Blog 11-really

Hello all! I guess this is the last blog post of the semester. I hope all of you have enjoyed reading my posts as I have enjoyed reading all of yours. I know some of you are getting ready for graduation in a few weeks. All I can say is that I wish I was in your shoes! It’s my entire fault though; I should have been on top of the credits that I was missing. August is not that far away though. I hope that all of you have had a good semester and I know that we all have expressed our feelings on how we learned so much in this class. As I was finishing up my blog log I realized exactly how far I had come. I could tell by reading my first post that I was only somewhat prepared for what was to come in this class. I wrote about the M&M simulation and the panels. Now that I have experienced all of that I can really say that I am glad I took this class and even thought it was difficult at times, it was a great learning experience.

The last question of the week was interesting. I had to do some research about PEP and express my feelings about taking it if I was stuck with a needle. I was interested in the research because I plan to work in health care so this could very well be my own situation, or someone that I know. I decided that I would choose to take the medication despite the side effects. Some of those included vomiting, fatigue and diarrhea. I felt as though I could deal with these for a month, or less if needed. When I read that if you were stuck with a large bore needle you would need to take the triple drug combination, as oppose to the double, I found that the triple can cause more severe side effects. These included gastrointestinal and liver problems. I think I would still choose to use the medicine despite this because testing positive would be more detrimental. As I read some of our classmate’s posts I saw most of them would choose to take the medication. I’m glad that I was asked this question because it pertains to my actual life.

Did You Know?

In 2007 a college in Delaware was very afraid of an HIV scare. A woman prostitute was caught by police after running naked through the dorms. She told police that she was HIV positive and had sex with about 10 men on campus for money. She was unsure if condoms were used or not. Cheyney University urged students to go get tested, especially if they had sex with this woman. Outrageous! I guess for some odd reason I thought that college students would have a little more sense than this. I can’t find any updated information about the student’s status, but I will continue to look and inform you all if I do.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17854897&BRD=1725&PAG=461&dept_id=45529&rfi=15

Sorry guys, it's not letting me embed the video for some reason. Can you imagine if this was your mom!!??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeufNA-Rbc0

Blog 11

Hey guys! I was waiting to post this blog because I wanted to include my feelings about the men’s panel that was held tonight. I really enjoyed myself and I am glad we had such good speakers and story tellers. The four men were so gracious to talk to our class so candidly. They had the room laughing as well as gasping. I had a lot of questions but only asked one since I know everyone probably wanted to ask a million questions. They all spoke about the medicines they have to take, how they felt when they were diagnosed, who they told, whether or not they still have sex, and we even spent a little extra time talking about karma and religion. It was entertaining but very informative. I feel like the men got their personal messages across to us all. One of the men really seemed to know a lot about the microbiology behind HIV and others used humor to talk about their conditions. I wished the session was longer, because it seemed as though right when the conversation was getting really heated, we had to leave. I only wish I had the chance to attend the women’s panel. Either way, I am so thankful to have had this opportunity.

The question of the week this week was related to the “did you know?” in my blog. I had to share my feelings about disclosing someone’s information about their HIV status if they had sex with someone after knowing they were positive. I am a little torn on the subject, but I am leaning more towards someone being persecuted if they did this. I think we all have a right to privacy, but at the same time, this is like giving someone a death sentence. I think it is the other person’s responsibility to ask their partner about HIV testing and wearing protection, but in special cases (monogamous relationships) you can only do so much. Sometimes people aren’t asking for it, and they took precautions and still turned out to be positive. In these cases the person who knew they were positive should suffer the consequences.

I will be taking the quiz online tomorrow. I have reviewed all of the slides once and I will again tomorrow. If it is anything like the other quiz, I am confident I will do well because I have studied the slides in advance. I am also starting to work on the assignment for next week where I summarize my blogging experience. I have nothing but good things to say about this so far! I love your feedback and also reading your own blogs. I hope everyone has a good week, study early for those finals!

Did You Know?

I wanted to find out more information about college students in other countries and I found something that I thought was interesting. According to a study, Nigerian college students didn’t think that they were at high risk of getting HIV. “85% believed themselves to be at little or no risk of acquiring HIV.” I find this to be a little ironic because so many people think that Africa is the source of this disease. You can read the whole article, but only if you join the website.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-170459406.html