I am of an older generation...58 now, was 26 and freshly out when AIDS first hit. Knew very few men afflicted with it at the beginning, but one was one of my closest friends, and I wound up being a primary caregiver over the 53 weeks between his diagnosis (KS) and his death. We traveled together, while we could, and he was one of the first recipients of experimental AZT, which nearly killed him faster then AIDS was doing it. He was 52 and a bodybuilder, but also an alcoholic...dry when I met him, but he went back to it in his last few years. I have not had to go through anything like caring for him again, and it is now more than half my lifetime later. But I can summon it all up in a heartbeat, and this thread has caused me to relive the experience. So I throb (this is a carefully chosen word, and not an exaggeration) with empathy for NiceHard1, for his friend, and for any and all who face this situation today. As much as how we fuck, this is how we earn our manhood, by caring for our brothers in adversity. Bless you, and bless us all.