Matthew
Matthew doesn’t know the guy who gave him HIV. But he knows the guy did it on purpose.
Matthew was getting ready to start a new job at Apple and was about to fly to California for a month for training, so he decided to have a little party before he left—a little party that quickly turned into a blur of drugs and strangers. At some point during the night, Matthew went to his room and passed out on his bed—only to wake up to find he was being raped. His memories are hazy. But he remembers clearly the man saying he was going to give Matthew HIV, while Matthew begged and pleaded for the man to stop.
It felt like a nightmare, and Matthew woke up the next day feeling worse than awful. But he still had a life to live. He cleaned his apartment and got to California to start his new job. And that’s where he was when he seroconverted—when he went from being HIV-negative to being HIV-positive. In the back of his mind, he knew it was HIV, but he told himself it was just the flu. Until he came back home, got tested, and was told for sure—he was now living with HIV.
Matthew felt numb when he got his diagnosis. But he didn’t feel particularly scared. He had friends who had been living with HIV since they were 18. He had dated people who were living with HIV. He had even volunteered with AIDS Services of Austin, before the merger with Vivent Health. So he knew he could live with HIV and be okay.
What he didn’t know was that HIV, being associated with systemic inflammation, would kick off a host of other medical issues. In addition to living with HIV, Matthew was soon diagnosed with an aggressive form of psoriatic arthritis, fibromyalgia, and narcolepsy, among other conditions. So even though his HIV has always remained well controlled thanks to antiretroviral medication, he became increasingly sicker.
And as Matthew’s health worsened, his medical bills piled up quickly. His insurance helped him get his HIV medications, but it only covered regular doctor visits and ER visits otherwise—which was not nearly sufficient considering all of Matthew’s healthcare needs.
At times, Matthew had to move away from home to go to a state where he could get better Medicaid coverage. But being away from home was hard; he needed the support of his family, and with his illnesses, it was difficult to work—a crushing blow to Matthew, who had previously been career-driven. And even though he could get better coverage by moving away, it still wasn’t enough.
His parents sold their ranch—what was supposed to be their forever home—and drained their retirement accounts to help Matthew pay for his care. And as Matthew’s physical health declined, so did his mental health, and he fell into a deep depression unlike anything he had ever experienced before. Things were looking grim and there didn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel.
Not until Matthew came to Vivent Health in 2019. Then everything changed.
“I was scared I was going to have to move away again,” he says. “But when Vivent Health called me to say they could get me a health insurance plan, and that they could cover it 100% because I didn’t have an income, I was so excited. My family was so excited. I felt like I had won the lottery.”
Finally, Matthew was able to get all the healthcare he needed—not only the services he used at Vivent Health, but he could also see the specialists he needed for his unique healthcare challenges.
“It was a godsend,” he says. “It was like the clouds parted and Vivent Health floated down and said, ‘We got you. We’re going to take care of you.’”
And Vivent Health has been there for Matthew every step of the way since then.
When he struggled with housing during the Covid pandemic, staff were able to keep a roof over his head, sometimes in a hotel, sometimes in an apartment they helped pay for with housing vouchers.
Our food pantry kept him fed with nutritious food. And not only did our staff provide Matthew with anti-inflammatory foods to help his arthritis, but they tailored each order based on where he was living, giving him more shelf-stable foods when he was living in a hotel and didn’t have access to food storage.
Matthew began therapy at Vivent Health and, with hard work, support, and mental health medications, he pulled himself out of his depression.
“I just didn’t care,” Matthew says. “I would sleep for 22 hours a day. I missed appointments. I just didn’t care. But the power of being able to talk to someone who understood, who helped me find the right dosage of medication—if it wasn’t for my therapist, I would still be in a really dark place.”
Our dental program also showed up for Matthew in a big way. Normally fastidious about his hygiene, Matthew didn’t keep up with his oral care while he was depressed, and he was left with more than a dozen cavities, which he and the dental team are now working to repair.
“There’s no way I could afford a normal dental clinic and get what I needed done without Vivent Health dental,” he says.
Because of Matthew’s various health issues, he is always taking multiple medications; his current regime includes 25 different treatments—some pills, some injections, and all of them coordinated through the Vivent Health pharmacy, paid for through Matthew’s insurance and the patient medication assistance fund, and shipped to Matthew at home.
And on top of it all, Matthew feels truly seen and cared for by his Vivent Health team.
“I walk in and they know who I am,” he says. “They know my birthday. They do what they do out of love and kindness, and that just speaks volumes. Vivent Health has been such a huge, integral part of my life. I would be lost without them.”