Baldies' Blog began originally in the UK by a 26 year old journalist with a blood cancer on a mission to inform the world about bone marrow donation.

He has since died, and I took on the cause of making cancer care more transparent for everybody.

Cancer is a disease that will touch everybody through diagnosis or affiliation: 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed and 1 in 3 woman will hear those words, "You Have Cancer."

I invite you to read how I feel along my journey and
how I am continuing to live a full life alongside my Hodgkin's lymphoma, with me controlling my cancer, not my cancer controlling me.

I hope that "Baldies' Blog" will prepare you to handle whatever life sends you, but especially if it's the message, "You Have Cancer."

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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Sexual Screening- PROTECT YOURSELVES

Brace yourselves people, what I’m about to say and relay has shocked even me. What follows is a survey completed by The Tyra Show.
Yes, I’ve been condemned to a minimum of three months day time television while I recover from my transplant.
Tyra brought on all sort of cute faced, innocent looking teenage girls to talk about their sex lives. These girls are the girls next door, but they are getting freaky with the boys next door, across the street, down the street, and over the tracks. WHOA. They have had more partners by 15yo than I have. They all have STDs.
• What she found is: On average, girls are losing their virginity at 15 years of age.
• 14 percent of teens who are having sex say they’re doing it at school.
• 52 percent of survey respondents say they do not use protection when having sex.
• One in three says she fears having a sexually transmitted disease.
• 24 percent of teens with STDs say they still have unprotected sex.
• One in five girls says she wants to be a teen mom.
• About 50 percent acknowledge that they’ve hit someone.
• One out of three teens has tried drugs.
Ugh. What the hell is the world coming to? It was like this when I was in school too, we’ve all known those girls. Now, I think there are just more of them.
Most of us have gone through dating, but now we cross our fingers and hope to make it out on the other side disease free. If you’re lucky enough to get dinner and a movie eventually you’re going to have to confront reality.
So let’s be real for a minute. A screening process is necessary in getting close to anybody.
I was twelve when an acquaintance died of complications from AIDS. She was thirteen.
Maria was raped, and being the 90s, the progression of her disease could not be stopped.
Now, HIV prophylaxis does exist. It can be given right after exposure, but it is NOT the morning after pill.
You don’t know about it, because treatment is a LONG, SEVERE, PAINFUL process with risks such as liver failure (or death).
Better to not go there up front if it is under your control. This option is for providers or individuals who have been stabbed with needles (it happens) or persons who have been raped.
This is not the 60s. Take care of yourselves!
HIV infection has been correlated to lymphomas, not like that is the worst disease you need to worry about if you’re infected.
Though I talk a good game, I have been solely with my man for 9 years, that’s since I was 17.
I have dated since then, but J and I always had the mutual respect not to risk each other’s health and lives.
I’m going to shock you, again, I recommend lovers for those of you running around: clean, monogamous, hot lovers. If you’re going to be promiscuous, don’t spread your legs and diseases.
I think being a LADY is more important than being experienced.
Even though I’ve grown up with some wild girls, it still shocks ME just a little how women (or teenagers and girls under thirteen) treat themselves.
I feel like grandma, but SLEEPING AROUND IS DANGEROUS. DISEASES ARE TERRIBLE. CONTROL YOURSELVES.
One in four young women, 14-19 years old have or have had a STD.
This problem is all over. Don’t think I’m just talking to the youth, there was a venereal disease outbreak in an affluent retirement community in FL. Owners and renters there must be 55 years or older.
Go ahead with your bad selves, but don’t pretend like I’ve never treated someone over 70 years old with AIDs who just picked a lover to point the finger at.
I know about you.
There are websites dedicated to knowing your partner. There are dating services solely for people with health diagnosis. Use these. You do not have to be monogamous, you just have to be real and careful.
This is how the world is, there are now scan cards available from inner city clinics with a website and an ID number so you can hand a mate your card and check out their disease status online. This removes the embarrassing discussion some people do have and everyone else should have which begins with “When was the last time you were tested?” or “Do you have any disease I need to know about?”
Remember, or realize now, there are diseases, such as HPV, that are difficult to diagnose in men, but are clear and disgusting in women.
This means if you intend to hit it with anybody, and are concerned for your body, you need to do something crazy like KNOW and TRUST your man.
It is becoming a long lost art, but some of us do get to know someone in advance of checking out their sheets.
Here are my personal general guidelines:
Do not make decisions high, drunk, or at 3 am after a night in the club, your hormones are ruling the roost. If you DO, always carry protection.
Always consult a friend. Women get beer goggles too. Nobody wants THAT regret, along with all the others that come with it. Confused, please reference “Knocked Up” with Katherine Heigl. Get on Netflix or head to Blockbuster now. If I taught health, I’d show clips of this.
Along these lines, NEVER GO OUT BY YOURSELF. Do not accept drinks that you do not see prepared even from the bartender. Date rape drugs are tasteless and the evidence is gone by the time you wake up.
Never leave a girl behind. That’s how you wind up on posters and the evening news. Our marines don’t do it, neither should you.
If you can’t buy condoms, men and women, you are not mature enough to have sex. Likewise, if you’re embarrassed to be seen at Planned Parenthood do not pass go.
If you don’t know what a condom is, how to use it, or what Planned Parenthood is stop reading right now and search it.
If you can’t say “condom” to the person you’re with, how the hell are you getting naked?
Get references. Know a friend, a family member, I don’t care if the person you know is just in the same damn gang and drives the get away car, know more than just what they’re telling you.
Check out his baby’s momma, ex-girl, ex-wife, whatever. She is NOT a chicken or a hood rat, she is you in the future.
Please, pick up your mouths off the floor, then seriously consider sending this to all the “girls” you know. The worId is going to hell in a hand basket, If “kids” are old enough to read this, they need some lessons.

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