Dear Reverend Pieters,

The doctors have bullied me into taking medicine for 3 years now, scaring me with all the possibilitys of every infection that could happen. Now, they want to change them again because everyone only seems to last about a year.I am very reluctent to adhere to them. For all three years I feel that it isn't right, I have asked God to guild me but never get a clear answer. What should I do? I don't attend a church,I live in a small community and I am to scared of letting people know, so I worship from home. Can u help me please. I feel that i might be interfering with gods plans for me. I have never been sick and have great counts even before the medicines.CD4 615 and viral load is 2,600 with meds. When I wasn't on a protese Inhibitor my viral load was 1,200 so i don't see a benifit from taking them. But they (doctors) tell me of all the terrible things that could happen. I am a happily married women with 2 great kids. Thanks for your time and any advice you have. God Bless you& take care

Keep taking those meds! Those fears your doctors are giving you "of every infection that could happen" are real. That's why you need to keep taking the meds.

When I was sick with AIDS, there were no treatments... there was nothing to protect you from those life-threatening infections. And almost everyone died. Today, there are treatments... those protease inhibitors and antivirals have a remarkable effect in many people... they actually prevent those illnesses that killed so many people in the early years of this pandemic. Take full advantage of this progress!!! Do you know what my friends who died from AIDS in the eighties and early nineties would have done for your opportunity to survive AIDS?

You have every reason to have hope for long life... things are very different now than in the eighties, when almost everyone died from AIDS. Having a long life with HIV is now a very real possibility. And you have so much to live for with your two children! Don't compromise your chances by ignoring informed medical opinion.

If you are really committed to life, to being there for your children, then do everything you need to in order to stay alive. Those meds can help you do that. Take them as directed, and trust that God wants you to be alive! You have a very important task in mothering your children. Do everything you can to survive this virus.

If this middle-aged gay guy can do it, then you can too!