David sick

David has been off work for three days, only went back today. Said he was over tired and needed some time off. I wondered if he may have got my head cold as it was making me very tired, but he hasn't been sneezing or anything. Just genuinely overdone. He'll get paid for it out of sick pay.

It's all rather familiar with me. I tried and tried to keep things going with work, and often had days off simply because I was so bloody tired at 6am I couldn't get out of bed. In a way now though it's good that I can relate to what he's going through now as I've been through it myself before.

Said to him it was good that he was listening to his body, and that it's about him and not work. Whether management or work colleagues understand or not isn't the point. With HIV you simply have to be aware of your body's limitations and act accordingly.

Sometimes I think there can be a problem at work even if the management knows your status. As there's no visible signs that you're sick, people at my work seemed to forget that I was HIV+. Like the supervisor who came into work deathly sick with bronchial asthma and I ended up off work for a week with it. Or the factory manager who appeared to believe I wasn't sick but simply trying to rip off the company. Even though they knew they just didn't get it. Things change with HIV and sometimes it's not easy balancing the demands of work with the demands of HIV.

Thankfully David's work is extremely supportive.