I subscribe to many AIDS/HIV publications and anyone that is a regular reader and follower or even fan of my life and work knows that I have lived with AIDS for over 25 years now, I lost my first wife years back from this virus. I have had my good times and really dark bad times from having AIDS, Cancer, and a huge array of opportunistic infections from my impaired immune system and the complications from having AIDS that many would have commited suicide or just plainly given up or went insane. One thing that I have done through out the whole time I have had this virus even though it is illegal is used Marijuana for sleep, energy, stress reduction, fatigue, peripheral neuropathy, depression, nausea, appetite, and many other things. I have cooked with it and have even used it in many other forms even as a tea and even used the seeds from it.

At one time back in the Early 1990's when I was fighting my 5th case of cancer, I used Marijuana in a resin form for the 3rd time, and many holistic remedies to beat cancer. Due to the illegal issues I have mostly kept any of this I am sharing to myself and shared it only with others that were family, close friends and in the same boat as I was. Honestly, I feel that using Marijuana, has contributed to a huge percentage to my surviving so long and many others passing, a side from my also finding that in the mid 1980's around mid 1985 from memory that I was getting sicker from taking the the prescribed amount of AZT which was taking 4 tablets every 4 hours but it was the only thing available back then and everday things changed and we were all just learning, quiet and at the beckon and call of the medical system making choices be it sometimes blindly and out of desperation. I stopped taking the prescribed dosage and even lied and said I was taking it as told and changed my way of taking it and eating and lowered any stress levels that had really affected me and is known to not be good for your immune system, I also found that setting goals that were insane but possible gave me something to work towards and live for and keep my mind away from everyone else dying around me since I felt like a leper at that time period. I also vowed to God that I would think of others and the planet if he would just give me the chance to live and see my Son grow up and even graduate.

I am still here and you know what I have kept my part of that bargain with God and he has kept his as well, many a time I even thought and felt he had left me and felt very alone, those times I was so sick I really think he was carrying me and all my pain, and I have smoked Marijuana the whole time for all the reasons I shared. I don't smoke it daily or when I don't need it like some people do and I even did when I first started smoking it to party back in the 1970's. I have used it responsibly and just kept low key. At a time back in 1993 when I was very sick and was on well over 75 prescribed drugs, I did not know which one was doing what I am was a complete mess and dying. I eventually stopped all of them after my first wife had become sick as well. She stopped taking them as well but continued to drink and use other hardcore drugs, almost as she had given up hope and did not care anymore. I had stopped everything even the experimental AIDS drugs I was getting through the trials, and just used Marijuana. My t-cells had decreased down to 7, my time was running out, and my viral load had skyrocketed to well over 750,000, my weight had dropped to 87 pounds, my frail and weak body was failing me and my cheeks were sinking in and I was dying but I never once gave up my fight, I was just so sick of being sick, and I slept around 14 to 16 hours a day and had developed bed sores and was even so weak and to the point I could not use the restroom and had to resort to wearing depends from losing my bodily functions. I needed to do something drastically instead to get my will and focus back to fight more so I asked my Son's mother if I could have my Son in my daily life to allow me to keep fighting and so he could know me better from my dark past in case I was to die I had also met and woman online that had HIV and she showed interest and compassion in helping me. My Sons Mother was having issues with street drugs, one called crystal meth and she agreed. We met at the court house the next day and she signed part of her custody over to me and she actually went into rehab and cleaned up for a while, she did relapse but now has been clean for some time now, she had also had another child so it helped her out in other ways. I had also developed quite the drinking problem due to personal reasons and it just kept me numb from all the horrific things that I was seeing and experiencing. I know now that the heavy alcohol use was not helping me and it was actually dampening the AIDS drugs from working in full strength as they are designed to since alcohol thins the blood it was just flushing the drugs right through my body. Having my son in my daily life began to help me more then I had realized it would and I can't thank his Mother enough for believing in me and trusting me back then. I never smoked Marijuana around my Son, but I also never hid that I did use it from him.

I had some time after began to regain my health, decided to go back into the regular workforce and had been working for Microsoft but not on campus at that time actually it was for MSN and applied for a job locally doing electronic editing and working with scanning, high end printing and even scramatics and fold outs in large manuals with large Zerox 6150 printers, I was moving into the Information Technology trade and had been using computers since around 1987. I had eventually ended up moving to Seattle and took on a job at IBM Global Services on the WAMU account from being proficient in using an operating system called OS/2 and we were all being told about the oncoming Y2K. I had aplied for 5 jobs and was offered all of them but chose IBM. They did drug tests so I was not able to use Marijuana for my medical needs, with in a few years, my health started detoriating again and I had been bought out from IBM to a smaller dotcom that I was scouted out from the owners son. That company was called Classmates Online, I was able to get away with using Marijuana again for medical purposes but I had also started drinking again from the stress at work and my 2nd marriage and personal reasons, I didn't make that huge hourly pay as I did at IBM and was on a salary.

I had built up resistance again to another combo drug set, but it wasn't just from the alcohol that time it was from one of the drug companies making changes to the medication Norvir and changed it to liquid form and I was having a very difficult time taking it and keeping it down with out throwing it up and getting dry heaves. People had started noticing the changes in me, physically, mentally and socially at work and that I was sick all the time at work and I had even shared my concerns with my friend the owners Son. Not much after that the US was attacked on 9/11 from terrorists or what ever others may believe, I won't go into my opinions in this blog on that matter. I had also been just the year before involved in a severe car accident while at work and had to go through extensive rehabilitation from severe head, back and neck injuries. With the impact on the economy many of the high paid employees had to be let go and I was one of them so I was out of a high paying salaried job, and soon on so was my second wife that worked for a large cell phone provider. My marriage began to fall apart and I eventually ended up filing for divorce after becoming separated for a brief time and even trying to make it work on short time after my Son was out on his own and had graduated from High school and started college and was stable. Theres much more to that story but I don't want to go far off track from my topic of this blog. I just have never shared much of any of this side of my story except with a select few that are but just social friends which have become real life friends now.

