Lucky is as Lucky does

HIV helped turn around life of Atlanta man who supports AIDS Walk

By MIKE FLEMING
OCT. 17, 2008

LUCKY SANTANA WAS A DIFFERENT MAN in 2002. After growing up in an abusive home in Albany, Ga., he was dealing with mental health issues, and he was perhaps too entrenched in the party scene.

But he says his HIV diagnosis that year was pivotal in giving his life new direction.

“Before I was HIV-positive, I didn’t have a partner, and was partying a lot,” he says. “It kind of woke me up and helped me focus on the important things in life.”

Some 14 years ago, in part to make a break from his tough childhood, he changed his name to Lucky Santana. He says the name suits him now more than ever.

“I just feel more like a ‘Lucky,’” he says. “I’m very outgoing, very generous, loving, caring, empathetic. I wanted to be a star, but in a good way, the kind that helps people.”

Since his diagnosis, Santana completed nursing school and now works for Dr. T. Douglas Gurley, an HIV specialist in Midtown West. His relationship, just blossoming when he was diagnosed, is headed toward its seventh anniversary, coincidentally on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1.

“We’re still together, and he’s negative,” Santana says. “It makes me so mad that there are people out there that think someone who is positive and someone who is negative can’t be together and both stay that way.”

WITH THE ATLANTA AIDS WALK/RUN coming on Oct. 19, Santana’s story and perspective are particularly poignant. People participating in the once-a-year event can take courage and solace in how well he’s doing, and how his year-round example exemplifies the struggles and triumphs of others living with the disease.

Working with HIV-positive patients as a person who shares their experience is one of the most positive aspects of Santana’s life change, he says.

“I finally found a niche, and if it took me becoming HIV positive to get there, so be it,” he says. “It put me where I wanted and needed to be.”

Gurley says he’s proud of Santana, and that his story of living and thriving with HIV is an example of how far HIV treatments have come.

“Patients love him; they can relate to him,” Gurley says. “His HIV is completely controlled, and it’s a very small part of who he is. It doesn’t affect his lifestyle or job performance, and luckily, most of my patients now are in the same category, living very functional lives with minimal disease.”

SANTANA WAS ONE OF THE FIRST HIV-positive people in Atlanta to go from taking Truvada and Sustiva, which each attack the virus at different stages, to one pill a day, Atripla.

The advances in HIV care are exciting steps for patients, but the changes keep Gurley on his toes, he says.

“The standard of care changes almost every month, so you have to keep up with the research to be an effective provider,” he says. “The whole highway of medications is more complicated, but it’s so exciting and great with so many more tools at our disposal.”

That’s a big change from the time when Gurley first started treating HIV. Medicines that were basically “a cookie cutter approach” for almost every patient, according to Gurley, also had notable side effects.

“HIV has turned from a terminal disease to a chronic disease like diabetes,” he says. “The lipodystrophy [facial wasting, subcutaneous fat deposits and humps near the neck and upper back] made it almost obvious if someone was living with HIV. In today’s time, most people you would never know, and we tell people that they can live a normal life if they stick to their medications.

“It went from being a handful of pills a day to one a day in most cases,” he says.

WITH ALL THE MEDICAL ADVANCES in HIV treatment, Santana and Gurley still agree that events like the AIDS Walk serve two crucial functions: awareness and funding.

“Even though people are living better lives, I still see so many young people who say they’re bare-backing and having unprotected sex, and we’re still diagnosing people every single day,” Gurley says. “There can’t be enough awareness, so HIV and AIDS still require a lot of attention and money.”

The AIDS Walk, which takes place Oct. 19 at Piedmont Park and Grady High School, has a fundraising goal of $1 million this year and benefits 10 local AIDS service organizations. It features guests including U.S. Rep. John Lewis, former Miss America Leanza Cornett, former presidential AIDS advisor Denise Stokes, and gay, HIV-positive fashion designer Jack Mackenroth from “Project Runway.”

Mackenroth also appears at the “Living Positive by Design” educational and social event on Oct. 17. The event also features Internal Medicine specialist Dr. Jeffrey Stephens and information representatives from local agencies SisterLove and Central City AIDS Network.

As to how crucial funding from events like the AIDS Walk remains, Gurley points to the treatment of people who can’t afford private care.

“I have to bridge people all the time when they lose coverage,” he says. “So it’s very important that non-profits and public care get the funds they need.”

Santana, who volunteered at AID Atlanta and Grady IDP before he was a nurse, agrees.

“Get tested, know your status,” he says. “If you are positive, get help. If you are negative, learn what you need to know to stay that way.”

Santana, 49, won’t be participating in the AIDS Walk this year due to an upcoming hip surgery. But true to his positive outlook, he says that his surgery is actually good news about HIV.

“It points to the fact that people are living longer,” he says. “We’re dealing with issues that everybody else is dealing with; we’re getting older like everybody else. It’s actually wonderful how far we’ve come.”

This article first appeared in Southern Voice, and is copied in whole from their website.

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