Seventeen years is a long time for any blog to remain online. Over that time, HIVBlogger has grown almost organically, following the changes in my life, my health, and the things I have felt compelled to write about.
Recently, I have been tidying the site and reclassifying its hundreds of posts into a clearer structure. Articles are now gathered under headings including Living with HIV, Kidney Failure & Dialysis, Autism & Accessibility, Health & Wellbeing, Advocacy & News, Support, and Personal Reflections. I have also updated old links, redirected pages where necessary, and begun making the archive easier to navigate.
As part of that work, the blog now has a new home at hivblogger.ie. There is no grand relaunch attached to the change. The new domain will simply be there, reflecting both where I live and the place from which much of the writing now comes.
It has been interesting—and sometimes strange—to reread posts written many years ago. One that particularly struck me was “July 21”, written in 2009 after I learned that my viral load had become undetectable.
The post records that genuinely joyful news, but it also speaks honestly about the depression and lack of motivation I was experiencing. I wrote about becoming better at taking my medication and about finding practical ways to manage food and everyday life.
Rereading it now, I am struck by how much was contained in one brief update: relief, illness, mental health, medication, food, and the ordinary work of trying to look after myself. It was not written as a grand reflection. It was simply a record of life as it was being lived.
Some older posts belong very clearly to the time in which they were written. Treatments have changed, language has developed, organisations have moved or disappeared, and my own understanding has grown. Yet many of the fears, frustrations, hopes, and small victories recorded in them still feel familiar.
I do not want to erase that history by rewriting everything through the eyes of the person I am today. The older posts are part of the record: of living with HIV, confronting stigma, navigating healthcare, and gradually finding a voice of my own.
The work is not finished, but the site already feels more coherent. What began in 2009 as one person writing about life with HIV has become a much broader account of health, disability, faith, advocacy, and ordinary life.
Seventeen years is a lot to sort through. It has also been interesting to reread—and it is something worth preserving.