Those who learned they had H.I.V. years ago thought they faced an early death. Many died, but many are now in middle age, struggling to live with the virus.

See the faces of H.I.V. in New York in 2013

Steve Schalchlin, 59
YEAR OF DIAGNOSIS: 1993
“One of the things about getting to the end of your life is that you become aware of what is important and what is not important. There’s a certain type of wisdom that enters into you when you have nothing left to lose.

“Toward the end of that process, that’s when I sat at the piano. I played all day long, all these churchy chords, I just played and played. I knew that the music, whether the vibrations or the exertion of creation, had had a measurable physical effect on my body. I suddenly felt strong.”



Bridelee Gittens, 48
YEAR OF DIAGNOSIS: 1991
“I have something called immune reconstitution syndrome, which is, when your immune system is down and you get sick, you don’t get no symptoms. Because your immune system is not working. Like if I had an infection, I would never get a fever. My body has no response. So the minute I start taking the medication and it gets in my system, in like a week or two I start to get sick.”

“AIDS is different than before. It’s not Kaposi’s sarcoma and PCP. Now it’s more diabetes and heart disease, high blood pressure and cancers. That’s what’s going on now. The disease has evolved.”


Scott Jordan, 52, right
YEAR OF DIAGNOSIS: 1984
“I’m on my fifth combination of drugs and it’s now failed. I don’t have options right now, so I’m back to being me against H.I.V. My doctors are trying to figure something out. But we just tried two experiments. One of them damaged my muscles – they began to pull and tear — and then last week they put another drug in and I was taken away in an ambulance with a severe reaction.”

“I’m exhausted. I would love to not have this to deal with. I would love to not have to take 13 medications every day.”


Mark Milano, 57
YEAR OF DIAGNOSIS: 1982
“I was healthy until 2007. Then everything changed. I was diagnosed with anal cancer. I’ve had three metastases – one in my right lung, one in my left, and one in my kidney. It feels like I’m in my 70s. At my age, I shouldn’t be dealing with all this stuff, right?”

“I tried Prozac for a while. But the thing that I found cured me of the depression was getting outside myself, volunteering, helping others. When I got involved in Act Up, I could finally say, I am proud to be part of these people.”

“So in that way, H.I.V. has changed my life for the better.”


Joan Warner, 73
YEAR OF DIAGNOSIS: 1990
“It was still a death sentence at that time, and people were dying left and right. My mother was preparing for when I was no longer going to be here. She told my son, don’t worry about anything, when the time came, her and my dad were going to take care of everything.”

“I am one of those who didn’t get sick. I feel blessed. I’ve never had an opportunistic infection. But for some reason my T-cells don’t grow. They range from 160 something to 180 something, which means I have an AIDS diagnosis.”


Perry Halkitis, 50
YEAR OF DIAGNOSIS: 1988
“It’s just too simple to think of this disease as a purely medical disease. Your doctor’s not worried about your social well-being. Your doctor’s not worried about where you’re spending your evenings, whether you have a group of people supporting you. That social cohesion that was very obvious in the ’80s because of the onset of the epidemic, that is not present in the lives of some men. Where are the people that I should be socializing with now? Where’s the opportunity to say, I’ve lived through this and here I am now?”


Serina Yancey, 51
YEAR OF DIAGNOSIS: 1996
“The doctor at St. Vincent’s said I had about two years to live. I just went into a shell.”

“I’d never heard of anyone living as long as I have with it. I took a peer education course and learned more about the virus and how you get it. The education opened me to learn more and gave me some hope, because my numbers were going up. I feel so good. I wish everyone felt as good as me. I don’t live with H.I.V., it lives with me. I don’t give it that much power.”


Christopher Davis, 62
YEAR OF DIAGNOSIS: AROUND 1987
“In the ’80s in the Village when we were all getting sick, we all knew everybody. There was a real sense of community. We all went to visit each other. We took food to one another when we were sick. You just don’t see that anymore.”

“We know so many young people who are guests in our apartment all the time who literally got sick in order to get benefits, or didn’t take their medicine in order to get benefits. And some of them still don’t take their meds. They just don’t care. And I think that’s so sad.”


Jan Carl Park, 63
YEAR OF DIAGNOSIS: 1986
“Everyone has some disease. People live with diabetes or MS. It’s how you view life. It’s one part of my life, but my life is so much bigger than H.I.V. I have a circle of friends who know I have H.I.V., some of whom have H.I.V. themselves, but we talk about different things. I don’t spend a lot of time and energy focusing on it. I did during the ’80s, when I was trying to do something about it, when I joined GMHC and Act Up and got arrested 12 times and almost lost my job.”

“There’s all these little miracles that have happened. The new meds just get better and better. That continues to move me forward.”


Osvaldo Perdomo, 52
YEAR OF DIAGNOSIS: 2004, H.I.V. and AIDS simultaneously.
“I lived in New York City through the worst of the AIDS epidemic. As a gay man I was sexually active. I used protection, but I knew people who used protection but still got it and died. It was like, am I immune to this thing? And then one day it happened.”

“You’re not working, and you’re H.I.V. positive – you’re out of the picture. I haven’t dated anybody since I’ve been in this situation. I have $26 in my savings account and $400 in my checking and $40,000 on my credit card, and I’m living with H.I.V. and AIDS. You want to date me? I don’t think so.”



Yolanda Diaz, 50, right
YEAR OF DIAGNOSIS: 1989
“When I was diagnosed, they told me, ‘Go home, pack up, you have AIDS, you’re not gonna live. You’re gonna die. If you have any health insurance, sell it.’ That was the message in ’89. I said, if I’m gonna die I might as well use drugs. I got incarcerated, and after 1994, my last state bid, I got educated. I started seeking help in Body Positive, United Bronx Parents.”

“My health is good, but I’m overweight. I was skinny because I was using, but as I got older and got clean, not hanging out, living the TV life, all those things put on weight.”

SOURCE

Why is this not on FP?
Moderator, this is very inspiring.
FP please...