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It happened to me!

christi

By christi,
in Personal Experience with Herpes

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christi Honeycomb Member

christi

Posted
Posted

Hi everyone,

I thought I’d post a message telling everyone why I am writing a book on herpes. I’m sure a lot of you are wondering what is driving me to write it, why I think I’m qualified etc. The truth is my story is most likely not unlike many when it comes to how I got herpes. I was in a relationship with a guy who I though I would spend the rest of my life with when herpes ‘struck’. Unfortunately my boyfriend wasn’t as supportive as I would have liked. He refused to get tested, refused to believe that he may have possibly infected me and dumped me with the words ‘I don’t need a girlfriend with problems and I don’t need herpes’ OUCH! Oh, my aching heart!!

Just before I had my first outbreak I had been in hospital with a bad flu virus and my appendix also burst. Just bad luck! I needed eight weeks off work to recover and put in an application as not only was I physically exhausted but an emotional wreck! I worked for a large government organisation at the time and my leave was DENIED! I couldn’t believe it and had no idea why they would deny it. In the investigations that followed I discovered that my manager (who has since been fired for his behaviour) was married to a medical receptionist and had (illegally) gained access to my medical information and had not only discovered that I had been diagnosed with herpes but put it in a fax and faxed it around the organisation! My leave was denied because even though I was an excellent, well respected employee once he found out I had herpes he thought I had no integrity!!! Please, take heart, this is anyone’s worst nightmare but I’m sure it is an isolated incident! This was just an extraordinary thing that happened to an ordinary person!

To cut a long story short I sued under the anti-discrimination act (the only way I could) but it meant I had 12 months of interviews between legal parties where I had to sit in an interview room and tell my story and talk about how I had herpes in front of groups of executives. Not only that, because of the actions of my manager the ‘whole world knew’ and I was still trying to deal with the diagnosis myself! In the end I was promoted to a better job, in the same organisation, and awarded $2000 for hurt feeling and humiliation. Well, thanks. Needless to say, I don’t work there anymore…. I love my new job so good things do happen!

However, I don’t intend to put this experience in my book (I don’t want to give anyone nightmares!) I just want to write something for the everyday person who lives and loves with herpes. I am OK with the herpes thing now and am a much stronger, better person for the experience. I am a fit, healthy, balanced individual. The whole experience has given me a passion and drive to help reduce the stigma in anyway I can and as my personal talent is writing this book and magazine articles is how I’ve chosen to help.

I can see a lot of people have view my ‘Experiences Please’ message but I haven’t had any responses yet that I could use (I know it's only been up for a few days). Just a few words will help, you never know that what you might add will go a long way to helping this book be something we can all be proud of!

Thank-you, Christi.

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Guest Anonymous

Guest Anonymous

Posted
Posted

Couldn't Resist

Just a story I wanted to pass on to you. I had some friends who worked at the medical organization who during our lunch time breaks would often talk about people who where infected with H. I found it a very unethical practice because I didn't tell them about my condition, but felt they knew due to the constant talk about it during our conversation together. I never went to the hospital there to get treat for suppression therapy, which I had done at my previous organization. I didn't want anyone to know unless I told them. And in the back of my mind, I knew those people they were talking about didn't want other people to know either.

It is unfair how you were treated. I feel that the only person who should be spreading that information is the person who has it. What happened to medical ethics? And if you are in the military, what happened to a military ethical code?

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