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How many times have you started to have a conversation with someone about Hepatitis C only to have it blow up in your face? Have you ever heard someone say something about Hep C that didn't seem quite right to you? You were probably right something was amiss. A discussion about Hepatitis C can...
As per Wikipedia, the definition of a stigma is as follows: "Stigma is a word that originally means a "sign", "point", or "branding mark"." Wikipedia goes on to call stigma "A badge of shame, a physical mark of infamy or disgrace." Damn that w...
Recently, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) issued a statement that all Baby Boomers should be tested for Hepatitis C. The question often comes up as to why this particular segment of people is so vulnerable. What does being born between 1945 and 1965 have to do with Hepatitis C? What was di...
Buyer Beware! There are several snake oil salesmen out there who are claiming to have cured their own Hepatitis C with herbs, supplements and parking lot gravel. Okay, maybe not the parking lot gravel but it might as well be. What you need to remember is that there are two different types of...
Most every adult woman (and an occasional man) has enjoyed a manicure and a pedicure at a nail salon or spa. That 30 minute pedicure can be so relaxing but are you aware of the danger lurking in that nail salon? Although few individuals recognize the medical risks associated with this common pr...
Is the title too confusing? Maybe a little schizo? Probably a fairly decent reflection of the craziness that is our lives right now.
So we are officially the proud owners of our new home! We closed about a week ago and have made such strides since. The house had been sitting empty since last July and the previous owner, bless her heart, had such an affinity for blue/gray that the whole house was done in those colors…and I mean the WHOLE house. Tile, carpet, walls, doors, wallpaper, window coverings…
It was so blue you could feel the blues set in…get it…hahaha.
At any rate, we have great plans for this little fortress of ours, so we arrived late Sunday night with a mission: to gayafy Burninglog lane.
Carpet? Gone
Padding? Gone
Carpet tacks? Gone
Built in book case? Gone
Laura Ingalls kitchen appliances? Gone
Tile floor in entryway, kitchen, dining room and back hallway? That MOFO PIECE OF #@&*()$&@#($*^@()*& is GONE!!!
Why the language? Because once again HGTV has fooled us to think that getting a tile floor up is as easy as picking up a $5 crack whore…and they LIED!
Special tool we bought at Lowes, NOTHING! Not a darn thing. The scraper machine we rented at HomeDepot? As useful as Newt Gingrich. You want to know what finally did the trick? A SLEDGEHAMMER. 600 Square feet of blue/purple tile was demolished one hideous tile at the time.
At any rate, the next person to ever call me a prissy queen will get the enamel chiseled off their teeth with a sledgehammer.
We left Wednesday morning to head back to Round Rock secure in knowing that Oscar, our amazing contractor, will tear down that bitch of a kitchen wall and put an opening where one ought to be. He will lay GORGEOUS 12×24 grey tile and he will paint. All this while we are preparing for our trip to Holland.
When we return in April, we have 3 weeks left before our official move in date to Dallas. We are 
considering putting in a new kitchen from Ikea before we move, depending on this pesky thing called a budget…sigh.
One of the things we hoped to be able to do, must most likely cannot (I will never say CANNOT or NEVER because I don’t believe in either one of those statements. My life is the perfect example of CAN TOO and SOMEHOW!) is to buy this beautiful lithograph of the cathedral in my hometown…done by a local artist, most of the family on my mother’s side have pieces of his work on their wall, it is my dream to have
something from him as well. Especially this:
Sigh. It will all come together, all good things will happen if not now then later.
Meanwhile, holy toledo Batman: we leave in 5 days for Holland! How the heck did all this happen so quickly!
It has been 3 years since I last went to Holland and we are SO excited. It has been 6 years for George. Our apartment on the coast of Scheveningen (yes that is spelled correctly!) looks dreamy and I cannot wait for a nice walk on the boardwalk to visit the historical Kurhaus which dates back to 1884 but had fallen into complete disrepair and was scheduled to be DEMOLISHED when it was restored in 1975. Woosh..can you imagine demolishing something so spectacular?
