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Hi and welcome to this page!!! If you're here, it's because you want to know me better right? |
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| My name is Chantal, I'm 39 years old. I live in Montreal,
Canada, and I've been diagnosed with HIV in December 1992. It was
quite a shock since neither my boyfriend nor I had any clue whatsoever.
He got sick with shingles and meningitis and that's when he was diagnosed
with AIDS. The doctor who told him the "good" news said "don't
worry about your girlfriend, women don't get AIDS". To this day, I'm
still amazed that a doctor could be so ignorant!! We decided that
he would get tested again and I would get tested for the first time after
my boyfriend came out of the hospital and both our tests came out positive.
Suffice it to say our lives changed dramatically after that. Our
relationship at the time wasn't good and it got worse. Still, we
got married in August 1993 (I was sure I would die soon anyway).
We had 3 difficult years of dealing with his illness after he was diagnosed.
He finally died in January 1996.
I was in depression for quite a while after Sylvain died. I had big financial problems and had to go bankrupt and lose our house (lost my job the same month). I finally came out of my depression in 1998 and I'm proud to say I went back to work in July 1998 and I've been working full-time as a legal secretary since then. I went back to the dating scene about a year after my husband died. I was very naive and thought I could date men who were HIV negative. It may work with some people, but it sure didn't with me! It took me 2 more years to realise I should start trying to date HIV+ guys instead. The biggest problem I have encountered is that in Montreal, straight HIV+ guys just hide... I don't know anyone from my area or close by who is positive, so my social life here is non-existent. There are no support groups available either for heterosexuals HIV+ people here, and I miss that a lot! It's not easy living with HIV/AIDS, but I still hope to find happiness
and a life worth living for!!!!!
Chantal
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