Did you know that it is possible to tell your child's school that they have HIV without causing uproar? I was reading an article that describes an 'easier' way to have your child's school know about the infection and still keep the peace. With reading novels such as 'At Risk' it seems impossible to have your child remain in a normal school environment, but it can work. The article first describes that a meeting with the principal should be set up, it should be confidential, and it should be directed towards discovering the school's HIV policy (Writer, 2009). After the policy has been evaluated, another meeting needs to be set up, but this time it needs to be with the principal, school nurse, and the child's teacher (Writer, 2009). A key point to all of these meetings is to make it very clear that everything discussed is confidential and if the information is released then that would be subject to a lawsuit (Writer, 2009). The article made a very valid point that the school nurse can keep an eye on the child. She/he can look out for complications and side effects to any medications (Writer, 2009). Everyone knows that not everything can be kept under wraps, which is why the parent and the staff need to prepare themselves for other's discovering the child’s HIV status. I decided to share this article with everyone, because I felt that it shed a new light on children disclosing their HIV status with schools.
Heading Towards the Finish Line!
The weeks are winding down and summer is getting closer and closer to being a reality!! I finished my M&M simulation and I got to say it was one of the hardest assignments in this class. Of course I am just eating candy throughout the day, but it was harsh reading about the side effects of the different medications and imagining the way they could make me feel. I don’t know how I would actually deal with those physical changes. For example with taking the AZT, myopathy can occur which is when there is pain in the muscles or they can become weak (Zidovudine (Retrovir, AZT), 2009). I am a very active person, so for my muscles to be compromised that is a huge down side to taking the medications. To top that off I had to take 3TC which means that I had “nausea, vomiting, headaches and possibly hair loss,” (lamivudine, 3TC (Epivir), 2006) All four of those things are horrendous. On top of being active, I love to eat. So having nausea would probably make me not like to eat so much which ultimately stinks. This project has definitely shone some light on what a person goes through with HIV.
References
Harrison, K. (2007, April). AZT. Retrieved March 30, 2010, from 3Dchem.com: www.3dchem.com/imagesofmolecules/Zidovudine.jpg
lamivudine, 3TC (Epivir). (2006, October 26). Retrieved January 30, 2010, from Simple Facts Project: http://www.aegis.com/factshts/network/simple/lami.html
Writer, H. S. (2009, January 06). Telling Others You Are HIV Positive (Your Employer, Your Child's School). Retrieved March 30, 2010, from Healthy Place: http://www.healthyplace.com/sex/diseases/telling-others-you-are-hiv-positive-your-employer-your-childs-school/menu-id-66/page-2/
Zidovudine (Retrovir, AZT). (2009, November 18). Retrieved March 30, 2010, from The Body: http://www.thebody.com/content/art6010.html
One thing to remember is that these side effects do not happen to every one, and what you are getting are the extreme cases. Nonetheless they can happen, and do know people who've had to deal with them.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started what is called Mega-HAART (HAART standing for Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy) with about six or seven different drugs, one I had to inject twice a day which lead to lumps that sometimes would swell up and look like a red welt and was painful. I did that for about a year. I traveled around the world with all these syringes.
For the first three weeks all I did was sleep, dirnk water, sleep and drink water. It knocked the hell out of me. Another drug called Sustiva caused central nervous system side effects, especially cognitive. I felt like I was stonned, my mood was off, got very depressed, and my memory was so bad that in the end I lost confidence to take care of myself.
When that happened I switched to a new experimental drug that was just about to be approved for the market.
Three years later, I don't feel any side effectsa at all. They may make me a bit tired.
Most of Gina's side effects now are fatigue. I am noticing much more fatigue with her after switching to Kaletra and Truvada. I'm keeping an eye on her though. I don't want to switch again because she hasn't been on this combination very long and I want to see if she will grow out of it, so to speak.
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