Today I went for my annual physical, and as you can see, even got an EKG. While discussing my adventuress with alcohol and wounds from dancing with toro El Tamarindo my doctor, Dr. Bruce S Rashbaum, said I have a heart murmur. I was stressing about it until he told me to chill and said I am HIV-free.
Discussing my joy to be virus clean, Dr. Rashbaum took an odd tangent. He said that HIV today is not like it was 10 years ago. Now it’s more a chronic disease than a killer, diabetes not a death sentence. Wait, check that.
He said that if he had to pick between the two, HIV would be easier to manage and live with than diabetes. That somehow a blood sugar deficiency is worse than an immune deficiency.
Now that is a novel statement, what with all the sex = death hype that HIV gets in this town. Might Dr. Rashbaum be on to something here, or should I be worried about that murmur more than he let on?
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
