M&M Simulation

All I can say is wow. I have never had an assignment as intense and realistic as the M&M Simulation. Truly, this class is different from any other class I have ever taken. The assignments are eye-opening and force you to look at things from the perspective of someone with a positive diagnosis. I feel that at the end of this course I will be more knowledgeable about the subject matter (HIV/AIDS) than I have ever been in any other course. This information is in my brain and will stay with me as I begin to work in the medical field. While this class may be work intensive and not an "easy A", the professors are true teachers and have enhanced my education.

I chose to do exercise A for my M&M Simulation. In exercise A, my HIV medication regimen involves taking 2 - 100 mg AZT capsules bid, 2 - 150 mg 3TC pills bid, 3 - 250 mg Nelfinavir capsules bid, 1 double strength TMP/SMX tab od and 1 multivitamin od. I bring a small plastic bag with my M&M pill regimen to work every day. I cannot even begin to tell you how difficult it is to combine my pill regimen with my work schedule and eating habits. I felt hopeless at first but I feel that I have created some sort of natural rhythm as the simulation progresses. My eating habits are not how I would like them to be but that is a small sacrifice compared to what people who really have HIV must go through.

Everyone in my office already knows about my HIV class, as I am always checking discussion posts or spending any extra time on homework. When my co-worker actually saw me swallowing a peanut M&M whole, her first words were "HIV class?" I explained to her the simulation and she seemed intrigued with the whole idea. Most of my co-workers have never been in such a unique class as this one. They will explain to me how they never had such in-depth assignments designed to simulate how someone with HIV would actually feel. Actually living something provides more education than just memorizing a sheet of paper and taking a test. I almost feel like my co-workers are jealous that they did not get to experience such an innovative class, but they are definitely not jealous of the workload.

On a different subject, I was checking my Yahoo mail account and took notice of one of the highlighted articles on the homepage. The highlighted blurb said that HIV/AIDS has become the number one killer of women worldwide, ages 15 - 49. To those of you that think HIV/AIDS is a thing of the past, this statistic proves that it is obviously not. For something that is killing masses of young women across the world, you would think there would be a better education program concerning HIV and safe sex in the United States. It makes me really upset when I think about the lack of safe sex education that I received in high school. Don't you think the embarrassment of a sex conversation is worth bringing that statistic down? We cannot turn back the hands of time, but HIV/AIDS in the future can be prevented. Why are we not doing everything in our power to achieve the goal of prevention? The conservative, religious outlook seems to be running our nation in more ways than one. Is the unrealistic message of abstinence and purity more important than preventing a worldwide killer?

Here is an informative article concerning HIV as the number one killer of young women worldwide:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7360227/HIVAids-is-leading-killer-of-women-of-reproductive-age-worldwide.html




***Did You Know***
One important factor that can increase the risk of transmission from mother to baby is the "duration of ruptured membranes". This phrase is used to describe the time passed from when the water breaks to the actual delivery. It is important that a doctor tries to keep this time period at less than 4 hours. If time goes over 4 hours, the baby is exposed to HIV for a longer amount of time and is more susceptible to the virus. Induced labor, or "induced rupturing of the water bag", is also a risk factor to the transmission of the virus to the baby. It is important that doctors avoid inducing labor with an HIV positive mother.

http://www.projectinform.org/info/pregnancy/02.shtml