If like me you have had problems when using the toilet, feeling a strain to evacuate waste from your body, getting all tensed up, which then makes the problem worse… well there is a solution. Squatty Potty® Squatty Potty® is … Continue reading Problems using the toilet? Try squatting instead of sitting
The new European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS) HIV clinical guidelines were released at the 15th European AIDS Conference which brings Europe into line with the rest of the world by recommending HIV treatment upon diagnosis for everyone living with HIV. Complete a short survey on your views on this. Continue reading HIV treatment for all living with HIV says EACS. What do you think?
After about a week of not being able to wake up in the morning, today I have the opposite problem. I found it well nigh impossible to sleep all night—despite having my cuddly ginger “Build-a-Bear cat to cuddle—and so find … Continue reading After a week of too much sleep, last night I had not enough…
At the end of last month, I met with Sara Girvin, a reporter with The Sunday Life — Sunday newspaper of the year — to talk to her about living with HIV. Sara had contacted me earlier in the month via Twitter suggesting an interview in the future. As before, with the Belfast Telegraph, and Ulster Television, and anyone else really, I am happy to talk about living with HIV. Sara suggested it being ‘at some stage before Christmas’ and I suggested that we have it leading up to 1 December, which is World AIDS Day.
The Sunday Life unlike its sister daily paper, the Belfast Telegraph, does not have a website. This can only be for the reason that they want us to go out and spend the £1.40 on buying the paper. I do have some sympathy for them, but on occasion it is awkward when trying to get people to read the article. So, that afternoon, Andrew went out and got a copy. Below is a photo of the spread — I did not expect to be across two pages!
This article is written by The International HIV/AIDS Alliance in support of their new campaign Link Up. I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I did, when I was sent it. It makes for inspiring reading. As … Continue reading Addis Beza: Guest post for #WAD2013 #LinkUp
Picture the scene, you are sitting in a restaurant, enjoying a meal either on your own or with friends. You are wearing a ribbon supporting some charity or another, it is noticed by your waiter, it is not one he … Continue reading HIV in the restaurant—what would you do?
Belfast’s Waterfront Hall is set to host a photographic exhibition to mark World Aids Day 2013 and help raise awareness of HIV in Northern Ireland. The exhibition is part of a series of events co-ordinated by Positive Life (Northern Ireland’s only … Continue reading World Aids Day 2013: Exhibition–Images of Otherness in Waterfront Hall
All of us living with HIV have to ‘come out’ time and again, telling another person about that we are positive as and when this information is needed. Today, I had to come out again, this time to the optometrist who was carrying out my eye test. It was a simple answer to his question about any medication I was taking. I named the drugs I was taking: Mirtazapine (for depression); Sumatriptan Succinate (for migraines as and when required); Pizotifen (to prevent migraines when they are happening regularly); and Eviplera (my anti-HIV drug). I am glad to say that there was no reaction at the mention … Continue reading HIV: a coming out time and again
Since I started this blog there have been many comments over the years detailing so-called healing by tribal healers and so on from countries around the world. I entered into conversation with one of them but have since become convinced that they are nothing more than the usual scams. So, to all those would-be commenters… if you post something relating to a herbal cure, a faith healer, or some other unlikely would-be cure, it is highly unlikely that I will allow it on my blog. You have been warned. Continue reading Herbal cures and so on…
Michelle Penney from Positive Life, Northern Ireland’s only HIV-specific charity explains why volunteering with the charity is so important to them. Continue reading Support–Prevention–Action: volunteering in N. Ireland
