For Monica, being infected with HIV was a roller coaster ride of emotions and strategies: comprising of denial, desperation, education, taking medicine, having a good diet and ultimately victory. If you educate yourself and follow your doctors instructions you can most certainly control HIV in your system to get a normal CD4 T cell counts and low viral load. The higher your CD4 count, the better. A low viral load indicates relatively few copies of HIV in the blood. A HIV treatment plan is seen as effective when a person is be able to maintain a lower viral load.
Monica decided to share her story of living with HIV in 2010 and it encouraged many people who were going through societal stigma. She encouraged people by telling them that they are not alone but thousands were out there facing the same.
For Monica she got HIV at birth and her parents died several years after she was born. She had to live in the children’s home because of HIV-related stigma. During her time at the children’s home, she realized that what had happened to her could not be changed. Then she learned to take care of her health as a HIV positive person until she was able to maintain a lower viral load. Initially, the first and last thing on her mind when she woke up or went to bed respectively was her status as a HIV-positive individual. During this time, her personal doctor was there to help her steer through the process. At times she cried herself to sleep, but eventually she came to the agreement that life had to go on.
Monica is now 30 years and still living with HIV. She plans to get married and have kids who are possibly HIV negative. Although she got HIV at birth she strongly believes that she will manage to bring forth HIV negative offsprings.
The only way up
A diagnosis of HIV is not the end of the world. If you are struggling with this diagnosis, please know you are not the only one. Find local support group or find support. Eat healthy foods such as fresh fruits, whole grains and lean protein to help keep you strong, more energetic and to support your immune system.
Also get right immunizations, these prevent infections such as pneumonia and flu. Lastly make sure you take your medicine according to your doctor’s prescription. There’s is no known cure for HIV/AIDS yet but many different drugs are available to control the virus. Such treatment is called anti-retroviral therapy or ART. Each class of drug blocks the virus in different ways. ART is now recommended for everyone, regardless of CD4 T cells counts. It’s recommended to combine three drugs from two classes to avoid creating drug-resistant strains of HIV.