Letters to the Editor
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So?
You've lived longer than you thought you would. You've wielded your crooked HIV pos organ against...someone...three years ago? You're getting old and starting to fall apart.
So?
I can sympathize with the lasts sentence up there, though. Welcome to my world.
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Peyronie's
I've had Peyronie's since my late 30s, and it was only diagnosed a few years ago. I was given the same non-options for treatment but nobody ever told me jerking off more might help. sweet!
um, gotta go.
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Living Longer is a Dirty Trick
I to contracted HIV in the early stages of the epidemic, and also experienced a radical decline, headed towards neurologic collapse and death when the new regimen radically changed my health and my life. I could, in the course of 24 hours, feel my body rally, the neurologic tremors dissipate, and my health rebound.
I've been a good boy, not re-expose, live healthy. And yep, I work out, and do so with an awareness that I enjoy the act of working out, not necessarily whether I will live longer. Eat healthy, exercise, meditate, "self-improve', all that stuff. Living in the moment. Just seems that the liklihood of longer moments is upon me, at 58. I have an aggressively maintained career, have not disclosed at work, most folks assume that my facial wasting, slight that it is, is a direct result of my genepool of craggy Teutonics.... and I let it go at that.
My doctors now talk soulfully about cholesterol, about having a colonoscopy since I am over 50, all that stuff.
And I love it. glad to have normal problems of aging.
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You think that is bad?
Have your testicles descended yet?
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The complainers have it all wrong.
You think that Salon is going tabloid and ignoring the war?
WRONG! Kurth's penis is a but a metaphor for the entire nation!
It is old, corrupted, bent and crooked.
I bet it is even bent towards the right.
The EXTREME right.
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Salon is a news magazine....
...not a war blog. I don't understand why some people believe that every article - or even every lead article needs to be about the war. If one doesn't like the headline on the lead article one can just skip it or read another news source. I'm sure people work hard every day to put this news magazine together and then anonymous readers (not unlike myself) who might have done it differently themselves (but they're not doing it!) feel the need to come along and flip it off. I guess I just don't understand why people need to criticize just for the sake of criticizing. Perhaps there's something else going on here. Perhaps instead of letting our frustrations out through anonymous online slams we should just be following the good doctor's orders and find our release through more pleasurable activities.
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HAD Peyroine's at one time
Your doctor should have mentioned that Peyroine's often resolves on its own. Also, applying vitamin E topically is often a big help. Sometimes PABA is prescribed, but it might be a problem with your existing drug regiment.
My Peyroine's rapidly improved after applying vitamin E twice daily. And pursuing the world's oldest hobby also seemed to help.
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There is hope
I too have been HIV+ since the early 80's and never thought I would live very old,after watching my partner who passed away one week before Rock Hudson in 1985,and another one in 1991.I kept asking for 3 years knowing that I could handle that.Having taken care of my first partner in 85 who had KS lesions inside and outside his once beautiful ravaged body,and a second of Dementia in 91, I joined the Hemlock Society Chapter in San Francisco preparing myself for an early exit,should I need one.I also discovered that I had Peyrone's Disease,about 6 years ago.When I would urinate the flow would follow the curve.
Here is the "hope" part,it went away all by itself after 3 years,not totally but at least 97%.
By the way I will be 67 in March,and I too never thought I would make it this far.Thank you for your article.
Robert B.
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No "proven 'cognitive impairment,'" it seems to me
A stark and well-written autobiographical narrative essay. It belies the supposedly proven "cognitive impairment" the author cites. Good for Kurth.
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You are well past middle age, dear. ;-)
Hate to be the one to tell you, but I'm 43 and my therapist has been calling me middle aged since I turned 40.
As he would say... "It's the half way point. The middle. Between birth & death."
Are you planning on living into your 100's?
I'm HIV+ as well (for well over 20 years). The thought that I could live to 80 or longer (I'm so fucking healthy too now because of those damn those drugs) is just too depressing.
I can't figure out what the fuck am I going to do until then.
;-)
Now I have to go to the doc and ask why I'm turning into a compass.
Thanks!
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Thank you, Salon
I read the War Room everyday, and appreciate Salon's reporting on politics and current affairs. But Salon, laudably, stays true to its name, and as a digital Salon it also welcomes erudition and truth in writing that regards our basic humanity. For instance, Gary Kamiya contributes thoughtful articles on the dangers of America's foreign policy under G. W. Bush; but, he also contributed an amazing essay, "I'm Younger Than That Now," about growing "old[er]." To highlight stark and humane essays such as Peter Kurth's on the front page from time to time is welcome and appropriate.
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To the crank and inhuman complainers: It's called a SALON . . .
Salon, laudably, stays true to its name, and as a digital Salon it welcomes erudition and truth in writing that regards not only politics but also our basic humanity. This is how Salons worked in the age of the early Enlightenment when they were born. Intelligence and wit in general are valued even above a commitment to punditry and or the perpetually breathless sound anxiety regarding politics, a breathlessness that many of us wallow in occasionally, and often not without good reason. However, if we are honest, we'll realize that salons are meant to be not only incubators for action beyond the salon's walls--digital, virtual walls in this case--but also *a place of refuge* where participants enjoy each other's contribution to discourse. Again: that is what salons have been historically. To highlight stark and humane essays such as Peter Kurth's on the front page from time to time is utterly welcome and most appropriate, for a salon is about LIFE--yes, defending life against greedy people or reckless ideologues with dangerous power--but also about living life.