My Appointment and the Next Day
Okay, I know everybody is dying to know- how was your first Uber ride? Well Iāll tell yaā, it was completely anti-climactic. I mean I expected to get murdered or something in the car, but that totally didnāt happen. He talked probably a little more than I would have liked but he was nice and friendly and not scary at all, he did ask me what I was doing today (personal much? Ha ha) and I told him that I was having lunch with a friend at work. Read through to the end to find out how my Lyft driver who took me home was (spoiler alert, it was fine).
Ā All right, so I got to the clinic a few minutes before my scheduled appointment time and I was greeted very nicely by the staff. They were very helpful and immediately got to me, like I had no wait time at all. I got through the paperwork, really there wasnāt even that much, some yes but not a ton. It was mainly me just reading, signature, and writing the date. So I got that filled out and brought it back up to the front and then was handed it back because there were two lines I had forgotten to sign, signed them and sat down. Waited five minutes tops before I was brought back into a room by the same person who had checked me in.
Ā Then the man who checked me in sat me down in a chair and started giving me information on Truvada, had me sign some more papers, and he pricked my finger for a rapid HIV test, which came back negative (unsurprisingly as Iāve never had sex, but I was still nervous about it for whatever reason). Then he started to explain to me all of the people that I was going to meet with next (people make me nervous, so I was pretty antsy). He laughed when I asked him āAre they mean?ā and he told me a little bit about everyone there and assured me that no one was going to be mean to me- he was right!
Ā So he left and the next person who came in was I believe the director of the clinic and he had to get some more information from me to get the prescription assistance program and tell me about how I can go about getting it for free and had me sign some more papers. He asked me about my HIV positive partner and let me know that he could give me some resources to help my partner get the treatment that is very needed at a possibly lower cost. Funnily enough I had read some reviews on this clinic that I went to and one person had left a very negative review on this person in particular (which made me nervous to meet with him) but he was as nice and as helpful as everyone else there.
Ā Okay so he goes away and less than five minutes later and a woman came in to get my vitals, height, weight, blood pressure (which was a little high unfortunately), temperature, and she also drew a few vials of blood from me to run tests, I know one of them was a more in depth HIV test but I donāt know if the rest of the blood was for other STDās or what.
Ā Last, but certainly not least, a woman comes in to talk to me a little bit more and get my medical history, ask me about my sexual history, what medications that Iām taking, all of that fun stuff. I would say I probably spent the most amount of time with her talking about the medication and also told me to take calcium supplements to offset any bone density loss from Truvada. She did a quick exam where she checked my lymph nodes and eyes and checked my back and chest for a rash and answered some more questions and told me even more about the drug and its effectiveness and that I was doing the smart thing by getting on this medication to protect myself. She also took a swab of my throat and then told me how to do the rectal swab myself and sent me to the bathroom so I could pee in a cup and swab my rectum (which for a tiny little Q tip it was still uncomfortable).
Ā After that she walked me to the front and the guy who did my rapid HIV test set me up for a follow up appointment in a month so that they could check me out and make sure that the medication is working well for me and that there isnāt any problems, then after that I will only need to go once every three months for an HIV test. The rapid HIV test guy did ask me before I left if anyone had been mean to me and let me know that was the first time anyone had ever asked him that, we shared a laugh.
Ā I took Lyft home just because I wanted to try the both of them out and the car was quite a bit nicer and cleaner than the Uber drivers, however I did end up paying a bit more for the ride. The Lyft driver was way less chatty, which I was completely and totally okay with.
Ā Now I wasnāt immediately given a prescription for it. They have to send the application for the prescription assistance over to the local pharmacy and today (the day after my appointment) the pharmacy did call me to confirm that they had sent in my application and that I should hear back in about three business days. Today is a Thursday so I wonāt expect to really head anything until Wednesday or so of next week, but I will make another post when Iāve got something else to say.
Ā All in all, I think I stressed way too much about this whole thing. Iāve got some killer anxiety, and somehow these people at the clinic all made me feel at home and I really canāt thank them enough for all that they did for me and how patient and kind they all were. Also it really didnāt take too long, I was there by 1:30 PM and home before 4 PM. Now Iām not so anxious about coming back in the future or riding in an Uber or Lyft for that matter.
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