Pubdate: Wed, 03 Dec 2003
Source: Journal Argus (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003 Journal Argus
Contact:  http://www.stmarys.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2197
Author: Laura Payton, Editor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

HIV-POSITIVE MAN TELLS STUDENTS HIS STORY

DCVI Assembly Teaches Students About AIDS

AIDS Action Perth staged assemblies at St. Marys DCVI last week, complete 
with rapper, dancers, and a Stratford Festival actress . . . but it was a 
34-year-old Stratford man's account of contracting and living with HIV that 
had to leave the biggest impression on the students.

A youth-friendly program has been adopted by AIDS Action Perth because AIDS 
organizations have learned their message is not getting through to teenagers.

But teens couldn't help but be moved by Mike Patterson's talk, as he 
detailed years of "bad choices" which led him to the life he's forced to 
live today.

"I went to (AIDS Action Perth) this summer because if I can get my message 
across to you, maybe you won't end up like me," he told the audience. "To 
tell you what it is like living with this disease."

The important thing people must know, he said, is that HIV and AIDS is "100 
per cent preventable."

Patterson was diagnosed in 1999, he said, "but saying it aloud still makes 
my knees get weak."

And last week was the first time he'd ever spoken publicly about his 
disease; he chose several high schools in Perth County to do just that.

"I've learned a lot of things since (1999), I've learned to cope, I've 
learned about discrimination, and I've learned compassion and tolerance for 
others."

Patterson said he's "a personal example of what can happen from making a 
series of bad choices."

He went from being an auxiliary police officer with York Region, to having 
a cocaine addition for 10 years, to spending time in a federal 
penitentiary, and to the reality of dealing with an illness that will 
eventually kill him.

He said by the late '90s he had "sunk so low" he was injecting cocaine, so 
he moved to Alberta to escape the life he was living in Ontario. The move 
did not help, to say the least. He got a job in the oil fields and was 
making lots of money, but said "the bigger the pay cheque, the bigger the 
bag of coke."

Mike Patterson said he spent his weekends drinking, doing drugs and having 
unprotected sex with "someone I didn't know."

One night he went to a bar with a friend who pointed to one woman and said, 
"stay away from her, she's positive," he recalled the man saying.

"I said, 'what do you mean, happy?'" No, the friend said. The woman was HIV 
positive.

"It was the same woman I had spent the last weekend with," he said. "I knew 
right away that I had it, considering the things I'd done with that girl."

Shortly after, Patterson became ill, feeling like he had the flu only much 
worse. One day he looked in the mirror and "my skin had turned yellow." 
Before long he was in intensive care, where he almost died. His liver had 
stopped working. He had Hepatitis C.

Patterson said he got out of hospital and immediately committed a robbery. 
"I didn't need the money, I was angry."

He ended up getting arrested and called his family for bail money, which 
they sent -- his voice choking as he spoke of his family's continued love 
and support despite his behaviour.

Six months later, he tested HIV positive. "It takes six months for the 
antibodies to show up in your blood," he explained.

He committed another robbery, then tried to take his own life; taking pills 
and slitting both wrists so bad he cut the tendons.

"I woke up in hospital, in intensive care, alone and scared." From there he 
was sent to federal prison. Shortly thereafter, Patterson learned his 
father had cancer back in Ontario, but he couldn't even come home to see him.

All of this had happened in just the few months he'd been in Alberta.

"All my hopes and dreams were taken away from me when I heard those two 
words (HIV positive)."

Mike Patterson said he knew almost nothing about the disease. "I thought 
people with HIV and AIDS looked different, were indigent . . . what I found 
out is that the disease doesn't discriminate -- rich, poor, gay, straight, 
black, white . . . anyone can get it.

"If you choose to have unprotected sex or share a needle, you could end up 
being a statistic," he said.

Patterson said people believe that if you have HIV these days, you just 
take a few pills and you're fine otherwise. That is very far from the truth.

He takes well over 20 pills a day, and because of his liver disease and 
other factors, he must take pills that make him sick every day. The side 
effects he listed were lengthy and painful.

"It's not much fun. You don't want to go through this; it's serious stuff," 
he said.

"The meds make me so sick, that pretty soon I'll have to decide between 
quantity of life and quality of life."

The virus itself is causing brain damage and muscle loss, he said.

To make matters worse, he was accidentally poisoned by hydrogen sulphite 
while working in northern Alberta and is off work indefinitely, so now he 
is dealing with financial difficulties.

"I might be able to get some disability assistance by spring," he said.

Abstinence The Best Choice

Patterson told the students that the best way to avoid getting HIV or AIDS 
is by simply not having sex -- abstinence.

However, if they do choose to have sex, "know your partner. Realize that 
you will be having sex with everyone your partner has ever had sex with," 
he said. Stay away from drugs too, he said, and not just IV drugs. "Even 
passing a bill around (to snort coke) you are passing around blood, even 
though you can't see it," he said.

Mike Patterson says he's not looking for pity.

"All I want is a promise from you that you'll respect your body, and 
respect other people's. And be kind to people," he said.

"And if you have questions or issues about yourself that you are struggling 
with, don't stuff yourself with alcohol or drugs like I did. And if someone 
you know is in trouble, don't wait until they hit rock bottom before you 
help them," he said . . . because by then they could be dead.

"I don't want to see anybody have to go through this," he concluded. "Life 
is tough enough."