My dad was just diagnosed with advanced AIDS - TheBody.com's Bulletin Boards

Hi everyone. I just found this forum and have an intense need to talk about what's going on anonymously. It's been a terrible 24 hours.

My dad is gay and spent pretty much his entire life hiding it from everyone. My parents finally split for good about 7 years ago, and while my mother has gone on to have a good life on her own, my dad really lost it.

Long story short, he had a good job with the government for over 25 years, and within a year of splitting up with my mother he got hooked on crack cocaine. Within two years of the onset of his addiction, he had lost his job, house, car and over 500K in savings. I have tried my best to stay in touch with him, even though everyone else has pretty much written him off. He has only seen his grandchildren once in the past four years.

To the point, he's been totally reckless with his health. I've been pushing him to see a doctor for years, and three weeks ago he finally went in. He's lost a ton of weight, has a persistent fungal skin infection all over his body, in his mouth, and recently has trouble even getting out of bed.

Yesterday he called me after getting his blood test results. Even though I knew in theory that he was likely HIV + I was devastated to hear he's been diagnosed with "full-blown" AIDS as he put it.

His life has been hell for a long time, and I'm afraid he won't even both to seek more help/medication from the HIV clinic at the hospital. I live two hours away from him.

I don't know what the point of this post is, aside from needing to "vent." I've been crying on and off since i found out and didn't sleep last night. He doesn't want to see me but I do not want him to be alone.

I know there isn't a simple answer to this, but I want to know how long he has if he doesn't seek treatment. And even if he does, considering his t-cell count is below 200, he's got opportunistic infections and his lifestyle includes both crack and alcohol addiction, is there anything doctors can even for him at this point.

I'm sorry to ramble. I just love my father so much, no matter what, and I need to find out as much as I can.

Thanks,
Bronwyn

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