Poz Guys - Do You Like Being Poz?

[Kayne]

2 hours ago, ErosWired said:

I am very sorry to hear that. I can relate, after a fashion. I wasn’t exposed medically, but when my GP hospitalized me for my original seroconversion illness, their testing failed to detect my HIV (!) si they wrote it off as an unidentified virus and sent me home when the symptoms eased. Then, for the next three years, the same doctor, who evidently had no familiarity with HIV, let me develop full-blown AIDS right under his nose, in his care, because he did not know how to read the signs. Had he been more competent, my infection would have been caught early enough to save my immune function - and spare me the worst of what came after.

That is fucked Up. I'm sorry that happened to you, they way it did. I can absolutely relate.. I went through a similar experience with years of "false positives" And "negative full panel tests" and the NYC dept of health taking more than 10 years to actually contact and test me. I had progressed into full AIDS ans my only symptoms was a common cold. Ironically I've had more illnesses including Covid 3 times and have been worse off on ARVs than I ever was  before them.  So yeah, its a bitch. But I take the joy where I can find it.  In the end, what cannot be changed, must be endured. 

[ErosWired]

14 hours ago, RawPlug said:

I suffer from severe hayfever, too. And I take medication for that daily in the season. Of the two, I find the hayfever the more troublesome. And that’s not me being flippant.

Chronic hay fever is nothing to sneeze at. (Bu-dum-tzing - Thanks, folks, I’m here all week, try the fish.) I work hard on staying healthy, and haven’t been sick in quite a while, but last month I didn’t take my hay fever preventative for a couple of days, and pollen pounced. Five weeks on, and I’m still coughing.

[ErosWired]

22 hours ago, Bimarried001 said:

I am not an advocate for HIV. I am an advocate for raw sex. Right now raw sex comes with risks. 
If I could wave a magic wand and remove those risks I would. Yes I’d take the cure but could I get reinfected if I keep fucking raw?

There has never been a time when bare sex was risk-free, and in earlier ages, other STDs were much more greatly feared. Syphilis, notably, was once just as untreatable as HIV, and could be just as lethal. In 1495, Italian physician wrote of syphilis (though it wouldn’t be called that for another 35 years):

“Nothing could be more serious than this curse, this barbarian poison.”

It spread rapidly, and was referred to as “The Great Pox”. The Italians blamed the French for it. The French blamed the Italians. Russia blamed the Polish. The Polish blamed the Germans. The Turks blamed Christians, Muslims blamed the Hindus, and nobody blamed Treponema pallidum, because a link between germs and disease wouldn’t be demonstrated for another three and a half centuries, Fritz Richard Schaudinn wouldn’t pin down the actual culprit until 1905, and almost 40 more years would pass before someone would discover you could kill the damn thing with mold extract (penicillin).

Here’s a great article on the history of syphilis, for anyone interested:

[think before following links] https://www.everydayhealth.com/syphilis/painful-history-odd-bug/#

As to getting reinfected with HIV once a widely available cure is found (not a drastic measure like a bone-marrow transplant into an immune-naive patient), it will depend on the nature of the immunity to the virus develops in the host, and the speed at which the virus creates variations of itself capable of thwarting that immunity. You’re not at risk of getting measles anymore, but you should get a fresh influenza shot every year. It could be either scenario; I’m not an epidemiologist, and can’t speak to how the category of viruses HIV falls into behaves in this regard, if we even know - we’ve never fought an enemy quite like this before.

But even if you do get reinfected, as long as the cure is effective, you can get re-cured. We follow that playbook with gono, chlamydia and the like all the time. Emergence of treatment-resistant strains will always be a concern, but that’s how nature works - the adaptable survive.

[1hornyjohn]

17 hours ago, RawPlug said:

Everyone’s experience is different. No one is right or wrong on this question. Speaking for myself, I largely ignore it. I take my pills each morning and then forget about it. It’s just part of  who I am. I suffer from severe hayfever, too. And I take medication for that daily in the season. Of the two, I find the hayfever the more troublesome. And that’s not me being flippant.

HIV doesn’t impact on me financially because here in the UK I don’t pay for my meds. As someone who’s always tried to turn a negative into a positive (although in this case it’s more a positive into a positive) I resolved on diagnosis to exercise regularly and eat as well as I can. The result is that, ironically, I’m fitter than I’ve ever been in my life. 

I'm in the same position as you.

1 pill per day, 6 monthly check ups and then carry on with my life.  I take more medication for blood pressure. 

I go to the gym almost every day. 

