“When I walked into the room, the first thing I noticed was that these people didn’t look like me,” says Chelsea White, recalling her first group session with other HIV positive patients. “They looked like what I thought HIV was—people in recovery from IV drug use, street walkers, gay men.
They didn’t look like me, a young, vibrant, educated woman.”
Chelsea, a 30-year-old youth program manager from North Carolina, tested positive for HIV when she was 20, a senior in college. After being in a monogamous relationship through her high school and college years and testing negative multiple times throughout the relationship, Chelsea and her boyfriend both tested positive. But that wasn’t where the news ended: Chelsea was pregnant, too. “The doctor told me he thought it was a false positive and not to worry.” When the baby was born, Chelsea was tested again. She was positive, but the baby was negative. As it turns out, her boyfriend was infected during sexual contact with another person. He then infected Chelsea.
That was 10 years ago. Today Chelsea is married to an HIV positive man she met after she was diagnosed and they have two children together—both of whom are HIV negative. Because of her experience finding out at such a young age and feeling alone, Chelsea now runs an HIV/AIDS adolescent outreach program. Each week, she sits with HIV positive teens and 20-somethings, counseling them on their options, both medical and personal, the same tough decisions she had to make. And hope that she could also help them through their hard times.
As told in: http://www.healthline.com/health/hiv-aids/true-stories-living-with-hiv
Chelsea, a 30-year-old youth program manager from North Carolina, tested positive for HIV when she was 20, a senior in college. After being in a monogamous relationship through her high school and college years and testing negative multiple times throughout the relationship, Chelsea and her boyfriend both tested positive. But that wasn’t where the news ended: Chelsea was pregnant, too. “The doctor told me he thought it was a false positive and not to worry.” When the baby was born, Chelsea was tested again. She was positive, but the baby was negative. As it turns out, her boyfriend was infected during sexual contact with another person. He then infected Chelsea.
That was 10 years ago. Today Chelsea is married to an HIV positive man she met after she was diagnosed and they have two children together—both of whom are HIV negative. Because of her experience finding out at such a young age and feeling alone, Chelsea now runs an HIV/AIDS adolescent outreach program. Each week, she sits with HIV positive teens and 20-somethings, counseling them on their options, both medical and personal, the same tough decisions she had to make. And hope that she could also help them through their hard times.
As told in: http://www.healthline.com/health/hiv-aids/true-stories-living-with-hiv
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