Precisely right. If you can't get to another place for the test get
it where you are. The progression of the disease will out you in any
case if you don't get treated. The social fallout from that will be a
lot harder to deal with, and you'll end up dead.
This sounds like there's more than a little fear of finding out
involved. Do it. And tell your actor friend.
Mark
At 09:05 AM 1/8/2010, you wrote:
>Can you get the test in a hospital or clinic in a city that is far enough
>away but that wouldn't be too expensive to travel to?
>
>Judy
>
>2010/1/8 Chris Jones <[log in to unmask]>
>
> > Some time ago, when I was working in the area, I said I understood the
> > problems of gay men living in isolated rural areas when it came to
> > living with HIV/AIDS.
> >
> > There are purple splotches growing over my right ankle and some spots
> > are beginning to grow on my left ankle and foot. Having seen it before
> > this looks like KS. While I can go to my doctor for narcotics and will
> > happily admit I am opiate dependant, I cannot bring myself to ask for a
> > HIV test. Even going to the local hospital would be too much, as I would
> > know the nurse who takes my blood and send it off for a test. Even if it
> > does not come back positive everyone in the town and local area will
> > know I had a HIV test. Due to my chronic ill health, it is already
> > suspected that I have AIDS.
> >
> > I will admit to having great and wild unsafe sex with an actor, around
> > my own age. But still, locally, I cannot bring myself to ask for a HIV
> > anti-body test. The purple splotches on my ankles continue to grow.
> > Severe disabling muscle pain, disabling fatigue, I have seen this before
> > in others. This is how I feel.
> >
> > And still I cannot bring myself to ask for the test. I would have
> > married him if the time was right, the sex was that good, but this could
> > not be. (The eldest of an old and respected grazier family cannot shack
> > up with a male actor, at his whim. This is simply not done. Patrick
> > White, how I envy you.)
> >
> > I said I understood the plight of gay men living in isolated rural areas
> > with HIV/AIDS. How wrong was I. How wrong. And still I cannot ask for
> > the test.
> >
Announcing The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry (University
of California Press).
http://go.ucpress.edu/WholeIsland
|