Instagram model Gena Tew reportedly discovered she had AIDS after suffering a series of health issues for years, and has come forward to reveal that her routine STD checks apparently failed to identify the illness.
Tew thought her routine health and STD checks included screening for AIDS and discovered the hard way that this wasn’t the case, according to TMZ. She was symptom-free at first, but then Tew began suffering from a variety of health issues that repeatedly left her without answers.
“I started losing mobility in my legs. I couldn’t make it to the bathroom, I was running head-first into walls because I just couldn’t control myself,” Tew said. “My bowels just started going, whenever, wherever,” Tew said in a video.
After attempting to uncover what was causing her health to decline so sharply, and going through a series of scans for cancer and other illnesses, one doctor asked Tew if she knew she had AIDS, and that was the first moment she realized she was living with the disease, Tew explained in the video.
“I didn’t know I had AIDS. I got sick one day started fainting fevers, got really weak,” Tew said. “No, I don’t know who gave it to me,” she said. She has notified the people she’s been intimate with of her condition, according to TMZ.
“Within like 2 weeks not even I couldn’t walk anymore from being bedridden. I still can’t walk I still am trying to gain muscle in my legs to be able to stand, because I still need help standing,” Tew revealed. (RELATED: Geico May Pay $5.2 Million To Woman Who Allegedly Got STD From Car Sex)
Tew candidly revealed the severity of her ailments and the toll they have taken on her body. “[The doctors] said if I didn’t show up when I did I would have died because my blood count was so low,” Tew noted.
“I’ve had to take medicines, and some medicines have caused me to go blind in my left eye. I no longer have vision there. I got a disease from AIDS in my eyes,” Tew said in another video.
The Instagram model discussed how difficult life has been since her diagnosis, and admits her declining health also affected her mother, who has to provide ongoing care, TMZ reported. She’s taking 5 pills a day and is going to all her medical appointments. “I’m trying to fight it,” Tew said.
Tew encouraged her fans and followers to take initiative when it comes to their health, and to ensure they’re addressing any unexplained symptoms right away. “I learned real quick you feel something, go check it,” Tew said.