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P.H.: You mentioned that you were making two to three thousand dollars a week as a prostitute. How did you deal with not making as much money once you began working as a nurse's aide?

LeeAnn: It was a matter of life or death. If I stayed as a prostitute then I would've died. The men don't want to use condoms and I could've gotten re-infected. People don't realize you can get re-infected if you are having sex with someone who is positive without a condom.

P.H.: Have you ever dealt with stigmatization from physicians because you are HIV positive?

LeeAnn: Only once. I was referred to an oral surgeon in Fairfield. I filled out the medical form and I also put down that I was HIV positive. The secretary came out in the waiting room and proceeded to tell me that due to my condition, this dentist doesn't feel like he could treat me. I said, "What do you mean? Oh, due to the fact that I am HIV positive? That I have HIV and AIDS, that he won't see me? I have a tooth that needs to come out. Isn't this an oral surgery dentist? Then the dentist is discriminating, huh? He won't treat anyone with HIV/AIDS."

I yelled it right in the waiting room. I had just been discriminated against. At least she could've done it in a back room, but doing it out in front of everyone? I don't want it happening to someone else.

People just don't care. One day a year for World AIDS Day, the local news and radio stations will do 30 seconds, maybe 60 seconds, bleep, and then it is off the map again.