17/10/2023
Consequences of hookup lifestyle part 1
****Long read****
Read with me Steve's true life story, unedited.
What can compare to the joy of holding your newborn baby?
For me that joy is overwhelming. My name is Steve. Iāve been married five years and love my wife more than ever.
We have an amazing son and the news we were expecting a baby girl made our future even brighter. But choices I had made in my past would cloud our bright future and leave our newborn daughter fighting for her life.
At first, Ginger seemed healthy, but after a few days, my wife said something about Ginger didnāt seem right. Ginger Was sluggish and not very responsive to us.
Our pediatrician said not to worry. āAll babies are different,ā he said. āShe wonāt act the way your son did.ā
Then one night while my wife was holding Ginger, our baby girl stopped breathing and turned blue. I thought my daughter was dying.
Finally, we got a devastating diagnosis. Ginger had been born with herpes. The casual sĀ£x Iād had in college left me infected with the incurable virus.
I told my wife I had herpes before we married, so throughout our marriage, we were careful to have s*x only when we thought it was safe.
Yet, as careful as we were, my wife still contracted the virus sometime while she was pregnant with Ginger.
My wife didnāt know she had contracted herpes. She never had a single symptom.
The anger and guilt I felt, knowing I had passed the virus to my wife and she to my daughter, was overwhelming.
As we watched my daughter struggle to stay alive, I thought, We were so careful; how could this happen?
It happens more easily than you think. You can catch herpes even with condom use.
You can catch herpes from a partner even when they donāt have an outbreak.
You can pass it on to an infant even when you donāt have an outbreak.
Herpes attacks an infantās brain like Pac-Man, eating through it. Babies who survive are usually left with severe disabilities.
The virus was already eating through Gingerās liver. We prayed her brain would not be next. Our prayers were answered.
Ginger made a miraculous recovery. The virus did not attack her brain. Developmentally, she is a normal fifteen-month-old, but that could change any minute. The virus could attack again.
Itās heartbreaking to watch the painful medical procedures Ginger must undergo every month.
She will never outgrow herpes. Itāll be a threat to my little girlās health for the rest of her life, and it all started with the lie of casual sĀ£x, the lie that casual sĀ£x feels great and hurts no one.
Itās the lie I was taught in high school sĀ£x-ed class. Itās the lie that kids are now taught in middle school sĀ£x-ed class.
Some politicians want it taught to kids in kindergarten. Iām reminded of that lie every day, reminded by the recent news reports that one out of every four adults in New York City has herpesāadults who think casual sĀ£x doesnāt hurt anybody, because thatās what our culture tells them.
But mostly, Iām reminded of the lie of casual sĀ£x by the blisters on my daughterās tiny fingersāpainful blisters that never seem to go away.
And Iām reminded by her fight for life. Casual sĀ£x . . . see for yourself. Then ask, āWhat can I do to help stop the lie?ā
This is one of the many consequences of hookup lifestyle.
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By the way, the picture in this post was generated with AI. I can generate for you at a tokenš.
