Happened to catch Magic Johnson on "The View" yesterday while running on the treadmill. (I'm back, bitches!) While he was there to promote the Broadway play about his rivalry and friendship with Larry Bird, "Magic/Bird," Barbara Walters took a moment to ask him about his very public fight against HIV. It's a sweet interview, but I really wanted to give a huge KUDOS to Joy Behar, who politely -- but firmly -- reminds Magic (not once, but twice) that while his prescription for having a "positive attitude" is a good one, it made ZERO DIFFERENCE in the lives of early AIDS patients, those we lost before the advancement of drugs that he has so greatly benefited from. It may seem like a small thing, but it's HUGE thing to people who lost loved ones in the early years to hear that their brothers/sisters/husbands/wives didn't die because they weren't "chipper" enough.
3 comments:
Kenneth -- I have been HIV+ since 1980 or so (first antibody tests available only in '86, first T-cell tests in '87; based on T-cell results, my doctor figured I had the virus for 5-8 years; first symptom swollen lymph nodes in 1987). I know the pain of having lost many friends, former sex partners, and all the survivor's guilt to boot.
In 1991, treatment was limited to AZT. In consultation with my doctor, I declined AZT therapy as too unreliable considering that my basic health and T-cell count remained relatively strong.
BUT, and a big BUT, my doctor emphatically urged: no stress (I stopped working), No alcohol (which meant extremely modest alcohol to me, once/twice a month on "festive" occasions), 8 hours sleep plus an afternoon nap, do "happy", chipper (he used that word) attitude. My T-cells had dropped to just under 500; after changing my lifestyle to less stress, more sleep, almost no alcohol, and adopting a chipper attitude, after 3 months, my T-cell count was just under 800!
Those changes allowed me the 7 years of my body fighting the virus until the effective cocktail became available. In the course of events, my weight had dropped from 160 to 117, my T-cells fell to 190, my viral load topped at 160,000. The cocktail worked, adding pot alleviated my weight loss, and I am still here.
Certainly Magic had the financial resources and medical support that most do/did not. And had he not become infected, most likely HIV/AIDS would not have been part of his community efforts. And before 1991, all the chipper attitude would not have made a difference to the many who had already succumbed, including my always so-happy and energetic cousin who died in 1987, the same week I got my first T-cell test results.
Nonetheless, Magic has championed the cause and, from 1991, when treatments and therapy were beginning to make a difference, keeping and maintaining a chipper attitude did/does make a difference.
@Mike: Your point (and Magic's) is well taken. But I'm sure you're aware of the fact that there was no control group to "prove" those changes were in fact what made the difference for you. (There's only one YOU, after all -- and I'm sure glad you're here, regardless!)
The bigger point -- and you get to it -- is this: All the "positive attitudes" in the world could not save most of these men -- or the hundreds of thousands of cancer victims who die despite their best efforts to remain "upbeat" -- and I think it's important to never blame the victim in these instances, however roundabout.
Thank you for this post and your reply comment, Kenneth. I am so thankful for the medical advances that have helped many friends and colleages to live with HIV/AIDS. But my heart remains forever broken over losing too many precious ones who had the misfortune of getting infected before such treatments were available.
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