Living With AIDS
This is Lahanna (Hanna), my very best friend and this is a story of living with AIDS. She lived to the fullest every day and was looked up to by so many people. It was hard to see her go, but when she did she was ready because she felt she had fulfilled her purpose.
Lahanna was born HIV positive which is not very common, usually HIV is not passed on through birth. Her biological mother was HIV positive and a heavy drug user. Lahanna spent a month in the hospital when she was born due to a cocaine addiction she acquired from her mother's pregnancy. Lahanna was abandoned in an apartment by her mother when she was 2 and went through many abusive foster homes. At the age of 6 she was diagnosed with AIDS. She was treated cruel by the foster homes and back then not much was known about AIDS so even at the hospital the Dr's always wore gloves and face masks around her. One foster home actually put her outside with the dogs not wanting her around them or the other children. She was finally adopted at the age of 9 into an awesome home with a great mother figure. When she was adopted the doctor's told her adopted mom that she would not live to the age of twelve. She definitely showed them. She was one of the longest living people born with the AIDS virus.
The younger years of her life were the hardest because people didn't really know facts about the virus. When she enrolled in a school, parents would pull their kids out or she would be required by school officials to have a student aide with her at all times. She was completely isolated and stereotyped as the contagious girl.
Lahanna finally got fed up with the stories and lies that are told about AIDS and the limited ways of contracting it. In high school she started her life's work to educate people. She spoke at high schools, colleges, World AIDS day events and she did a lot of work with the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation. I went with her to several of her speeches and it was always interesting to see the surprised faces of her audience because she did not look sickly, she looked like a really vibrant young woman. There were so many misconceptions by the audience at each speech she gave. Most of the audiences expected a sickly person who contracted the AIDS virus through sex or by being gay and when she stood in front of them telling them it's not always sex and how long she has been living with it and how there is no cure but she was taking a cocktail of 30 pills a day, chins would drop to the floor all over the place. Unfortunately even though the cocktail of drugs do help to prolong life, they also made her really sick. She would have to go on and off them due to them being so toxic to her body.
It was really hard for Hanna to keep down any sort of food and taking the cocktail of pills on top of that, she could basically forget about eating. Her diet consisted mainly of Sustacal because even the Marinol pills that she was given did not help to keep the food down. She did end up losing weight and had a chronic cough that would rack her body. She ended up having to have a port put into her chest that looked a lot like a pace maker but was instead used for IV connections because her veins just shut down. She would come over and bring her IV bags with her and we would sit in my room and do our nails, watch movies and girl talk while her IV bag is hanging off my bunk bed connected to her chest. I don't know how she did it but she even made carrying around an oxygen tank look good. She was so outgoing and confident in herself, she was able to live a life that she was proud of.
I just want people to know that a person with AIDS could be a neighbor or a best friend. It is not required to be emaciated or sickly looking with lesions and other misconceptions that are out there. It is not always contracted through sex. People with AIDS are no different than the regular person and instead of condemning them for having AIDS it's important to remember that they are fighting a battle within their bodies every day to live. Support, friendship, and acceptance are really important and society needs to understand this as well as get their facts straight.
Lahanna was born HIV positive which is not very common, usually HIV is not passed on through birth. Her biological mother was HIV positive and a heavy drug user. Lahanna spent a month in the hospital when she was born due to a cocaine addiction she acquired from her mother's pregnancy. Lahanna was abandoned in an apartment by her mother when she was 2 and went through many abusive foster homes. At the age of 6 she was diagnosed with AIDS. She was treated cruel by the foster homes and back then not much was known about AIDS so even at the hospital the Dr's always wore gloves and face masks around her. One foster home actually put her outside with the dogs not wanting her around them or the other children. She was finally adopted at the age of 9 into an awesome home with a great mother figure. When she was adopted the doctor's told her adopted mom that she would not live to the age of twelve. She definitely showed them. She was one of the longest living people born with the AIDS virus.
The younger years of her life were the hardest because people didn't really know facts about the virus. When she enrolled in a school, parents would pull their kids out or she would be required by school officials to have a student aide with her at all times. She was completely isolated and stereotyped as the contagious girl.
Lahanna finally got fed up with the stories and lies that are told about AIDS and the limited ways of contracting it. In high school she started her life's work to educate people. She spoke at high schools, colleges, World AIDS day events and she did a lot of work with the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation. I went with her to several of her speeches and it was always interesting to see the surprised faces of her audience because she did not look sickly, she looked like a really vibrant young woman. There were so many misconceptions by the audience at each speech she gave. Most of the audiences expected a sickly person who contracted the AIDS virus through sex or by being gay and when she stood in front of them telling them it's not always sex and how long she has been living with it and how there is no cure but she was taking a cocktail of 30 pills a day, chins would drop to the floor all over the place. Unfortunately even though the cocktail of drugs do help to prolong life, they also made her really sick. She would have to go on and off them due to them being so toxic to her body.
It was really hard for Hanna to keep down any sort of food and taking the cocktail of pills on top of that, she could basically forget about eating. Her diet consisted mainly of Sustacal because even the Marinol pills that she was given did not help to keep the food down. She did end up losing weight and had a chronic cough that would rack her body. She ended up having to have a port put into her chest that looked a lot like a pace maker but was instead used for IV connections because her veins just shut down. She would come over and bring her IV bags with her and we would sit in my room and do our nails, watch movies and girl talk while her IV bag is hanging off my bunk bed connected to her chest. I don't know how she did it but she even made carrying around an oxygen tank look good. She was so outgoing and confident in herself, she was able to live a life that she was proud of.
I just want people to know that a person with AIDS could be a neighbor or a best friend. It is not required to be emaciated or sickly looking with lesions and other misconceptions that are out there. It is not always contracted through sex. People with AIDS are no different than the regular person and instead of condemning them for having AIDS it's important to remember that they are fighting a battle within their bodies every day to live. Support, friendship, and acceptance are really important and society needs to understand this as well as get their facts straight.