support group for STDs

Now being called The Walking Names Project, has a website www.walkingnamesproject.org
And a video

I am living in Tucson, AZ in the United States, and I have put together a project for the AIDSWalk event that will be going on in October of 2008. Please help if you would like someone affiliated with this project. If you do not agree with the project I am more than willing to listen to your concerns, but please remember that this is to raise awareness of the disease and I am doing this to honor someone whom I loved that passed away. I have never done anything this involved with the community, and I want this to be the beginning of many awareness projects I create.

I am making an AIDSWalk ribbon dress which I will wear in the AIDSWalk. I am going in drag in honor of my fairy godfather Jimmy, who passed away two years ago from AIDS. I need everyone's help in order to get names. If you have any names of individuals who are currently living with HIV/AIDS, or anyone who has passed away from HIV/AIDS please post their name to this blog and I will write their name on a ribbon for the dress. I hope to have it covered in order to make the statement that much stronger. When the walk is done I will be cutting the dress up the back and turning it into a quilt square from the AIDS quilt.

Please help me by stating any names you would like to be part of this project and by passing this message on to friends and family, give a voice to those who didn't have one.

And please help me by participating in or sponsoring someone for the AIDSWalk 2008. I will continue to walk, until there is a cure.

Thank you for taking the time to read this message.

Hey everyone! It's been forever since I posted here...well I have some things to say, so feedback would be very nice!

So I was wondering, if you can press charges against somebody who had HIV (and they know) and having sex without telling their partner?

I'll tell you a story. So about 2 years ago, me and this one guy Matt were having sex (unprotected) and ever since then, I have been getting tested yearly and everything has been negative (except I have HPV, but my HIV tests were negative so far)...so recently (today, Jan 25), out of surprise, Matt calls me (I haven't talked to him since we were having sex way back then) and he starts crying and then he tells me that he had HIV the whole time when we were having sex back then.....I couldn't believe it and I started to curse him out yelling at him that he should've told me. I told him I have been getting checked and I'm good but STILL! I am very angry and I want to press charges, no ifs and buts...feedback, please?

Hi there,
I am a researcher from the University of Illinois who is looking for people with HIV who are willing to complete an online survey. The survey takes 5-10 minutes to complete, and all participants can enter a lottery for a chance to win one of 10 prizes of $75 each. The study is about how family members respond to a HIV disclosure, and we hope to use the findings from this study to help family and friends be more supportive when someone discloses a HIV-positive status. All answers will remain completely anonymous and will be kept confidential. Thank you for your time and consideration, and I apologize for the cross-posting.
Interested parties should visit this webpage to complete the survey:
http://www.spcomm.uiuc.edu/caughlin/hiv_disclosure_survey.asp

Hey everyone.

I'm doing my Honors Independent Study project on the attitudes, beliefs, and opinions of HPV and the HPV vaccine, Gardasil.

If you have maybe 10 minutes to complete a survey, I would really appreciate it. All answers are completely anonymous and are only used to gather statistics for my paper.

Survey Link

Please feel free to pass it on to anyone you think might be interested in taking this survey, but please do not spam. The more people to take the survey the better. It will help me make a well-informed project paper, plus give me more personal insight as I'm considering going into the Health Education field.

Thanks in advance!

I was raped last summer... I have never told anyone. In January, I was diagnosed with HPV. I have genital warts... I am only 21 and was a virgin until I was 20. I had always been very careful and only slept with a few people that I was dating and VERY comfortable with. Now I have this disease that has ruined my life. I think about it ALL the time. I want to be able to date - but how do you tell someone you have something like that? They wont want to stay. The fact that I was raped wouldn't have had such an effect on me had I not gotten this disease. I don't have any really close friends and I am way too proud to admit that I have this. I feel guilty and dirty. Has having an STD affected anyone else to such an extent? how do I cope with the way it makes me feel? How do I tell someone that I have it?? I am not the kind of girl you'd expect to have a disease. Any advice would be amazing. I don't know what else to turn to.

Three days ago I was diagnosed with herpes.  I'm still dealing with the shock and acceptance of this whole experience.

I was wondering how you guys dealt with the information.  I know it is the responsible thing to do to warn my previous sexual partners so they can get tested, but those three guys and I ended on a sour note.  I'm also scared of talking to the wrong one and having them blab it around, as I live in a very small, gossipy, and very conservative community.

How did you deal with the situation?  Did you talk to all of your previous partners?  Did you ever figure out who you caught it from?

Is never knowing better than everyone knowing?

Well Last Friday I got a STD test and I am worried about herpes...

What I noticed was that my lymph nodes in my groin are slighty swollen (at least I think its my lympth nodes) and I was discharging. Also my eye was starting to bother me so I didn't know if I touched my infected fingers to my eye to take out contacts.... or if my eye was infected cuz of contacts being worn for a couple days in a row when I should take them out before I go to bed. Then I noticed my legs were feeling swollen like I had worked out or something but I think it's because of work since I do physical work there but I didn't know if my legs were swollen cuz of herpes since I heard herpes can cause body aches... I don't know if being sore quilifies as a body ache or whatever..

Before I left the clinic, they told me I had mucopurulent cervicitis and they said it could be caused by herpes but there are other reasons too... like gonorrhea, chlamydia, or even because of an IUD... which is something I have so I REALLY hope it's cuz of my IUD but i don't know. They gave me antibiotics just incase it were caused by chlamydia or gonorrhea. I noticed I started to feel better and I wasn't discharging anymore and my eye wasn't bothering me nearly as much as it did.. however, my groin still feels kinda swollen and my eye still slightly bothers me..

I didn't have sex with this person, all I did was perform oral on him but I'm still afraid I might have herpes because even though we didn't have sex, we still messed around and he still fingered me from time to time... so I don't know. I haven't seen any blisters on my vagina or in my mouth but there might be some IN my vagina....

So just a couple of questions.... if there are blisters inside vagina, wouldn't it typically burn when I urinate or sometimes does it go unnoticed? And where are the lympth nodes in the groin located at?? Plus, does anyone know how long it takes for antibiotics to kick in and get rid of an STD altogether? (those who might have experienced having chlamydia or gonorrhea).

It takes two weeks to get the results back and I have been miserable ever since I found this out... I have to wait another week and a half before I get the results so I am really on the edge... in the mean time, any info I can get would be nice.

Well, I hate to say that I have always engaged in unsafe sex. I was always aware of the risk of STD, but I guess I thought I was invulnerable. Turns out, I was wrong. I'm not sure yet what I've contracted... I've researched my symptoms and it's either chlamydia or gonnorhea (or both, as I hear they seem to go hand-in-hand). I'm getting tested on Thursday, which seems so long to endure this pain. Hopefully, the pain won't worsen, and I'm also afraid of the disease progressing. I am so disappointed in myself, but I have definitely learned my lesson: WRAP IT UP.

I was diagnosed with Trichomoniasis on Jan. 25th. I took the anti-bacterial medication that was prescribed to me, but I still have a lot of vaginal irritation and itching. I haven't had sex since I have been diagnosed.

Does anyone have experiance with this disease?