Week 9

This week, I have started a survey on my facebook, polling my friends/family about this week's Question of the Week. Although I am not going to share those results until next week, I have found it interesting that they had so many questions before being able to give their answer about whether a single, HIV positive mother should have a child or not. I was actually happy about this because I hate when people jump to state their opinions before researching their facts. I didn't share with them until they asked what Zidovudine was, because I wanted to see how many people actually knew about it, but noone knew. Another interesting comment that I got was that on General Hospital about a year ago, a character was placed in this situation, and the show actually informed its audience about how prevent perinatal transmission. I thought it was great to see shows actually educate their audiences about HIV while trying to entertain them at the same time.

To my suprise, however, most of the people surveyed were paying too much attention on "how" the mother got HIV. They were very nervous to state their opinions until after I told them that I couldn't state how the mother got infected and to think of her as a close friend. Even though this is only a hypothetical scenario, it reallly baffles me to know that people think they have the right to know about someone's personal life like that. I don't think the question is "How did someone get HIV?" in this case. I believe the question at hand is ,"How is this person moving forward despite the fact that they have  HIV?".I am just really surprised that I have had about 40 hits on my survery within 2 hours, and people aren't afraid to state their opininos or comments. I am actually pretty excited to hear what they have to say.

This class keeps giving me confidence to talk about HIV and an interest of how to spread the word in order to prevent HIV. I also wanted to note that I really learned alot from the Women's Panel last Wednesday night. It really taught me that living with HIV isn't a death sentence anymore because those women just looked like ordinary people. I also had a question about something one woman had said. She mentioned that she went through a period of "wasting". I understand that you lose a lot of weight, but I really don't understand the process behind it, and I didn't want to sound like an idiot in front of the whole class! Is it from all of the diarrhea and vomiting?

Did You Know?

"Wasting during pregnancy can increase the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission." If the HIV positive mother does not gain weight, her baby is at risk even if preventative drugs were given! (Villamor, 2005)

Source:

Villamor, E., Saathoff E., Msamanga, G., O'Brien, ME., Manji K., and Fawzi, WW. "Wasting During Pregnancy Increases the Risk of Mother-to-Child HIV-1 Transmission. (April 15, 2005). PubMed. Retrieved October 27, 2010 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15793376

Week 8

Week Eight

It is crazy to me that it has already two months since my first blog. The past two weeks of work at the hospital have really helped me figure out where I want to be in the medical field. I always thought that I wanted to work with pediatrics, but my job has given insight to a completely different area of the hospital: the Intensive Care Unit. For some reason, I have floated down to ICU and IMCU for the past two weeks, and I have really enjoyed it.

The first week, I was definitely scared to be in a room by myself. Seeing nonresponsive patients and responsive patients on ventilators really helped me picture what the doctor in the book The Least of these My Brethren had to see every day. When I saw my first nonresponsive patient on life support, it was a lot more “real” than I could picture in a book or on television. I finally understood why my mother is so insistent on being a DNR patient. Life support patients have such a peace to them, but it isn’t because they look comfortable or like they are getting better. THEY LOOK DEAD! Even though they get discharged to another healthcare center after a week or so of being on life support, I can’t imagine having to be dependent on a machine having my family have to worry about visiting my vegetable-state body.

Furthermore, I finally got to be a part of a code blue. I heard the “cracking” of ribs on patient who didn’t make it, and the doctors knew that this particular patient wasn’t going to survive a full resuscitation. I could feel the hesitation in the room of the nurses who tried to convince the family to fill out a DNR form, but insisted that the hospital do everything that they could on their family member. I finally felt like I could relate to the doctor of the AIDS ward in the book who didn’t want to see patients suffer before they died if was unnecessary. I just felt so bad for this patient when I saw his dead body that was in horrible shape compared to what it looked like before. I know that family members want to believe that they are going to see a miracle take place, and maybe I will be in this situation one day, but I don’t want to be selfish about it.

These situations are inevitable in critical care units, and I never even thought about working in this particular field. I have never come home from work feeling as excited to go back. I always heard on the other floors that” critical care units are awful because you have to do more work.” Isn’t that why we get paid?

Did You Know?

"The number of cumulative AIDS diagnoses for children (under the age of 13) living in Florida was 1,571." (CDC, 2008)

Source:

Basis Statistics. (2008) TheCenterforDiseaseControl. Retrieved on October 20, 2010 from http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/basic.htm#aidsage

Week 7

“Down Low”
I actually did get to catch a glimpse of the Oprah Show this week, and I just wanted to point out that I am very proud of the lady who was pregnant for getting the proper treatment for her pregnancy. She was a very inspiring person. Before I Google the correct term for Down Low, by watching this show, I am going to say that someone on the Down Low is hiding the fact that they are homosexual, like the man who took his wife to see his boyfriend, and she had no idea that he was gay. It seems like these men and women are scared to come out and admit their sexual preferences or tendencies to the world. Therefore, they prefer to keep it to themselves. I know Wikipedia is not the best source, but it was the only website where I could find an actual definition. Therefore, according to Wikipedia, Down Low refers to “Men who identify as straight, but have sex with men (often a friend) on the side without disclosing this to their female partner.” (Wikipedia, 2010)

Source:
Down Low.


