Going in for HIV Testing!

A lot of people who have never gone to get tested for HIV don't know what it's like, and that can be pretty intimidating. Testing is really important, though. Testing doesn't give you HIV-but if you have HIV, getting tested can be the difference between life and death. Still, it doesn't feel very good. You might feel like you're being judged, or a little freaked out about the test itself.

To find out what HIV testing was like, I decided to do it myself. I'd never been tested before. It had never occurred to me to be tested, until I wanted to write a blog entry about it. So I called ahead to the Northern Virginia AIDS Ministry and contacted the testing coordinator. He was really nice and really encouraging. He helped me set up a time when I could come in and told me the test would only take about twenty minutes.

I went in without really knowing what to expect. I was met at the office by Bernard, who was going to be testing me. Bernard asked me to sit down in his office-it didn't even look like a medical office, it was just like your normal office-type office- and he explained what the test was going to be like. It's just a swab, like with a Q-tip, from the inside of your mouth. They just put that in a solution that will react if you've got HIV. No needles, no blood or anything gross like that.

Before I got that done, though, Bernard wanted to ask me some questions. A lot of people who test want to make sure people are educated about HIV so they can keep from getting it in the first place. He wanted to know things like if I had had unprotected kinds of sex recently, if I was monogamous or not, and if I had used needles to inject drugs. Everything we talked about was confidential, of course-it wasn't like he was going to tell anybody if I did those things, he just needed to know so he could talk to me about what kinds of things I could be doing that might be a way I could end up with HIV. I don't inject drugs and I haven't had unprotected sex recently, but if I did I'm pretty sure I'd feel comfortable telling him about it.

After we went through the questions, I got the swab taken and I hung around for about twenty minutes. I kind of wish I had brought something to read or listen to, but that's ok. When time was up, Bernard got back to me and said I was testing negative. Awesome. He gave me a couple of tips on how to use condoms and then I was out. No sweat-just a quick chat with a helpful and friendly guy, and I was on my way.