Adolfo
Hometown: Mexico City
Positive Since: April 1, 1991
Relationship Status: Single
Age: 46
Favorite Person: Mahatma Gandhi, for his work to help his country win peace
Today, April 1st, I recall how on the same day in the year 1991 after I finished work, I went to an appointment I had scheduled fifteen days prior at The Foundation Against AIDS in México City. The foundation is where I left my blood sample to be tested for HIV. I asked for the psychologist in charge to provide the results. Because he was busy, I had to wait even more, making my anguish last longer. I had been waiting fifteen days since I took the test. Those minutes seemed like hours to me. Finally, they called me, I came in and sat in front of the specialist who after introducing himself, asked me if I had contracted hepatitis before, and I replied yes. Then he responded, “Ah, that’s why it also came out positive.” Because I did not understand what he was saying, I asked, “How is it also positive?” He said calmly, “Your test came HIV positive.” In that moment the whole world came down upon me. I was blocked, I rubbed my hands, my legs were shaking and finally tears came from my eyes.
Nobody can imagine how difficult that day was and how it changed my life forever. Beginning that day, I was in denial of the fact that I was HIV positive for a whole year. I went to the doctor only when I got sick with the flu; he told me it was not related to HIV and it would not affect what I was already infected with. However, he also told me that it was necessary to start taking medications. Back then it was the AZT pills. From that point I took medications for 9 years.
Because of stress caused by moving from one city to another, and because I didn’t want to reveal my status to my family and close friends, I took the medication irregularly and the result was that the virus multiplied very strongly. That caused me neumosistis and pneumonia, among other illnesses. I was hospitalized for almost a month, but I kept going and now it has been seven years since I was so close to death.
