My drug times in Sydney left me with a scar. A deep and meaningful one that I am only now understanding.
A free STD/HIV clinic was situated in Kings Cross Sydney, predominantly for the sex workers and drug users like me. I was 22/23 years old. I went for a check-up.
The results for Hepatitis B came back positive. Needle sharing. Not too big of a concern, as 90% of people get sick, fight it, and become surface E-enzyme positive. I didn’t. That meant I would be dead from Liver sclerosis by 40 at best. Not easy to swallow at that age. I decided to live my life in full before it happened.
Every 6 months from that time I had an LFT (Liver Functions test) and Hep B test. Nothing changed. I was going to die. Fuck it!
At 29, I had my usual test. It came back surface E-enzyme negative. I tested again. It was confirmed. Very rare event in medical terms.
Now I had to come to terms with living a normal life period. Sounds weird, but that is hard to get your head around at that age.