I also want fucking as much as possible 

[PozTalkAuthor]

20 hours ago, hairyone said:

I can tell you what happens in one possible scenario.  Happened to my best friend.  He was positive for over 30 years.  Meds failed. He got sicker and sicker. Went in the hospital with Hodgkins Lymphoma and other issues for several weeks.  This was during Covid lockdown so no one could visit him in the hospital. Not even his husband. He died. In pain. Alone.

Similar things happen to members of this board, too.  You didn't hear about?  Oh, yeah.  They post regularly and then suddenly stop.  Know why?  They died.

 

That's what I hardly understand but I guess homophobia and stigma have their relevant part on this kind of choices. 

That said, I respect everyone and just say there's no need of being verbally rude at all, self-determination also means to respect choices we'd never make and not judge people who never need to be judged as, if one has got (consciously) the decision to get poz, there's nothing we can do to discourage them - especially in case it comes from a couple. 

Makes no sense to really poz someone when science supports and role play give us infinite thrill, and yes, I'd suggest to explore role playing! But not get poz in real.

[NoFucksGiven]

8 hours ago, ErosWired said:

Chronic hay fever is nothing to sneeze at. (Bu-dum-tzing - Thanks, folks, I’m here all week, try the fish.) I work hard on staying healthy, and haven’t been sick in quite a while, but last month I didn’t take my hay fever preventative for a couple of days, and pollen pounced. Five weeks on, and I’m still coughing.

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but the hayfever season in the UK has been horrific this year for many of us. 

[iman2004]

33 minutes ago, RawPlug said:

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but the hayfever season in the UK has been horrific this year for many of us. 

It has been. Don’t suffer normally but this year has been bad.

[viking8x6]

On 6/26/2023 at 10:06 AM, ErosWired said:

Fritz Richard Schaudinn wouldn’t pin down the actual culprit until 1905, and almost 40 more years would pass before someone would discover you could kill the damn thing with mold extract (penicillin).

Here’s a great article on the history of syphilis, for anyone interested:

[think before following links] https://www.everydayhealth.com/syphilis/painful-history-odd-bug/#

The article omits (presumably for brevity) the treatment of syphilis in the early 20th century with arsenicals, which actually were somewhat effective. If you don't mind putting arsenic in your body (and here we were just talking a page back about treatments that are worse than the disease).

[ErosWired]

4 minutes ago, viking8x6 said:

If you don't mind putting arsenic in your body

I do, as it happens.

I imagine one could thoroughly cure a case of syphilis by placing the infected host in a crematorium for three hours, and indeed cure most any complaint he might have had, but his post-treatment activity would be limited to what one could do inside an urn.

[Cravetoxic22]

On 5/11/2023 at 9:53 PM, SuburbanSeed666 said:

Yes. In a way, the pozzed out punch card at the local health center is like a driver's license given only to gay men. 

Not that one needs much motive in the heat of the moment, but being Poz is an unspoken permission to indulge, take what you will and enjoy it to the fullest. 

It's A taste of freedom - however fucked the cost. And Poz men are sexy as hell. 

This is so brilliant! This captures so many of the reasons I yearn to be poz! You said it so well. 

[SuburbanSeed666]

On 6/29/2023 at 3:45 PM, Cravetoxic22 said:

This is so brilliant! This captures so many of the reasons I yearn to be poz! You said it so well. 

Thank you. If you're ever in Florida, feel free to drop me a line. We'll see what kind of Southern hospitality I can conjure up for ya. 😉

 

[Guest]

brotherhood of poz guys🌈

[ryanroman]

On 6/26/2023 at 5:08 PM, RawPlug said:

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but the hayfever season in the UK has been horrific this year for many of us. 

My hay fever this summer is the worst in maybe 10 years

[ryanroman]

On 6/25/2023 at 10:17 AM, ErosWired said:

All of you here singing full-throated praise of HIV, what a boon it’s been for you, what an unmitigated blessing, let me ask you this:

On the day the cure comes - and the cure will come - are you going to get it, and abandon your coveted Poz status?

If, today, it were within your power to wave a wand and eradicate HIV forever from the planet, would you?

If the answer to either of these questions is ‘No’, I can see no reason to listen to another word you say.

This is a question that can be looked at through so many lenses.  Some guys accept it.  Other embrace it.  Others feel it makes them a fighter.  Still others are embarrassed or ashamed.  We still get judged based on our status.  My own bf was embarrassed by what people would think of him based on poz porn content I made with a buddy.  The shaming by others is always a gut punch.  

[Toxload]

Love being POZ