Week 7 Blog
This Monday, I was in the waiting room at a doctor’s office, and the Tyra Banks Show was on. The show had about 7 teenagers under the age of 15, five of which were sexually active and have had more than 5 partners. While these numbers were shocking for me to hear for such young people, it shocked me even more that not one of them knew about HIV or AIDS. They knew about sexually transmitted diseases, but they just thought they would have to get medicine for them and then they would be ok. In my mind, I just kept thinking that one of them had to have HIV because they were having sex unprotected.

It is amazing to me how teenagers in the United States do not know about HIV. They had all taken the Sex-Ed classes, but stated that they wished their parents would have talked to them, instead of feeling uncomfortable in a classroom. Honestly, as a Christian it is hard for me to say this, but the Abstinence Only classes have to be amended. I know this raises big controversy, but obviously they aren’t working in preventing the spread of sexual diseases. If Christians are scared of having their children learn about such things, they can simply take their children out for the day or they can teach their child abstinence themselves. I don’t think this issue should be the responsibility of schools, but some children aren’t blessed with parents who want to spend the time to inform them about HIV. Yes, I am a Christian, and I waited until I was married to have sex, but it isn’t because my sex-education class told me.

As I stated in my QOTW answer, I don’t want to censor my children to the point where they just want to rebel and do exactly what I kept them from. I feel that as a parent, it is my job to educate them about HIV and how it comes about. I know sex isn’t the only way to get HIV, but I know it is a big reason for its growing numbers. I would hate to one day be on a show, or even in my own living room, having to hear my child has had unprotected sex with a handful of people and has no idea what HIV is. I would feel like a failure.

Did You Know?

It is just as important for HIV children to get their vaccines just as it is for non-HIV children. “Encapsulated bacteria cause considerable illness for HIV-infected children, so Haemophilus influenzae, and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are important. Varicella vaccine is a live virus vaccine but it can be considered safe for HIV-infected children without immuno-suppression. Measles, mumps and rubella vaccine can be safely given to HIV-infected children who do not have severe immunosuppressant.” (Children and HIV, 2009)

Children and HIV

. (2009) HIVInfoSource. Retrieved on October 13, 2010 from (2010). Wikipedia. Retrieved on October 13, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down-lowhttp://www.hivinfosource.org/hivis/hivbasics/children/#Clinical_trials.

Week 6

AIDS Action Europe

AIDS Action Europe was founded in 2004. Its headquarters are stationed in Amsterdam and this organization is globally linked to ICASO (International Council of AIDS Service Organizations). AIDS Action Europe seeks to provide social justice to those living with AIDS. They are also responsible for getting the word about AIDS and HIV to Germany and across Europe. This organization’s main goals are as follows; “Strengthen civil society’s contribution to a more effective response to the HIV epidemic; Make an effective and meaningful contribution to regional and national policies related to HIV and AIDS; Facilitate continuous exchange among NGOs on good practices and lessons learned related to HIV and AIDS; Develop a stronger, more effective organization and network”. (AIDS Action Europe, 2010)

Source:

AIDS Action Europe. (2010) Retrieved on October 6, 2010 from http://www.aidsactioneurope.org/index.php?id=53

            After watching the show, “The Doctors” today, they had a segment on CPR. The doctor’s were saying that for people who are scared to give mouth-to-mouth breaths, to at least carry out the stomach thrusts, which are the most important thing. After last week’s question of the week, I thought I would share this general information to those of you who would be scared to help give CPR to a person with HIV. The doctors on the show specifically said that the most important key to saving the person’s life is to keep their blood flowing by pumping on their chests.

            After reading the book The Least of These My Brethren, I started wondering how my own hospital perceives people with HIV or AIDS. Because my mother is an ICU nurse, I began asking her how many AIDS patients she sees weekly. She told me that they generally get 3 or 4 a month, and that they usually come from off the streets. She told me that they generally never get “clean” or “rich” patients because they usually can afford to be in nice treatment centers or hospices to spend the last months or weeks of their lives.

            I began thinking about how awful it would be to have to endure being homeless on top of having AIDS. These people are just waiting for life to take them. There is no way that they can afford the highly priced medicines or healthcare services while living on the streets. That means no morphine for intolerable pain or nobody there to make sure that they are being well nourished.

After she told me this, I started to wonder where people like this could get help besides the hospital and before it is too late. I live in Lake County, Florida, and I can’t even think of an AIDS clinic that is around here. Although I am sure that there has to be one, it is kind of sad that I do not even know where it is. This has really showed me that AIDS awareness in my own community is hardly present. It is pretty sad.

Did You Know?

“An estimated 3,992 children (<13 years at diagnosis) were living with an AIDS diagnosis in 2007. The vast majority of these children acquired HIV through mother-to-child transmission. “ (Avert, 2010).

Source:

United States HIV & AIDS Statistics Summary. (2010) Avert. Retrieved on October 6, 2010 from http://www.avert.org/usa-statistics.htm