I was just recently diagnosed with PCP pneumonia and positive on July 2, 2004. It has been a long hard couple of weeks and am trying to cope. I have started on my meds and am trying to get as much information as possible on this terrible diagnosis. I am a 39 year old white mother of an 8 year old and am trying to figure out, as in a previous e-mail I read, why when talked about in the news this is a "killer" disease yet the doctor says "it's chronic, like hypertension, you will be ok". Do they just tell you that so you don't kill yourself or get depressed or what is the answer? I have been at my present job for 12 years and am wondering if I will be able to go back to work. I know I need to get back in shape and working, raising an 8 year old and working out is going to be quite a challenge. At first I had night sweats, 103 fever and was very anemic. Ended up in the hospital a few times and my counts when first diagnosed were CD4 of 57 and viral load of over 260,000. Am just wondering what to expect as I am on a constant regimin of antibiotics, anemia medication and HIV meds. Also, I have contacted two different "support" groups in the New Orleans area only to be told "honey, there is nothing for you here, this is a 90% gay organization" and the other for women supposedly to be told they can't offer any help with the meds financially because I work and really have no support groups for my "type". What a joke. I would love to get involved in organizations to help the spread of something like this or just get involved in some way.
In the meantime I will keep praying and attempt to stay confident and try and deal with this.

Thu Aug 22, 2004 from Louisiana