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We have a plan
Yesterday marked one month since my cancer diagnosis. In that time, I have had multiple consultations with doctors, quite a few tests, and I have been reading everything I can find on cancer and its treatment. When I was diagnosed with PML, I took quite a different approach; PML is a rare disease, so there…
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How I spent my summer, so far
When I was diagnosed with PML my first question was “what is PML?” And by that I mean beyond what the initialism stands for (Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy). I’d never heard of it; most people haven’t, although I do hear it more and more these days in those laundry lists of potential side effects that get…
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Today is my annHIVersary
To tell you this story, I first must introduce you to Paul and Martin. For much of the 90s, Paul was my wingman. Along with Martin, we were the “three amigos” of the LA gay scene. The three of us met in the seminary as undergraduates when we were all Conventual Franciscans studying philosophy. Paul…
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A journey of a thousand miles
Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu taught that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” in his work the Tao Te Ching. Today, I am taking the first step on my new journey. I have my first appointment with an oncologist. I have a lot to learn. But this is not unfamiliar territory.…
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Act II, Scene III
I have called everything in my life since AIDS tried to kill me in 2006 my “second act.” And now, I’m beginning to see how Act II has passed through several “scenes.” Scene I was retiring from Technicolor and moving to my house in the Mountain Gate neighborhood of Palm Springs. Scene II was realizing…
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The PEPFAR Crisis
Nine days after the new President of the United States took office and unleashed an unelected billionaire to wreak havoc in American institutions and programs with little or no thought to the real-life consequences for millions of people both in this country and worldwide, I wrote about the impact this clown car of an administration…
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Better living through chemistry
If you know me IRL (“in real life”), and if you have known me for a while, you know at least two things about me. One is that I used to smoke – a lot. After a major incident in 2013 that landed me in a pulmonary ICU unable to breath for 15 days, I…
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If you don’t have your health, what do you have?
Say what you will about George W. Bush, and I have said plenty, but in 2003 he started the United States President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, better known as PEPFAR. It was the largest global health program focused on a single disease in the history of the world until the COVID-19 pandemic, and as…
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Time Will Tell
Ever since I was old enough to think thoughts deeper than “I want a candy bar,” I have had this very unscientific, wholly subjective feeling (notion, inkling) that most things, on the whole, are just getting better. And nowhere is that more obvious than the area of medicine. As early as 1592, parish officials in…
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Desert Migration
As a 27-year survivor of HIV/AIDS, I remain particularly tuned-in to advancements in the treatment of the disease. Obviously, in all those years, a cure has remained elusive. But huge, almost miraculous, strides have been made rendering it a chronic, manageable disease. I remember the early days of the three-drug regimen which consisted of a…
Your mileage may vary.