Woman to share her HIV story
When Wanona Thomas went in for her prenatal checkup at four-and-a-half months pregnant, the last thing she expected her ob/gyn to tell her was that she had a sexually transmitted infection.
Thomas, 26, said she had been in a relationship with her children’s father for four years. While Thomas was monogamous, her boyfriend was not.
The mother of three soon learned she was HIV positive.
“No words can prepare you for those words: HIV positive,” Thomas said. “I was hurt. I was mad. I was confused. I was just angry.”
Thomas is one of six storytellers who will participate in an event Wednesday where speakers will describe how they overcame obstacles in their lives and used those moments to empower themselves and others.
The event is part of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s 50-Year Ache series, which examines where Milwaukee stands 50 years after the turmoil of the 1967 and 1968 open housing marches. Many of the stories will touch on the challenges that remain and overcoming the same kind of adversity and trauma that marchers faced.
The event is sold out.
In addition to Thomas, other storytellers will include:
Tandra Jordan, a unit supervisor manager at Grateful Girls Inc., who will talk about her journey from living on the streets as a teenager and being involved in sex trafficking to working with young girls today to keep them off the street.
Reggie Jackson, head griot at America’s Black Holocaust Museum, will talk about how, when he worked in Milwaukee Public Schools as a special education teacher, the pressures of testing took precedence over teaching kids led him to leave.
Esmeralda Nungaray, president of the Dreamer’s Scholarship Initiative and a senior at Marquette University, will talk about the importance of Dreamers, her family’s journey to the U.S. from Mexico, and how she will be the first from her family to graduate from college.
Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the Hunger Task Force, will discuss the pain she faced in losing her mother to a homicide and what it was like being raised by her father who didn’t want to be a single parent.
Kwabena Antoine Nixon, a spoken word artist, author, and co-founder of the “I Will Not Die Young” campaign, will talk about the night his father was killed and how a teacher told him that he would never amount to anything. Since then, he has spent his life proving that teacher wrong and helping black boys who never had solid relationships with their fathers.
A surprising diagnosis
Thomas received the news that she was HIV positive on Nov. 28, 2016.
When her boyfriend tested positive as well, her first thought was: What will happen to my children? Especially the one due in five months.
Thomas was a certified nursing assistant who worked hard, went to school and took care of her family. She didn’t participate in “risky behaviors” and she thought she was in a committed, monogamous, relationship.
“The first thing you think is, ‘Why me?’” she said. “And: ‘Am I going to live?’”
Thomas started medical treatment the day after the diagnosis, in hopes of preventing any transmission of the virus to her unborn child. Over the next few months, her viral loads were monitored and through medications reduced to an “undetectable” status, two months before her child was due.
The undetectable status allowed her to have a natural childbirth, and her baby boy was born HIV negative.
When she received the news that her son was HIV negative, she was overcome with a feeling of relief and thanked God. After the delivery, the infant was placed on HIV medicines to protect him from infections.
While dealing with the health concerns of her son and herself, Thomas and her boyfriend were also trying to salvage their relationship. Just as things were getting back to some form of normalcy, Thomas said she received another “gut punch.”
She found a used condom in the bathroom.
“After everything that we had been through and was still going through, I lost it,” she said.
Unsure what else to do, she logged onto Facebook, turned the camera on herself, clicked the button to go live, and told the world of her HIV status.In the video, she thanked family members who stood by her side and didn’t treat her any differently.
“It’s scary at times when I get sick but I bounce back,” she said in the video.
She also warned women to be safe and to protect themselves even if they believe that they are in a committed relationship.
The Aug. 3, 2017, video drew more than 244,000 views and many women began sharing their own similar stories with Thomas. Organizations in Milwaukee and throughout the region began asking her to speak to their groups.
“It all happened so fast but I wanted to show people who I was and to end the stigma associated with HIV,” Thomas said. “By exposing my truth, I feel that I can help others who feel like they have to hide.”
“It’s scary at times when I get sick but I bounce back.” Wanona Thomas