Anyways, today, I only take a combo drug regimen that I have been taking since 2002, which I had already took 3 different sets that I become either allergic to or they just stopped working from resistance probably from my past heavy alcohol use. My viral load didn't become undetectable for a couple of years and my t-cells did slowly start rising, but they stopped and stayed at around 300. I was happy with that number but knew I could do better. I researched and experimented with using food to rebuild my immune system even more, I had also due to severe depression for many reasons had gained a lot of weight and was weighing in at 290 pounds and I am 6' 0" so I had to make some changes and I had and still have injuries from that car accident that I deal with and have a lot of pain and issues to this day. I have always been athletic through my life and so I was a slim build but muscular and had a hard time gaining weight. Depression and over indulging in my Marijuana use and eating anything, from fried foods to fast foods and even just at times eating whole family sized bags of Cheetos and other junk foods I had become a mess, even though I was told to eat what ever I wanted so I could gain weight, I just never stopped at the ultimum weight due to all that continued happening in my life. I also did not keep to exercising which I do regularly now. I weigh around 170 currently, and my viral load is undetectable and my T-Cells fluctuate from around 780 to 1250.

I still use Marijuana, but again only when needed, and I only take the one combo set of AIDS/ HIV drugs and I deal with high triglycerides from one of the medications called Sustiva, but since it works I don't want to mess with changing it and I have become used to my side-affects which were very difficult to deal with at first so I do take lipator and a new drug called Lovaza. I have had to make so many adjustments to my life, but I have made it this far and seen how my constant battle to live and sharing that with the world by being public that it inspires so many people, many in private share there stories. At times I get such sad emails that I just shed tears and can feel how much pain they are in and pray for them. The world has become my support system and shown me so much compassion from being public about my having AIDS, I usually try and hide the dark parts of my life and my own problems and share the uplifting side instead. So this blog may shock a few of you I am sure, even my current life is not all that I lead you all to believe, I am just to proud to ask for help. I am not in any way promoting drug use but to me I don't see Marijuana as a drug or even a gateway to other drugs. it's an herb and if other look into it is was at one time used more so then any other drug for hundreds of years across many cultures around the world before there was a big pharma in control and there was this War on Drugs bull. I also have never hidden this from any of my medical doctors, just the public. Seems they are cool with it but many times just want to get that prescription pad out and write up a drug that I have already used and it didn't help the way that Marijuana seems to which honesty would be what they should be prescribing me rather then my having to resort to friends getting it for me or other ways even though we all know it is illegal and just ignore it and just keep low key and not really promote it.

My special diet has also helped to rebuild my immune system, I know this for a fact. At first eating a restricted diet was horrible but I stuck it out and still continue to tweak it weekly. I know for a fact that my strict diet not only helped me shred off all that extra weight but raised my immune system and numbers. I still do get sick but have found that limiting my physical social activities from so many other humans in my real life so to not catch there colds, viruses and flu's has allowed me to not get sick so much now. So living my life more online helps me to be around others and communicate and not feel that gap. I guess I have become sort of a germaphobe and even slighty anal about being or allowing others around me that may be sick. I don't even shake hands and haven't for years know.

So now I haved shared all that and I really apreiciate those that have read this fair, in one of my many newsletters I get through email, and all the media news of Marijuana being used for medical purposes recently, I am coming out and sharing that it has helped me more so if not better then any of the over the counter drugs even though it is illegal, it's even helped and done more then all of the prescribed drugs for many of the things I shared in the opening of this blog. I value my life but I have never feared dying or even been scared that's the one thing a human is promised from that first breath is death, I have actually prayed to God many times to let me be with him and not suffer anymore. He has just continued to ignore my many pleas and shown me signs that I was in his good hands and to deal with it and keep the faith and my part of our deal. So I have listened to him as long as he allows me to blow up his phone and voice my concerns and listen to all my own prayers for myself and others.

Here's the article, and the results seem to show exactly what I have shared just now in this blog even though I have written my story more personal and provided many more years of proof and disclosure. Check it out here:

So what do my all my readers think from all I have shared in this blog and what the article shows?

Have any of you, or have you known others that have benefited from using Marijuana for medical purposes rather then over the counter drugs? I know it helps others that don't need it medically but taking this one step at a time will one day bring it to it becoming legal for everyone again to choose to use as in alcohol, I will just bet and do see that happening in the future.


In closing:
Leave a comment and share your answers and opinions, this will be my last blog until this coming Tuesday 6/9/2009 since I am taking a brief vacation, I am staying in my town but will not be blogging, or accessing the many sites I am a frequent user and member on. I need to have time unplugged and have a list of things I want to do away from the internet and catching up with a few real life friends in town amongst other things.

Please do try and leave your comment here so we can make this the most popular blog on the website entry rather then the way you all usually do and leave comment's all over across the networks. If your HIV or have AIDS and your not public that cool you can leave a comment anonymously. I can understand that not everyone can not risk being public which there status as I have chosen to do.

You don't have to be HIV to comment and share!

Peace, Aero

PS: BTW, The photo was taken by myself on 5/31/2009 with the sunsetting and the storms we had just coming in. I have more but liked this one and felt it fit this blog. Hope you like it as well!