Embracing “the Change”
TPAN’s new Executive Director welcomes a new chapter
by Bruce Weiss
I just made a complete change in my life. I packed up all my belongings, grabbed my dog, said goodbye to my friends, and left the city I had lived in for 15 years—Washington, D.C. I gave up far warmer weather and people I loved to make this move. But I took a wonderful opportunity to live in a great city like Chicago and to become part of an incredible organization called Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN).
Well, not a complete change. I still work in the non-profit sector, and continue my career in non-profit management. This is the second Executive Director position I have held in my career. And TPAN is experiencing the same difficult economic times as almost every non-profit in the current economy.
I realize that you, the TPAN reader, might live anywhere in the country or the world, so I want to take a moment to tell you about TPAN. TPAN is an HIV care and prevention organization in Chicago with a staff of more than 30 very hard-working people and a volunteer base that really makes this organization possible. We pride ourselves on being “peer-led,” meaning that there are HIV-positive individuals throughout the organization, and that the voices of HIV-positive individuals aren’t just heard, but they continue to set the course of TPAN. We work hard to maintain, and even enhance, this culture and philosophy as we continue to grow.
“It was right in front of me, but until a new doctor gave me the results and explained what the symptoms would look like, it had never crossed my mind.”My focus for TPAN over the next year is nothing sexy or dramatic. While we hope to continue increasing the distribution of Positively Aware, our main focus in the next year will be internal. We will build our financial stability in a challenging economic time, as well as improve the organization’s internal processes. As I said, nothing sexy, but absolutely vital to any non-profit in 2009. This will involve change for TPAN—change you aren’t to likely see where you are, but change that will take place for staff and will hopefully improve the care and support we provide to clients. It is the kind of change that takes place underneath, where you might not notice it, until someone else mentions that they’ve noticed some changes and then it dawns on you that you have too.
I recently had another life change that was more personal. And it makes it very clear to me why Positively Aware is so important for many HIV-positive people across the country. Soon after I moved to Chicago in April, I had a first visit with my new doctor. He recommended a battery of tests, as doctors usually do, but he mentioned a few I didn’t recall ever having had before. Two weeks later, I went to see him and everything was great news, with a little surprise. He mentioned that I was in something called “andropause,” which means I had low testosterone. He told me the symptoms of andropause and it dawned on me, as he spoke, that I had all these symptoms. I had known that there was a pretty sudden change about four or five years ago, when I started gaining weight, felt a lot less energy, a bit less “spark” in my life. That diminished spark meant both a decreased joy in my life, and a decreased desire for sex. All of this came rushing into my mind in about a minute as I began to discuss this with my doctor. It was an epiphany, to say the least.
There I was working in public health for years, running a health care clinic for part of that time, going to a doctor regularly, and I had never considered this as a possibility. It was right in front of me, but until a new doctor gave me the results and explained what the symptoms would look like, it had never crossed my mind. So I began using a testosterone gel about three weeks ago and the change has been pretty dramatic.
Many people are not as fortunate as I am to have a doctor who is so thorough. Maybe if he had been my doctor a few years ago, I would have known this sooner, because I am guessing my decreasing testosterone didn’t happen suddenly or recently. Maybe not. But there are so many people living across this country who may have symptoms that have come on slowly over time, or even suddenly, but it never occurred to them to ask their doctor. Maybe their doctor doesn’t have as much awareness of important tests or they don’t screen their patients as thoroughly and don’t ask the right questions.
Positively Aware has a responsibility to provide information that might be that “aha” moment for you. Positively Aware can be, and is, the place to learn about health issues, to let you know about health information you might not have considered. Whether it is through an issue on aging and HIV, or this issue focused on women and HIV, Positively Aware is the source that makes you think about your own health, that helps you understand what your doctor should be asking, what you should be telling your doctor, what tests you might want to ask for. Positively Aware is your resource. If you’ve had your own “aha” moment, please let us know, if you think it’s something that should be discussed in this magazine. You can reach us at publications@tpan.com. You, our reader, are the reason we exist, you are our “peers,” and we need your ideas to inspire us.