For George’s birthday this year we are visiting the world famous Tulipgardens at the Keukenhof. I have never been and am so excited at the thought of seeing over 7 million tulips in bloom…the sights of color, the smells!
We are also looking forward to finally being able to visit the Deltaworks, one of the manmade wonders of the world. Construction of this series of flood defense system was started in 1953, after a deadly flood killed over 1800 people.
In case of severe weather or extreme tides the Dutch are now able to literally close most waterways into the country and therefore protect themselves against floods. Our expertise is so renown that when New Orleans flooded, it was the Dutch corps of engineers that was flown in. The same for the floods in Bangladesh. It is something I am very proud of as a Dutchman.
One of the last “sights” we have planned is a visit to Madurodam, Holland’s miniature city.
Named after George Maduro, a Dutch War hero, this “little” city showcases some of Holland’s most well known sites, buildings and architecture. It has been “adopted” by the Dutch Royal Family. It will re-open this year after an extensive remodeling project and we hope to be able to be there for the re-opening and perhaps catch a glimpse of the Royal Family.
Now, those are the SIGHTS and PLACES we want to visit, but nothing compares to the excitement of visiting my uncle and his family ( my only surviving family on my father’s side) and my friend Ariane who I used to work with way, way back then. I haven’t seen either of them for over 20 years, plus this will be the first time I can introduce George to my family.
Wow. Now factor in that I intend on eating my way through Holland with the likes of worstenbroodjes, kroketten, Bosche Bollen and Limburgse Vlaai..this will be one trip we will NEVER FORGET!
Darnit, I am drooling already.
So this will most likely be the last you hear of me/us until we return.
Hope all is well with you and we love you!
Ik hou van Holland, landje aan de Zuiderzee. Een stukje Holland draag ik in mijn hart steeds me.
(I love my Holland, country on the ZuiderSea. A part of Holland, I carry in my heart with me)
Getting sentimental in my 40th year!
MUAH!
Sven
Please sign the ATC Salvage Therapy Petition Join us in asking Congressman Alcee Hastings and Congresswomen Maxine Waters to send a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter to Anthony Fauci, Director of NIAID, asking for the federal facilitation of apricitabine (ATC). ATC is a phase III nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) that has been shown to be safe and effective in treating people with HIV. It works against viruses that are resistant to several other nukes and could ...
Researchers from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts Medical School announced today at CROI2013 the discovery of the first infant functionally cured of HIV. The baby, a female now two and a half years old, received 3 HIV medications when brought to the hospital at 30 hours old. Viral load tests were performed during the first few weeks that showed a rapidly decreasing viral load which reached ...
At the 19th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington D.C., the CDC reported that only 1 out of 4 HIV patients in the U.S. have HIV under control, which is defined as complete viral suppression. Warning bells should be ringing in the scientific and HIV advocacy communities. While much progress has been made in the last three decades in the treatment of HIV, tens of thousands of people living with HIV (PLWH) are currently struggling to construct viable treat...
Paige Rawl is 17 and HIV positive, but while her life has been shaped by HIV it isn't ruled by it. When Paige Rawl starts her senior year at Indianapolis’s Herron High School next month, she'll be cheer captain and a member of the student government and prom committee. This summer, the 17-year-old held down a part-time job at Hollister, hawking the popular Southern California-inspired clothing brand. The all-American girl — who happens to be HIV positive. Paige was in...
The HIV community has been abuzz with the August FDA approval of what had been termed “the Quad”, the second one-pill-once-a-day combination antiretroviral drug. Marketed by Gilead under the name Stribild, the drug contains two NRTIs (tenofovir and emtricitabine), an integrase inhibitor (elvitegravir) and an integrase booster (cobicistat) and is approved for use in treatment naïve patients with either drug resistant or wild type virus. In comparison to Atripla, the first...
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) for SUSTIVA® (efavirenz), including dosing recommendations for...
California and other states would be pressured to amend or repeal criminal laws that single out HIV-positive people under a bipartisan bill co-authored and introduced this week by Rep. Barbara...
