HIV

We just found out last night that one of my brother-in-laws (let's call him R) has HIV. He's an alcoholic who had slept with at least one high-risk partner (an abusive woman, the mother of his son, who succeeded in drinking herself to death a few months ago), so sadly, it's not really a surprise. Its sad, it's terrible, but it is understandable.

What shocked me was... HIV? We knew that his doctor (who is the doctor for me and my husband is well) wanted to get in touch with him urgently, even giving George his home number and cell phone number to pass on to R, but our worst fear at that point was that perhaps it was cancer -- liver cancer, most likely, given R's hard-drinking lifestyle.

In some ways, HIV is a better diagnosis. With modern drug cocktails, a person can live for a very long time with the symptoms held largely in check. But I just never thought of HIV as a disease you GOT when you lived here in Winnipeg.

Still reeling. More later...