Almost time to say goodbye...

I have to say that beyond most of my classes I have had in my educational experience, this is by far one of the most memorable. I think that can be chalked up to the simulations for one, and the men's panel was the second. My biggest regret now at the end of the course is not having the opportunity to get to the women's panel....I would imagine that it was a much different tone but none the less, I am sure it was fantastic. One thing I do fear happening when I get caught back up in another semester and life gets back to normal, is that all this information will slowly start to fade and the passion will leave. I guess that is how it is for any class, but I would really like to hope that this course has motivated someone enough to make a career out of battling HIV. Maybe if Teach gets a chance to read this, has anyone else ever gone into this field and made a name for themselves? Is there anything I could have done without? Probably not because all of the assignments that we were to do ended up being huge parts of the course and without all of the work and constant reminder there really would have been no way to get a great experience in this class. Does more work always equal a better experience? Certainly not...but it seems that this course walked a fine line between being obnoxious with the amount of work and the perfect amount to make the experience memorable....obviously with the memorable experience coming out for the whole semester. I was wondering, how was blogging for everyone else? Looking back on all your posts over the semester, do you wish you maybe had a chance to partake in the chat or the pen pals? I think after knowing that some of the panelists were the pen pals, I might have enjoyed that interaction between an infected person. I only have myself to blame for that, but in the end I am not completely disappointed. On to next week, and now for a little more medication information:

DID YOU KNOW?

It seems that most of the medications

First time I have set foot on campus in a while

This was for the men's panel. I figured I would wait until I got back because I knew that it would give some good material to write on. First off, I want to say that it is a great privilege to have the opportunity to get such an open and honest point of view from some very real individuals. I was one of the people that didn't ask any questions, but I probably should have. There were a few that popped in there but my nerves got the best of me and I just wasn't able to make the leap. I think one thing that I found very interesting was the stress that they all put on education. I think by now we know that it is a necessity to have this moving forward in the future in order to really break down the spread of the disease, but all of the panelists seemed extremely compassionate when it came to making sure that education begins earlier and done the right way.

I think this class has definitely calmed my nerves in regards to dealing with patients that have HIV. There was someone that i had the other day who was HIV positive, but he was also a diabetic. Because of this I had to draw blood out of him a few times a day. Its interesting to know what is in that small drop of blood, and just how it can totally change a person's life. Getting back to the men's panel, watching the guys up there and seeing just how some of them seemed to be in great health was encouraging when it comes to the medication that is available to them. I have noticed this with a few other people that I have taken care of and its great that in the past 30 years we have come a long way in terms of how live can be sustained. One thing that I really was hoping would have been different was their outlook on if HIV will ever have a "cure". We are only 30 years into this, and I think it that given enough time the world will eventually find a way to put an end to this virus.

DID YOU KNOW?

This next bit of information came as a little bit of a downer because I know how much I love garlic on just about any dish I eat. It turns out that with certain types of medications that are taken with garlic supplements or higher levels ingested it actually hurts the medication's potency and overall amount in the body.

This can be found @ http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/dec2001/niaid-05.htm

Big Brother

So, this week we have had quite an interesting QOTW. In regards to the chip I couldn't help feel like that would be the beginning of the end of all of our personal and private lives. You hear the urban legends that they implant chips into you anyway when you go in for a surgery, but this way with a tracking system that keeps records of your movements, we would be taking a gigantic step into a very frightening future. I would think that this practice would lead to a very slippery slope and we would end up with our entire lives being broadcast for the government to watch whenever they want. Don't get me wrong, I am not a person that does wrong and needs to keep my privacy but it is just creepy to think that they would have the opportunity to keep tabs on you whenever they wanted to. I also couldn't think of anything crueler than putting people into a camp just because they have HIV. Has anyone watch the movie District 9? It would remind me of a setting such as that where the whole camp would eventually turn into a slum....especially in a country where it might not be as developed as ours. It certainly wouldn't stand out as a five star resort....and who would pay for it? I have to say, now that the M&M simulation is over I am glad that they have finally developed medicine that people only have to take one pill for their HIV medication a day. Sure, there are still a few that they might have to take, but the "one pill" eliminates most if not all of the struggles that positive people would have trying to make sure that they get their medication regimen down.

DID YOU KNOW?

There are many different information outlets for the side effects of medication for HIV available on the web. Specifically, the Department of Health and Human Services has published quite an extensive breakdown of just what can happen to you when you take this medication to fight off HIV. The DHHS lists some of these side effects as "extreme liver damage, multiple bone problems, and skin rashes which can actually become life threatening". For a deeper look into these dangerous drugs check out http://aidsinfo.nih.gov/contentfiles/SideEffectAnithivMeds_cbrochure_en.pdf

What if I was diabetic?

Yes, the title is a tribute to the M&M simulation that we are going through this week. The candy and the phrases "Melts in your mouth, not in your hand" and also the line from Tommy Boy "Your brain has a thick candy shell.." suddenly have a new meaning to be attached to them for what could be the rest of my life when I eat an M&M. This is NOT an easy simulation on the days that I work!! Working at a hospital for 12 hours and constantly taking care of patients' needs can make anything else that has to get done extremely difficult. The days that I have off it seems to be no problem, and with time at work I have been keeping to my schedule. I also meant the title line to have a little bit of irony because it doesn't say "What if I was HIV positive?". Recently at work I have just missed a few people who have visited the hospital and were involved in community based AIDS programs. The first one was a minister who lived in the Baltimore area and ran a house for people to live at, with the catch being they were all HIV positive. The second was a woman who worked at a home for small children with AIDS who have been abandoned. Both times I was taking care of other patients, and by the time I had heard about their involvement in the community it was already too late and they had left. All of this is leading up to the men's panel, which I am waiting with a great anticipation. Now please enjoy a wall of M&Ms on the way down to the "Did You Know? section....

DID YOU KNOW?

So in the light of our M&M simulation this week, I decided to look up the first HIV medication that was the one pill once a day to treat the drug. The article was first posted in 2006 in response to the FDA approval for the very first type of this drug. The drug is actually a combination of three different types of HIV medications and is known as Atripla (Zwillich, 2006). I think that as we are going through this simulation this week, we all should be able to appreciate just what this actually meant for people who had to go through the regiment every single day to take care of their bodies in the only way that was available to them. The three different drugs that are incorporated into this pill are the Sustiva and another already dual pill called Truvada, all three of these drugs are important in the bodies fight against HIV (Zwillich, 2006).

More information about this pill can be found either in the source referenced, or in this article from the NY Times posted at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/health/09aids.html?_r=1

Source:

Zwillich, T. (2006). First One-Pill-a-Day Drug for AIDS. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/news/20060712/first-one-pill-a-day-drug-aids