According to the CDC, there are one million people in America living with HIV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tStatistically, I\u2019m not alone. I know that. But sometimes it\u2019s hard to remember. Sometimes I sit and wonder, \u201cWhy me?\u201d It doesn\u2019t matter at this point; I won\u2019t see a cure in my lifetime. Probably. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI made a stupid decision one time, and it will affect me the rest of my life. Now I have to see a specialist every six months. I have to get 10 vials of blood drawn every six months. I have to get expensive medication every month. One mistake is all it takes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI was diagnosed with HIV about two years ago. I still vividly remember the day I received the news. I remember the fear and anger and confusion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThe nurse told me my test results were \u201cabnormal\u201d and then hung up on me so she could set up an appointment with a specialist. I stopped breathing. It was the longest three minutes of my life. That three minutes would turn into the longest hour, the longest day, the longest month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThe first six months were rough. The only thing you ever hear about this virus is in reference to the AIDS Crisis. I was 20 years old, and I had been given a death sentence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI\u2019m lucky. I have such an amazing support group. My friends, my family, my doctors. They were there for me every step of the way. I\u2019m lucky because I have insurance. I was able to afford the doctor and seek treatment. I was lucky. Others, not so much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI got the help I needed. I met with the specialist and started on some medication. The good news is that medicine has come so far. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With medication, you can live a long, happy life. My doctor actually told me, \u201cIf you die, it won\u2019t be from the HIV,\u201d which I suppose is comforting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tWith medication, the virus is undetectable in my body. The short of it is that the medicine suppresses the virus in my body so it doesn\u2019t show up in tests, and there\u2019s no chance of transmission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI\u2019m as cured as I\u2019ll ever be in my lifetime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThis isn\u2019t to scare people. This isn\u2019t to lecture. My mistake was that I trusted a boy before I really knew him and we had unprotected sex. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThe irony of it all is he\u2019s the only guy I\u2019ve ever been with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tYou may think, \u201cThat won\u2019t happen to me\u201d or \u201cOnly gay men get that,\u201d but you\u2019d be wrong. It can happen to anyone. Case in point: me. A straight woman who contracts HIV her first time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tYou can get HIV a number of different ways. No, not from using the toilet after a person who is positive or shaking their hand. It has to be passed through bodily fluids (through blood or during intercourse) or it can be passed by sharing needles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tStatistically, I\u2019m not alone. And neither are you. If you have HIV, you are so strong and brave. If you don\u2019t, count your blessings and go get checked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThis isn\u2019t meant to scare you. Learn from my mistakes. Make educated decisions and please go get tested regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m Emilee Brewer and I have HIV. But HIV does not have me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emilee Brewer According to the CDC, there are one million people in America living with HIV. Statistically, I\u2019m not alone. I know that. But sometimes it\u2019s hard to remember. Sometimes I sit and wonder, \u201cWhy me?\u201d It doesn\u2019t matter at this point; I won\u2019t see a cure in my lifetime. Probably. I made a stupid decision one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":23770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2109,2105,3],"tags":[3262,2793,192,3210,1384,3263],"class_list":["post-23842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-science","category-tartan-news","tag-disease","tag-emilee-brewer","tag-hiv","tag-medicine","tag-opinion","tag-victory"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/HIV-infected_H9_T_cell_6813396647.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-6cy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23842"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23844,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23842\/revisions\/23844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/strong>Intern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"