Alice - West Coast gal Posted: Dec 25th, 2015 - 2:20 pm In Reply to: Awful - Alice
Thank you. I am very fortunate to be living in a day and time when we have more options in treating HIV than in the eighties. But there is still a stigma--I just feel that when people learn I am HIV, they think "Oh, she's been NAUGHTY." Well, no, I wasn't. But there is still a stigma to AIDS that does not exist with other diseases. But people tell physicians other things they might not want put out there, either. A friend of mine had told her doc about childhood sex abuse just in passing and the doctor wrote this whole big page about it--my friend found out about it when the doctor moved and she had to get copies of her records to give to her new doctor. And besides that, you never know what gets sent to insurance companies, etc. or, if you are a patient at a teaching hospital or are in a clinical trial, how carefully your data might be handled. When I was more active on the clinical side of things, I saw HIPAA violations that would shock you! It is really scary to think about information data mining, etc. I once received this advertising packet (via snail mail) about some new AIDS drugs. I had never discussed that medication with my physician, had never signed up to receive that kind of information from anyone, anywhere, and yet here comes this information. As I said, it is scary. But today is Christmas, and I would like to put scariness aside and wish people a Merry Christmas, or whatever other holiday(s) they are celebrating. There is still an awful lot of joy and happiness in the world, too.
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