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James
July 10, 1995
His Apartment (same as Tapestry’s) Lower Haight
MW: Where did you get the test?
James: The public health clinic in the little bitty-wee town where my mother lives in Alabama. In Alabama they have to turn positive results in to the state. As a result, my mother lost her health insurance policy, which she'd held since I was a kid. And there is no recourse in the state of Alabama.
There's only one place there for people who are HIV positive, and that was two hours from where I lived. I went to the doctor once after I found out I was positive. I didn't go back again until I had lived here for awhile, and my life was in ruins. Then I went to Tom Waddell, which is a clinic for homeless people. I had speed bugs. It's where you hallucinate that bugs are all over you, and they are biting you, and they are chasing you. It is so real that you can feel it, and you can see them. When Andy first died I would do anything not to sleep. I'd stay up for two weeks.
So, my doctor took me in the examining room and I told her what was going on. She was kind of comforting so I poured my heart out to her. She expedited the waiting period for me to get into their HIV program. I found out that I had hepatitis too. My T-cells were at 300. In one year I tweaked 400 T-cells away. I would be dead by now if I hadn't stopped doing drugs. Then I found BAY Positives. It was more catered to what I needed. I didn't have much in common with the homeless people or IV drug users. Not that I don't like them. I still have some friends that go to Tom Waddell, and live down there in the Tenderloin. I'll always be their friend, but I don't want to be down there with them. There are a lot of people who never get out of there.
MW: What made you decide to get tested there if it seemed like such a...?
James: I didn't have a choice. I had just left my lover and moved home. On the way home I stopped in some small town and called my aunt and told her about what had been going on, and that my lover had AIDS, and I wasn't dealing with it well. When I got home she had told my mom.
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