He began life uncomplicated in a large plains city’s suburb in the post-WWII era, where Amerika was on the top of the heap, and it took full advantage of that fact.
He knew the love of a large, Italian-American family and learned those lessons of unconditional love very well, so well, in fact, that he found it easier to just remove the restrictions of showing that love to just the family and express it to everyone in his sphere.
He grew up during the disaffection of the unjust war in SE Asia. This sharpened his message of peace, and he became one of the first of the Hippies after spending the Summer of Love right on Haight Street doing a sabbatical there that summer.
He graduated at the top of his Med School graduating class and carried that on into post-graduate education. It was during this training that he discovered the amazing Great NorthLeft (Pacific Northwest) and finally found his true tribe.
After a transfer to Denver in the ‘70’s, life began to unravel. On a cold, dreary night, one of his most perplexing patients with a heretofore unheard of constellation of symptoms like unexplained weight loss, cryptococcal meningitis, dementia, and an odd lowering of her T-cells, was dying. In an attempt to prevent this, and due to an error on his part, a “sharp” contaminated by her blood found its way under his skin, depositing her illness to him.
3 months down the road, he became gravely ill with no clue as to rhyme or reason for what was happening inside his body...it was early 1978. After 4 long months of hospitalization, he left his then fractured post-grad program and headed in a beeline right back to Seattle.
He started a practice in ER and was quite successful. Still, he knew something inside him wasn’t quite right.
After 5 successful years, his health would become an issue again, after the diagnosis of a cancer-type that was directly associated with immune system function...or dysfunction, as it were...was made.
The immunologist he saw in 1983 made a diagnosis of ARC -AIDS-Related Complex - presumptively. No one knew in that day and age what was causing the AIDS we were seeing with increasing regularity.
Suddenly, the patient he exposed me to had a diagnosis - she had suffered from iAIDS.
Although he had lived his adult life as a straight man basically in fear of that diagnosis, he’d always been attracted to men and came out, battling stigma against homosexuality AND his new diagnosis.
He started a “buying club”, importing unusual meds with “alphabet” names and became a superstar in ACT-UP. All while securing rights for men and women faced with his diagnosis.
Fast forward to today. He’s still alive and telling the story of the ‘80’s, where he lost over 200 clients and friends. Yet he still lives and gives voice to battling stigmatic thinking wherever he finds it.
He’s in love with the most amazing man in the world and does volunteering as a “career”. He and his husband of 12 years and their service dog Felon live in beautiful downtown Redmond and are amazed at where their journeys have taken them.
That’s his story...
No comments:
Post a Comment