| By Nicole Ferrie
Aids awareness week: Feautre story
AFTER working in the health sector for some time, Chris Adams knew his fate when he entered his doctor’s rooms 20 years ago.
“Up until that moment I had no idea, but I walked into the doctor’s office and saw his face ... and I knew,” he recalls.
“It was like being hit by a truck.
“From that point on I can’t remember a word he said.
“It was a numbing experience.”
Chris was 27.
A registered nurse in a steady relationship, enduring the highs and lows every other 20-something year old was experiencing, and living life.
But the person who left the doctor’s rooms that fateful day in 1987 was a stranger.
“Suddenly I wasn’t that person anymore,” he says.
“At that stage it was definitely a death sentence.
“Not many people lived more than a year or two.”
That death sentence was HIV.
The virus was diagnosed after Chris agreed to participate in a gay men’s health survey, which included a series of blood tests.
He had no reason to believe the tests would return positive for the human immunodeficiency virus and for the next 12 months, was thrown into a state of shock.
“After a year or so I settled into the idea,” he recalls.
“I was still healthy, still working, had a great circle of family and friends.
“And I started counting my blessings.”
From that time forward, Chris has focused on living.
He came out on the hospital ward he was working on, where his colleagues were “exceptionally wonderful about the whole thing” and has maintained a commitment to healthy living, exploring complementary medicines and helping raise awareness of HIV / AIDS.
After fighting the virus with the only drugs available for eight years, Chris then gave up working as a registered nurse to become a guinea pig for new antiviral medication.
His immune system was at zero and his doctor had advised it was that, or death.
Coping with up to 50 new tablets a day became a full time job.
The side effects of nauseau, diarrhoea, loss of appetite and energy, nerve damage to his feet and high cholesterol were also difficult to manage.
There were moments during that time Chris sought help from a psychologist.
A question mark remains as to how long he can use the medication, but Chris is hopeful of living out a full life.
“I would much rather have gone through this life without HIV, but even with HIV there is so much to live and hope for,” he says.
Such is Chris’ commitment to maintaining a healthy lifestyle to meet that goal, that he has never been admitted to hospital because of the virus.
“I’m very careful around health issues,” he says.
“Having a medical background has been a great advantage ... I have an understanding of human condition and am
familiar with the health system.
“The health system is a Byzantine organisation to navigate your way around.
“Prior knowledge helped me get through the maze.”
Being open about his HIV status has also helped Chris maintain his positive outlook.
“It’s not something to be ashamed of,” he says.
“The more open we are about it the more it empowers us to spread the knowledge of HIV and set an example to other people and make people aware it is out there.
“I was losing friends left, right and centre during the 1980s and 90s, but now due to the improvements in treatments we are not seeing the harsh face of HIV and AIDS.
“Being open and talking about it keeps it on the map.”
With HIV infection rates rising 40 per cent in Australia since 2000, Chris believes his role is vital in today’s society.
But it’s not always easy.
“People were horrified in the 80s and 90s when you told them ... the shock and horrror was evident,” he recalls.
“It would be like saying to someone you had leprosy, or worse ... which was something very difficult to deal wth back then.
“I felt the same about it for myeslf... it was like oh my God, I’ve got HIV ... but I’m not one of those people who gets HIV.
“How did this happen?
“But it can happen to anyone.
“It’s by no means a gay disease.”
It’s for this reason Chris promotes the safe sex message.
He doesn’t believe in preaching, rather educating others about what can happen.
“It’s one thing to be sexually promiscuous, but being promiscuous with your health is a different thing,” he says.
“And being promiscuous with other people’s health is just not on.”
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