goal of a normal life expectancy. My goal is to help people to do that, through education and information about HIV disease and treatment, as well as maintaining good overall health.

I will post on many topics, including: HIV testing, prevention of HIV infection, STD's (sexually transmitted diseases), dealing with the social stigma of being HIV positive, sexual diversity, disclosing HIV status to friends, family, and new sexual partners, HIV treatment, medications, side effects, and complications, family planning (including decisions to have children), social support, mental health, drug and alcohol abuse, healthy diet, exercise, vitamin and herbal supplements, the global HIV and AIDS pandemic ... the list goes on & on. I will provide links to excellent web resources, as well as include experiences that I have encountered with patients over the years.

I am new to this, and this is my first attempt at blogging and developing a website, so it will surely be a "work in progress".