July 2009 Archives

It's 4:30 a.m. here in Helsingborg. A dense mist is hovering in the early light over the Oresund channel between Sweden and Denmark. I can't sleep.

In January of 1980, I woke up one morning with a strange, pasty sensation in my mouth. I stumbled into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. My tongue was white. My doctor at the time, Lenny, told me it was a yeast infection. A yeast infection? On my tongue?

Larry wrote me a prescription for Monistat tablets. I don't know if Monistat is still being prescribed today, but in 1980, Monistat was the drug of choice for vaginal yeast infections. I didn't have a vagina, and I'd broken up with my girlfriend and cleaned up my act back in August, so I had to wonder how the hell I'd suddenly acquired the lingual overcoat. I'd had some mild flu-like aches and fever a few weeks earlier, but I didn't connect it with the yeast infection, which happily responded to the Monistat.

That was almost 30 years ago. 30 years with HIV. 30 years, and I'm still here.

Wish I could sleep...