DAWN OF ANOTHER YEAR

Dear friends,

Its another year that has gone by we have all had our challenges and our success.....Looking at it from my angle i cant stop thanking my heavenly father for the far that i have come.Being a single parent to two wonderful boys that mean the world to me and the source of my strength,living my life to the fullest and not at any one time facing the wrath of a doctor (OI's) as we all call them in this field.I have lost countless relatives,friends and colleagues to this illness but I'm still hugging on strong that to me is a miracle and favor from God.Its not like I'm really a staunch follower of the doctors advices and all actually i have not had my CD4 count checked for the last 7 months since there was a time i had messed up a little bit and once the doctors asked me to go for a check up i would somehow evade them..o.k frankly i had partied a little too much then and had one too many glasses of wine and had thought that i had really messed up..i have resolved that as i write and have really worked towards getting my CD4 count high so don't you get scared.

At times i figure that the people who succumb at times give up way before they die in reality (o.k that's my thinking) i have always seen people who are determined to live even with a CD4 of one and some how this people always get back on there feet somehow...the other interesting fact that i have been working on of late is about disclosure ...we once had a heated debate about disclosure in one of the workshops had currently attended,some people figured that it was important for a sexual partner to always disclose there status to a partner that they were or intended to sleep with...i thought this was not right since PLWHA had rights too and it was once choice to disclose or not to disclose.My argument being if one is having lets say a one night stand what was the importance of disclosing if on the other hand the other party dint find it important in disclosing there status too probably they have never even gone for a HIV test ever..one knowing there status does not warrant them to disclose unless they think that it is of vital importance to there partner...that was my stand unless of course you are Tabby or the famous Asunta where they get to flush there photos all over about there HIV status..

I hope that you all reflect about the past year..

All the best in the coming year...

Always,

Tabby.