Jennifer Wolfe made the recent film, “This Child of Mine” that documents the conflict between the AIDS establishment and three families, Valerie Emerson’s, the Tysons, and Christine Maggiore.
Valerie Emerson tried the drugs but stopped when she found she could not take the side effects, but kept her daughter Tia, who had always been sickly, on AZT until she died. When she took her previously robustly healthy son Nikolas off she was taken to court in Maine and, unusually, won. The Tyson’s in Oregon were not so lucky after Kathleen, diagnosed HIV-positive after a 10 year monogamous relationship with her HIV-negative husband, decided that she wanted to breastfeed and did not want AZT for either herself or her baby. Jennifer also describes how Christine Maggiore was threatened by a social worker, an event caught on tape by Robin Scovill and incorporated in, “This Child of Mine”.
Terry and David discuss these cases with Jennifer, and the film that resulted, for just over an hour.
You can get more information on Jennifer’s film, and purchase a copy, at her website familieswithhivmovie.blogspot.com.
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Its incorrect to say that the test tests for “nothing”. I’ve lived this madness, this sad conundrum. In many cases, its a matter of picking your poison. Radical fundamentalists on either side of the issue make this so confusing for concerned parents of HIV+ children. The nazi like stance of all-or-nothing by many mainstream medical people needs to stop. There needs to be a dialog.
I do think E.J. would have lived a longer life with some ARV intervention. But thats the ARVS now, not the strength of them given 20 years ago, which in many cases was an overdose. But I greatly empathize with Christine and Robins’ position.
Tcells do mean something. If stress alone causes AIDS, then there is something wrong. If drinking a soda or eating a candy causes thrush, then there IS a compromised system involved. ARVs can turn a sick body around, but again, what will be the long term effects. Every case of HIV should be treated on an individual basis, rather than an all-or-nothing approach. Radical dissident views send parents of HIV+ children chasing rainbows. Whereas, staunch fundamentalist HIV doctors corner concerned parents, and threaten to make them feel a need to hide in fear. A dialogue needs to take place and a coming to a middle ground. I think it would do the children involved a big favor, if both sides could admit that they do not know everything.
Fundamentalists of any sort are dangerous.
What do you think the “HIV” tests for? Since modern ARVs have just been shown to change surrogate markers better than old drugs, not even shown to be less toxic (although it appears that they are) there is absolutely no evidence than today’s ARVs are better than doing nothing or, even better, doing something safe, such as a nutritional change or other lifestyle change.
T Cells are highly unreliable markers. There are many healthy people with low counts. And many people died of “AIDS” with high counts. I accept that when people get sick their counts often decline but at that point you already know they’re sick so they’re not telling you anything you don’t know.
I have noticed a relationship in the decline of my health in relation to the decline of my tcells. This occurred with never having been on ARVs, so I can’t blame the ramifications of ARVs. There are “many” healthy people with low counts? who and for how long? Having yeast in the back crevices of ones earlobes, and yeast on ones gums is not “healthy”, accompanied by weight loss. Yes, stress can be harsh, but “normal” people don’t succumb and fall to AIDS just because of stress. Then there’s dissidents trying to convince me that its the “bone” syndrome. Anything to prove their point.
Personally, from my non-scientific but deep personal involvement with HIV and AIDS, it is some type of bacteria or fungus run amuck. Maybe the immune system is broken down leaving it susceptible or this bacteria and/or fungus that enters the system is so strong that it breaks the system down. It took me approximately 10 years to go from about 700 tcells to about 35, and YES, this coincided with a decline in my health.
The drugs are not the ideal, but there are situations that they are necessary. I am in that situation. But with the ARVs, my health has steadily improved, with my weight increasing by 25+ pounds. No, I’m not a popper consumer, drug addict, promiscuous, … in fact I’m an exercising, organic Whole Foods, probiotic, clean meat, leafy green veggie kinda person. Will these ARVs eventually have side effects? Perhaps. I’ve sadly seen loved ones succumb to that scenario too. But as well, if I had continued on a path that refuses to accept that mainstream medicine possesses some knowledge in staving AIDS off, I would most likely succumb easily to whatever comes my way, such as stress, illness, etc. It would serve those involved much better to not demonize either side. It needs to stop being approached as though a religious debate and maybe some progress could be made.
Even Christine towards her last years never said a person should or should not take ARVs. She seemed to have realized that it was not so black and white, that a middle ground might very well be the safest place … until of course, something better is discovered and offered, but so far that has not been the case …. in my experience.
It seems that there is a whole lot of ego involved on both sides.
It’s hard to comment on an individual case unless all of your symptoms and pharmaceutical usage were laid out in a timeline. Another factor you are not considering is that knowledge of your own T Cell count is stressfull. If you get scared when your T Cells go down that could cause further stress and exacerbate your health problems. I don’t know from what you wrote whether your fungal infections totally clear up after ARVs or got worse. It seems that often people get acclimatized to poor health and don’t notice that when they start the drugs to improve their health it continues to decline.
No, the fungal problems cleared up. I expect until my Tcells are higher that I won’t be totally out of the woods. From my first hand experience with tcells, there is a correlation between their quantity in a body and the amount of bacteria and/or fungi in the same body. I eat a diet with few simple carbs and next to never consume sugar. I only sweeten my foods with such things as xylitol and stevia.
I had not even looked or payed attention to my Tcell count for those 10 years. Because I was advised not to stress about it or acknowledge it.
My health has improved for the time. Will I eventually get NHL or other HIV-related diseases? I’m not sure. Its a hard call. But I’m certain that I cannot risk allowing my body to get over burdened with fungi and bacteria NOW. Hardcore dissidents would prefer me to be on my death bed, without ARVs, ingesting probiotics and whatever “natural” supplement they could sell me, kombucha, baking soda tablets, and lots of green veggie drinks in a last ditch effort to prove their case.
On the flip side, hardcore mainstreamers would IV every antibiotic and ARV they could get into me to annihilate the deadly elusive HIV.
Its a rather dark comedy, even darker because I live it.
Hi MiddleGround. Please email me at nicoleknows@gmail.com if you can. I would like to personally talk to you.
Thanks,
Nicole