She’s 10. She has HIV. And she’s about to learn the truth.
Lee tries to coax a smile out of her daughter JJ by giving her hugs and kisses. JJ, who was born with HIV, was frustrated and bored in the house on this particular day. As children with HIV reach puberty, hospital staff plan for weeks how to tell them about their illness, debating whether the kids are ready to know — whether they can handle it.
JJ takes medicine for HIV, depression and ADHD. She has trouble with the larger pills. She practices swallowing various sizes of candy to eventually graduate to the real medicine at Children's National Medical Center in Washington. Kids with HIV can live into their 70s if they adhere to their drugs. It seems simple, but denial, depression and rebellion lead some to refuse treatment, experts say.
John Woodrow Cox-September 18, 2015
The fifth-grader with cornrows stepped from an elevator at Children’s National Medical Center and walked over the polished tile floor she had first crossed in a baby carrier. She rounded a corner and opened the door to Room 3400, its purposely generic name inscribed on a white panel: “MEDICAL SPECIALTIES.”
Her adoptive mother, her right hand on a metal cane, limped through the crowded waiting room as JJ pulled a Care Bears coloring page from a plastic file and sat down at a miniature table. She began outlining stars with a blue crayon, then she spotted a pair of familiar performers.
