Wow! My ears must have been deceiving me – like my cheating partner had, which was why I was here in the first place! One thousand and fifty seven, that’s the highest my CD4 count has ever been. My doc didn’t seem as excited as I was.
“It’s more important to pay attention to the pattern of results than to any one test result,” He smiled in a kindly almost paternal fashion, even though I am probably a good few years older than him.
“Well, to me it means that I’ve got even more soldiers on my side,” I told him, punching my fist in the air in a sign of triumph, “A bigger army. That evil dictator and control freak HIV has got no chance. Bring it on!”
He looked at me a bit strange but I think he’s used to me by now.
When I was first diagnosed and having trouble taking the medication, which was a lot worse than it is now, I was advised by someone to think of the toxic pills as my ‘little soldiers.’ Well, they were hardly little in those days; they were more like horse pills and a bugger to swallow.
I wasn’t really sure what a CD4 count was at the beginning, you don’t pay much attention to the medical facts, you just want to know if you’re going to live or not. Like the age old joke.
How long have I got doc?
Hard to say but don’t start reading War and Peace.
Eight to ten years was my prognosis back then, but I’ve already surpassed that by three years. My poor First World War soldiers, who were not as well armed as the modern day medication brigade, had to march into battle against over two million of the slimy viral bastards (sorry war talk!) And what a battle they had, it was a real charge of the light brigade.
“Into the valley of Death rode the six hundred. Forward, the Light Brigade!”
After eleven years of the virus being undetectable I will of course keep taking the medication, ‘my little soldiers’, without question, even though I do worry sometimes about their toxic side effects, because to quote once again from Lord Tennyson’s famous poem, there’s no choice really it’s simply a case of –
“Their’s not to reason why, Their’s but to do and die.” (change the ‘and’ for OR)
He also wrote –
“Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them “– Here I am stuck in the middle with you – sorry couldn’t resist that.
I came home with a sack of medication under my arm, six month’s suppy to be exact, enough to feed an army! Keep those army boots marching into battle – these boots are made for walking and that’s just what they’ll do, one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over HIV.
Are you ready boots – then start walking.
