Living with HIV
How an unlikely HIV patient turned a desperate diagnosis into a story of survival
Story by Kate Vanskike • Photo by Gary Matoso
It was stuffy in the high school classroom where Christina Spring and a couple of dozen other students took freshman English.
They might have been discussing Homer’s Odyssey or the poetry of Emily Dickinson; Spring couldn’t have said for sure. The only thing the 15-year-old was reading that day was a letter from her boyfriend—a boy she thought she loved—telling her he had HIV, and that he’d known it when he had unprotected sex with her.
Spring already knew her boyfriend was positive: She’d been contacted by an agency assigned to carry out partner notification, and she’d subsequently undergone three separate tests to confirm that she was HIV-positive, too. But finding out that her partner had risked infecting her knowingly, had never thought to protect her, was the worst betrayal of all.
Her worst fears realized
Her first two tests had been inconclusive. Having written a report about AIDS in the fifth grade, Christina was aware of the possibility that her cells were in the process of converting from negative to positive. As it turned out, that’s exactly what was happening. The third test came back positive.
Prevent the spread: Get Tested!
Half of new HIV infections are caused by the 20 percent of carriers who don’t know they’re positive. Even if you’re not at high risk for infection, get tested.
- Ask your regular primary care provider to include an HIV test in your annual lab work.
- Emergency rooms can do HIV testing along with tests for other sexually transmitted diseases.
- The HIV Clinic provides screening to anyone who is a patient at the Internal Medicine Residency clinic.
“I’d cried out all my tears in the months of waiting. So I decided I was going to find a provider and get treatment, do public speaking and not care what the world thought,” she says.
Just three months after her diagnosis, Spring began teaching other kids about HIV, speaking to large groups at school and community events. It would have been a daunting experience for anyone with the disease, much less a teenager. Fortunately, Spring had a family who embraced her, friends who stood by her side, and, after she told her story to 500 students at a major event, she had her entire school behind her as well.
But even a strong support network couldn’t lessen the emotional toll that having HIV took on such a young girl. Surrounded by stereotypes, stigmas and fear, Spring believed that she would never marry or have children—that her diagnosis sentenced her to a lifetime alone.
Moving on
As fate would have it, that wasn’t the case. Spring went on to have children—first as a single parent, and later, when she met the right man, as the wife and mother in a bustling household. Throughout her two pregnancies, she made regular appointments with her health care provider and faithfully took the medications she was prescribed to protect her babies. Her first child was a beautiful little girl, who tested negative for HIV. A few years later she had a baby boy, also healthy and HIV-free. “He was another miracle,” she says.
The third miracle was Ron, a caring man and loving father Christina met through her kids’ sports activities. Ron helped her to finally overcome the awful feeling of being unworthy of love.
“Thank God I don’t feel that anymore,” she sighs.
The couple married in 2010 and moved their newly combined families to Spokane for a fresh start. Here, Spring has connected with the Spokane AIDS Network and continues her medical care at The HIV Clinic at Internal Medicine Residency Spokane.
Looking ahead, Spring dreams of starting her own business, specializing in HIV advocacy and increasing public awareness of the disease. She continues to speak at schools as well in outpatient programs for adults battling drug addiction and alcoholism.
“Never judge a book by its cover,” she tells all who will listen. “People with HIV are not just drug addicts or prostitutes. We’ve got to completely wipe away the ignorance and stigma that still exist.”
She also offers a piece of advice: “In the heat of the moment, it’s your responsibility to protect yourself. Make the right choice for your future and your loved ones’ futures, too.”
The realities of HIV
Once thought to be mostly limited to gay men and people addicted to drugs, the incidence of HIV is rapidly increasing among women and teens. HIV affects people of all ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, economic classes and professions.
“We’re definitely seeing some pretty young people,” says Debbie Stimpson, HIV specialist at The HIV Clinic at Providence Fifth & Browne Medical Center. “They don’t perceive the risk of acquiring HIV and have a sense of invulnerability—that nothing could happen to them. Then all of sudden, they’ve acquired this lifelong disease and they’re not even 25.”
While medical advancements make it possible for HIV-positive people to live longer, more normal lives, patients still face significant physical and psychological challenges.
Every day, Christina Spring is reminded that the rest of her life depends on taking her medications faithfully. Her body is constantly fighting off the virus, and it’s exhausting work. When the common cold comes around, she has to take extra precautions, and if she gets sick, it’s scary. In the back of her mind, there is always the worry that someday, her HIV could turn into full-blown AIDS.
This is the reality for the 1.2 million people suffering from HIV in the United States.