I knew right from time that HIV can only be transmitted through blood contact but considering how deadly it is, I never wanted to have contact anyone with such ailment.
I am one of the people who would never voluntarily go for HIV screening even if is free of charge ,not that I have the ailment but am very scared that it might be found, You know anything is possible.
But then I never knew that a very good friend of mine had these ailment , the most scaring part is that we use literally every thing together,
We share same cloth, same cutleries, same bathing soap , I mean literally everything except for toothbrush together(we lived in the same house at that time).
You need to see how scared I was when she told me about the sickness.
"Jeez upon all the sickness in the world, why did you choose these one?!"
These was the question that that was running through my head at that time, I felt more scared for myself than I felt pity for her.
I felt like walking away from the relationship immediately but I was considering how she will feel , I didn't want to stigmatize her knowing how difficult it was for her to finally open up to me after so Many months of our friendship.
Though I was still having the discussion with her but I wasn't myself,
I was thinking about the possibility of me contacting these disease.
I immediately went into deep thinking, I searched through my mind to see if I had ever had a blood contact with her but luckily for me I found none.
Though I was convinced that I had never had any blood connection with her yet I was scared and alot of things were going through my head.
"What if she had touch me mistakenly with her wounds?"
"What if while at sleep she infected me so as not to suffer alone?"
"What if the theory my teacher taught me in school about HIV been transmitted through blood alone ,
What if is not true?"
"What if she dies while we were still discussing the issue,
What will I tell people that caused her death"
So many "what if" were going on my head but I managed to ask "who else knows about your condition in this house?"
She told me that it was only me and one other girl in that house ,she also said that she was too scared to tell anyone to avoid being stigmatize.
I Felt really pity for her but I felt very very scared for myself but what can I do?
But wait!
If you find yourself in such situation,what will you do?.
I summoned some courage and asked her how it happens and she narrated the whole story to me,
The story was very touching and I realized that it wasn't her fault, she was naive and someone took advantage of her but my problem was that she was not the only victim and there was someone else who was also very close to her that also became a victim to the same person.
To be frank I couldn't sleep that night, I pondered on her words over and over again,I kept checking myself and I kept wishing to go for HIV screening for the first time in my life though I was scared of the word "positive".
The next day I realized that her condition has gotten worse and she do vomit blood and also she don't have any medication to help her condition, though I was scared but I made a promise to her not to disclose the information to anyone who in that house nor mention her name while narrating the story to my friend even if they don't know her.
I tried helping her in the little way I can but to be sincere I stopped sharing things with her,
I would never wear her clothes nor use anything used by her but I didn't show her that I was scared,I kept playing with her to avoid stigmatizing her in any way.
These happened over six years ago and I don't know if she's still alive or not , I don't have any means of connecting with and i miss her now.
I do wish to see her or maybe know how the situation was handled or just hear anything about her, anything at all that could calm my curiosity.
Some months later when I went for screening and when the results were out .
I noticed a hot heat coming out from my body, I was too scared to open the letter.
I held the letter very close to my heart and alot of things were moving through my head.
I told myself that I won't be able to bear it if am positive and I might attempt suicide if it happens but a sudden Joy overthrow me when I saw that the results was "negative"
What a relief!.
That night I couldn't help but think about my friend,
I realized that she was a very strong person,I noticed that she was far stronger than I am.
She had a heart of a lion, I would never wish to be in her shoes not that am mocking her but I admire her strength and courage to keep living even when is seems like life is against her, even when she can hear death knocking very clearly.
Seriously my friend is a hero and I wish I can see her if she's still alive or Know what happened next.
Thanks for reading till the end.
Yours faithfully: yummycruz1
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
You really tried. The close contact I have come with an HIV patient is my neighbour. I was a child at the time. This lady will request for our kitchen knife and use it to scrape the yeast infection on her tongue 😑.
Jeez!
I wouldn't use that knife again.
Infact I would buy a dozen of knife for her so she don't need to ask for knives again.
Thank God it didn't affect you nor your family member
I was young and naive, I should be about 7 to 8 years old. She took advantage of my ignorance but thank God for seeing us through.
HoW do you realize that she has the ailment
I noticed she was being segregated in the compound.
One time she was eating yam and oil but could not finish it so she gave it to I and my siblings to eat and we ate.
Although, I wondered why she didn't just give it to her sister seeing that we were all in the house together.
She was quite sickly I think hers progressed to full blown AIDS as she was pale and emaciated. Then the use of our knife to scrape her tongue. I didn't know what it was she was scraping then till I got older and started reading about the ailment.
When she goes to another neighbour's house to watch a movie, they will spread wrapper on their bed before she sits on it.
I always wondered why till she died. That was when it blew upon it was the ailment that killed her.
The story stands out because of your honesty. You do not mask your self-concern. You admit that your first interest when you learned of your friend's HIV status was to be frightened. And yet...there was room for sympathy.
Your response was entirely understandable, especially six years ago when HIV treatment in Nigeria was not very accessible. Today, it is more accessible. Still, that diagnosis is a frightening prospect.
We readers wonder, as you wonder, what happened to your friend. A sad tale that probably did not have a good end.
We remind you, please, to comment on the stories of at least two other writers in the community. We expect our authors to support at least two others for each story published here. We have curated this one, because it's been a while since you wrote. Please do remember though.
Thanks for curating my post even when I did not follow the community rules, I promise it won't happen again .
I will always visit at least two other post in the community .
Congratulations @yummycruz1! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 2750 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts: