My Journey with AIDS

Another important day for self-acceptance

If I have learned nothing else about my bipolar II today, it is that I am certainly not the only one in similar circumstances who has found photography to be a healing past-time. Facebook is teeming today with some of the creative works...

Published Sun, Mar 30 2014 3:28 PM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: autobiography, childhood trauma, activism, AIDS and HIV, photography, mental health, bipolar, bipolar II, stigma, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), sexual abuse, suicide, adult survivors

Blog CPR

Facebook and Twitter have become my primary means of internet communication as of late but there is within me a desire to give my writer’s block the angioplasty treatment it may need. In the meantime, evidence that I have continued my love of photography...

Published Sat, Apr 12 2014 11:08 PM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: autobiography, photography, mental health, Tulips

R.I.P. Emma

(From 04-04-2014) Following a “massive stroke” my beautiful friend of almost exactly fifteen years has left me. Emma (short for Emerald, the colour of her eyes) dropped to one side, sprawled on the floor, and let out a yell worthy of her Siamese...

Published Sun, Apr 13 2014 12:03 AM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: grief, autobiography, Uncategorized, Pets

Drop-kicking HIV/AIDS stigma to the curb

“This December I found a mass the size of a cantaloupe in my lung…I used social media to express my feelings without having to burden my family and friends. I’d like to write a feature…that explores the way the Internet has changed...

Published Tue, Apr 22 2014 10:55 PM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: Uncategorized

Meet Sujata, Russian Blue beauty

Sujata, the name given to her by the previous human in her life, Kevin, is Sanskrit meaning “from a good family origin”; “Su” means “good”, “Jatakas” means “of good origins” or “well...

Published Mon, Apr 28 2014 7:54 PM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: friendship, cat, "Russian Blue"

April 30 revisited

Today marks eleven years since the beginning of events which form the basis of my autobiographical piece entitled Chopin, Roman Polanski and a cab. I will attempt to stay home after dark. Read More...

Published Tue, Apr 29 2014 9:38 PM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: autobiography, health-care, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), trauma, SARS, accident

Another change to “Mr. G’s eye exam”

Mr. G’s eye exam has been changed yet again so that the antagonist, though dead for more than a decade, might only be identified by his last initial and the responsibilities he held – not by full name nor school. I’m doing this following...

Published Sun, May 04 2014 8:01 AM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: family, youth, autobiography, childhood trauma

A new low

“How long have you been wasting?” the chiropodist asked me a couple of weeks ago as she updated a history on me. The starkness of the verb, however accurate, stayed with me. I’ve always been thin, I said, but my weight has been falling...

Published Fri, Jun 13 2014 2:04 PM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: autobiography, AIDS and HIV, medical update, unwanted weight loss

Letter to The Star Re: When free speech becomes hate crime (Letters, June 23)

From among the throngs walking past, largely ignoring him, a street preacher standing with a mic and an amplifier in front of Old City Hall called me out leaving the opening ceremonies of World Pride taking place at Nathan Phillips Square last Friday...

Published Thu, Jun 26 2014 7:50 PM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: Uncategorized, homosexuality, HIV/AIDS, World Pride Toronto 2014, Christianity

Why I’m Marching with ACT with Pride!

My first encounter with ACT (AIDS Committee of Toronto) was in its early days operating over what at the time was a KFC take-out restaurant. Compassion and information deep-fried! I was still living in St. Catharines, Ontario in those days, those early...

Published Sat, Jun 28 2014 5:34 AM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: Uncategorized, HIV/AIDS, AIDS support, ACT

On “The God Article” with Mark Sandlin: I Want My Religion Back – You Can Keep the Ugly Baggage

This post is a work in progress. Please join in with your comments! Please read this article first: I Want My Religion Back – You Can Keep the Ugly Baggage. When my friend and, to the point, Facebook friend, Lori Knight-Whitehouse posted...

Published Mon, Jul 28 2014 7:22 AM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: activism, church, fundamentalism, social conservatives, Christianism, biography/autobiography

Sleep, no longer taken for granted, will soon be improving – hopefully

Early this month I had electrodes taped to my head, neck, chest and legs, then I was wished a good night for a sleep study to see why suddenly, to me at least, I couldn’t get a decent night of shut-eye. The results, which I received on Monday, showed...

Published Fri, Aug 15 2014 12:31 AM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: autobiography, health-care, medical update, sleep study, neurologist, sleep disorder, central apnea

I’m Thinking, “This is Going to Hurt!”: On ‘How Not to Deal with Grief’

From my friend Betty Ann on her Facebook page: “This article deeply moved me…as I suspect it will for any of you who have been impacted by the kind of grief associated with multiple loss, deaths due to overdose and or HIV/AIDS. Rather than...

Published Mon, Aug 18 2014 8:31 PM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: grief, activism, AIDS and HIV, health-care, social justice, Planet Earth has AIDS, mental health, stigma, sexual orientation, Toronto, homosexuality, blog therapy, suicide, friendship

The certainty of uncertainty

In my ongoing quest to get to the bottom of my annoyingly reduced sleep, I received the results of a recent MRI of my brain when I visited my family doctor yesterday and the report was clearly not written for me to comprehend. Even my doctor was at a...

Published Fri, Sep 05 2014 8:10 AM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: autobiography, health-care, medical update, brain trauma

Lunch

I planned dessert first today after seeing Wanda’s Pie in the Sky picture on Facebook this morning. I walked over to Kensington Market on a near-empty stomach and plopped myself down on the patio at Caplansky’s Delicatessen on College Street...

Published Fri, Sep 26 2014 12:33 PM by My journey with AIDS...and more!

Filed under: autobiography, Toronto, dining

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