Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Last Time I Got Tested

The last time I got tested, I felt alienated.
HIV+ (left) and HIV- (right) test results.
The time before that, was late 2008.
I was a college student, and the health clinic on campus was the location I went to get tested.
They were caring, understanding, and they did the whole shebang (physical examination, tested my blood and urine, swabbed  my dick, ass, and mouth) and tested me for all the STDs imaginable.


Now I've graduated, the school's clinic doesn't accept me anymore because I'm not enrolled. 
I was stuck, I was lost.
I looked up on Google for the nearest "free HIV testing", and looked up a local clinic, Planned Parenthood, and got tested there.


It wasn't my world. There were no pamphlets for me, there were children, mothers, young straight couples. I was singled out, alone.
The nurse who first brought me in was kind and full of smiles, we went through the questionnaire without me feeling awkward.
But then I had to wait, because I didn't feel like urinating. And the next nurse who took me was older, and wasn't as welcoming as the previous. She also seemed impatient. It almost seem like she doesn't care either way if I've caught something or not. If it was tedious to service me.


I was put to get tested for Chlamydia and Syphilis and also HIV, but this new, older nurse forgot, or didn't proceed to test me for HIV. I had to ask her if I was getting tested for it and I felt obliged to really thank her for her patience and having to put up with me.


Overall, it was a weird experience to me. I felt awkward for having get tested at a Planned Parenthood.
In the future I'm just going to drive to San Francisco and get tested there, around people who understands me and welcomes me.

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