Robert Brunet

I wasn’t expecting to be diagnosed with HIV for my 30th birthday. And I certainly wasn’t planning to be under treatment for HPV-related cancer thirty years later. Yet here I...

The first time I heard the term AFRAIDS was several years before I tested positive for HIV. A friend said it was a new disease killing people. It made people...

I could not choose the time and place I became HIV positive. But I did decide when and why I would begin my treatment. I believe my ongoing participation in...

My first opportunistic infection was Kaposi Sarcoma. It was a viral cancer that created dark purple lesions across my body. In the plague years, it was also one of the...

Like everything else in life, things weren't supposed to turn out this way. In 1995 I was told to get my affairs in order. The next thing I knew, the...

Despite being HIV positive for 30 years, only recently have I processed what happened to myself and my friends. I thought that acknowledging those I had known was enough. But...

I took my first and only HIV test 3 decades ago. It saved my life, but not in the way you might be thinking. I already knew the results, even...

Ironically, I did not consider pursuing a career until I became HIV-positive. I had been very happy working front-line service-level jobs in the food and beverage industry. But something changed...

As treatment options for HIV have changed, so have my personal views evolved. When I was first diagnosed, I resisted taking AZT, and now 30 years later, I am discussing...

Years ago, after a long Mardi Gras weekend, my partner woke up with a rash on his side. Within a few hours, it changed from a series of bumps into...

I'm starting to get plans together for our upcoming Alaskan cruise. While I'm making sure I have the recommended attire and the suitable excursions planned, I know that as a...

My mother had a stroke on the morning of my 13th birthday. My father found her on the bathroom floor where she had fallen. I was the youngest child and...

I don’t remember the first time I allowed my anger to take over. But there have been too many instances not to do something about it over the years. Allowing...

I don’t think I gave my eating habits any thought until I received my HIV test results in 1994. I was 29 years old and had dabbled in "healthy food"...

Recently, I was confronted with a startling fact. During my annual physical, my doctor referred to me as 'someone in your age group.' It took me a moment to process...

My viral load has been undetectable for 20 years. This has kept opportunistic infections at bay, leaving me to deal with other challenges to my health. Like the time I...

I learned that being HIV+ was a crime in 1989. It was during a training session for a demonstration I participated in to protest the lack of and high cost...

The combination of an undetectable HIV viral load and avoiding serious injury to my body over the years led me to a false sense of invulnerability. That illusion was shattered...

It started with a bruise on my thigh. I thought I had bumped into something, except it didn’t go away. I could run my finger over and feel the texture...