Mission Statement
At HIV Haven we wish to provide our readers with vital cutting edge information to help expand HIV knowledge and promote activism, particularly that which works towards an end to the HIV pandemic. It is our desire to bring to you the scientific, medical and social advances that given the appropriate attention and support, could change the course of the HIV pandemic, lessen the devastating effects of HIV and AIDS, better the quality and quantity of life for people living with HIV and even yield an eventual end to the HIV pandemic. We also provide the basics of HIV transmission and treatment.
We will focus on issues such as innovative drug development, strategic activist campaigns, HIV relationships and novel HIV and HIV cure research. We also will bring you advances in Hepatitis C (HCV), a common HIV co-infection. Whether you are living with HIV/AIDS, HIV and HCV, love someone who is, are an activist, advocate, researcher, physician or just an interested party, we hope here at HIV Haven we can help you find what you are looking for.
HIV Haven is kindly hosted by 
Clearance of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, compared with never having HPV infection, predicted subsequent HIV infection among heterosexual men enrolled in the circumcision trial in Rakai,...
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Cambodia is on track to become one of the few countries in the world to successfully reverse its HIV epidemic and may eliminate new infections by 2020, the World Health Organization said Friday....
In recent years, the countries of Central Asia have experienced some of the fastest growing rates of HIV infection in the world. One of the key populations at risk is men who have sex with men...
HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust has announced a range of exclusive bar offers for participants in this year’s ‘Really Wild’ themed Walk for Life event on 16th June. This year...
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Liver transplants to treat a common type of liver cancer are a viable option for people infected with HIV, according to new research. The Italian study, published May 10 in the journal The...
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Accessing much-needed dental care is no longer like pulling teeth for HIV-positive patients in San Gabriel Valley. A new dental clinic that recently opened in Pasadena fills a major health care...
Canadian Blood Services has received approval from Health Canada to reduce the current men who have sex with men (MSM) deferral period from indefinite to five years from last MSM activity. The...
A new discovery at Oregon Health & Science University highlights an ingenious method to ensure the body effectively reacts when infected with the highly evasive HIV virus that causes AIDS. The...
In 2009, the federal government took HIV-positive and AIDS off the list of communicable diseases that can make a person ineligible for a green card Q: I’ve tested HIV-positive. Will that keep me...
AUSTRALIA is way behind the US and Europe in protecting medical workers from sharp objects, says a former US nurse who contracted HIV and hepatitis C through a needle injury. Dr Karen Daley, in...
Background: The resurgence of infectious syphilis in men who have sex with men (MSM) has been documented worldwide; however, HIV coinfection and syphilis reinfections in MSM in inner Sydney have not...
'Your Body Blueprint', a new campaign for people living with HIV has just been launched by AFAO. Based around an interactive website, the campaign is designed to encourage and support people...
DESPACHO GERAL, a Santos-based custom clearance agency for over twenty years, has successfully navigated the protocols for shipping the Spirit of Malabo to New York. The vessel departs today on...
Venezuelan professionals are working in investigations to establish the molecular panorama of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, and hepatitis, specialized sources said.According...
Until a few years ago there was no talk of curing HIV. Research focused on making anti-HIV drugs better, trying to find a vaccine or understanding why they didn’t seem to be working. Another area...
Top AIDS scientists are in Paris to mark the 30th anniversary of the detection of HIV. One of them is Sharon Lewin. Her work on latent HIV cells could lead to a cure, but she warns it's a "tough...
There was no fanfare on May 20, 1983 when Science published what is undoubtedly among the most important medical papers of the 20th century. In the usual dry prose, researchers from the Institut...
Research by the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Minnesota indicates that regular consumption of coffee is associated with a reduced risk of a liver disease known as primary sclerosing cholangitis...
Health insurance premiums for Covered California, the state-run marketplace, are lower than expected. Amid anxiety over rising costs from the federal healthcare law, California received...
Bottling up emotions is thought to harm both mind and body, but a new study suggests that the opposite extreme may be no better. In a study of thousands of heart attack patients, those who...
