Anxious, Worried, What Have I Done

[sinned666]

Hello,

Im hoping you will be able to put my mind at rest.

I had massive bust up with my partner in Thailand, having been travelling together for 14 months, our relationship spanned 8 years in total and she upped and left whilst i was still asleep and flew back home.

2 days after that i made the stupid mistake of drinking and seeking comfort in Thai Prostitute. We had sex 3-4 times, i stupidly did not use any protection.

I am not circumcised and after we had finished i noticed chaffing on the top of my penis were there skin had been rubbing, this went away in 2 days.

When it come to morning we went to have sex again and she said put a condom on, when i questioned why she had not asked earlier, she said because of Aids, i asked her did she have Aids and she said Yes. In astonishment and feeling sick, i continued to question her, she got upset and angry and was saying no i don't, no i don't. She then phoned a Thai friend of hers who could speak very good English, who i asked the same whether she had any diseases, she said no that she did not have any. I think here there was a breakdown in communication and she was asking me to put it on for her protection possibly. Her English was not the best.

For the last 4 months ive been dependent on and off on Co-codamol, Tramadol, Diazapam and over the last 2 weeks a form antihistamine to help me sleep. Ive used heavily on the Co-codamol and the Antihistamine up until Sunday, then i stopped i completely.

On Monday afternoon i start to get sweats, were my body temperature raises and then drops again and general feeling of being unwell, with a runny nose, but not flu like symptoms. My first thoughts was the H.I.V (due to the conversation we me and the thai prostitute had and the lack of protection) after stupidly searching the internet, this was one of the symptoms, a fever of sorts but not and it mentions night sweats which the following night i woke up with and slept awfully, again albeit without the script meds id been taking. Tuesday i sweated all day was out of breath after doing simple things and extremely tired and lethargic. Wednesday i felt a little better less sweats, more energy, but slight headaches, Today (Thursday) i have a slight cough.


Cut along story short i went the docs and told him my plight on wednesday, told him what an idiot i had been and referred to a GUM clinic. I went the GUM Clinic and spoke to the nurse who screened me for all STIS, Hep B, Hep C and HIV, however this was only 3 weeks, after the event, so she said in all likelyhood it will come back negative. She has then booked me another appointment for 2 months from yesterday to fully checkup.

She said my illness is probably down to the fact ive hammered my body with different meds, and especially in the last week, and my body is withdrawing which when i checked drug withdrawal, some of the symptoms cross reference

My questions are.

1.If this girl did have H.I.V how big is the increase in me contracting it with the chaff and the skin coming away on the top of my penis (there was no bloody from either party)

2.When the word fluey like symptoms is mentioned, how bad are these flu like symptoms supposed to be, in other words, would i know if it was flu like symptoms and not the ones ive mentioned above.

3. I dont really think i can wait 8 weeks, so i was planning to get a rapid test done on or around the 7 week mark, and was wondering if the THT do this for free or if there is a charge.

I realise there is little chance of female to male, but with the skin coming away i no this ups the risk and i was wondering how much by.

Should i be worried at all, my sister who is a nurse said these withdrawal symptoms if thats what it is should last five days or so,  how long would the symptoms of H.I.V last?

any help would be greatly appreciate my life is in such a mess, i have so many issues to tackle, and i really want to fix my relationship with my ex, but with this looming and potential positive that would kill it forever.

[Andy Velez]

Let's keep this as simple as possible.

Obviously you have had a risk. The earliest you can test is at 6 weeks after the most recent risk. If you test negative at 6 weeks that will be a strong indication you are likely to continue to test negative at 3 months.

The average time to seroconversion is 22 days. All but the very smallest number of those who are going to seroconvert will do so within 4-6 weeks after an exposure.

Speculating about this or that on your penis or any other details is not helpful or informative. And neither the presence nor the absence of symptoms can be relied upon for any answer about HIV status. Only an HIV test taken at the proper time can give you that answer reliably.

You've got some waiting time to get through. Focus on other matters in your life during this period and the waiting time will pass more quickly than you may imagine is possible. One of the big pluses in your favor is that it is much more difficult to transmit HIV from female to male than the other way around.

[sinned666]

Thanks Andy,

Im finding it difficult not to concentrate on anything else at the moment, its pretty damn hard, not just for me i guess but for other people in the same situation.

The only reason i mentioned the chaffing, skin rub was that i did read there is more chance of infection if this happened.

Im convincing myself more and more daily that im hopefully/likely to be negative but the skin issue has freaked me out.

This was a one off, i regretted it straight away, its just not and never has been me to be this stupid, my head was completely in the wrong place. 

I guess ill have to sit it out for another 4 weeks and get a rapid test then, hopefully though fingers crossed i get a negative in 2 weeks time from yesterday which will give me some possibly false hope of being negative the following two

[Andy Velez]

Of course your concern is understandable. But guessing and speculating about this or that detail just feed the anxiety without giving the answer you want.

If that first test result comes back negative that will be encouraging. Fingers crossed here.

Cheers.

[Ann]

Sinned,

THT does not do hiv testing. Go to your local GUM clinic, where any STI testing is free. As Andy said, a six week result will be a very good indication of your hiv status.

You have a good chance of coming out of this one-time unprotected incident hiv negative, regardless of the chaffing. But you do need to test to make sure.

You quit benzos and strong opiates cold-turkey and you wonder why you feel like shit? That's what happens, mate. You can expect the withdrawal to last anywhere from one to two weeks, depending on how much of these drugs you were taking and for how long. This is something to follow up on with your GP.

Good luck and remember, you have a good chance of coming out of this ok. Hiv is much more difficult to transmit from a woman to a man.

Ann

[sinned666]

Hello people,

Today i phoned my local THT, they do free rapid testing there, so i went down there to get it done. This is 4 weeks after possible exposure.

After waiting 20 minutes for it to be cooked (possibly the worse 20 minutes of my life) i was brought into the room and showed the strip which had no red lines down either (if you know what i mean)

This meant i was negative, or in there words, there was no reaction. I was told that this was very good news. The lady who took my blood and done the test told me that the tests they use if i was infected (taking into account timeframes and time left to seroconverion), they would expect to see some reaction on the blood test, however there was none.

So as i said, she said it was good news, i will still return on week 7, and 3 months, but i guess i should take this as good news, and just to back up what this lady was saying, she didn't say anything out of context did she.

[Andy Velez]

Of course it's good news. The average time to seroconversion is 22 days. So this is a very hopeful indication that you will continue to test negative.

Cheers.

[sinned666]

Thank you Andy, with the 4th Generation Duo test which was used, would i be right in thinking that its normally around 90-95% accurate on the 28 day mark.

[Andy Velez]

We don't get into % conversations here. All but the smallest number of those who are going to seroconvert will have done so within 4-6 weeks after a risk. So your recent negative result is encouraging.

Given the details of your situation it seems likely you will continue to test negative. More than that we can't say and you are just going to have to wait to test for a conclusive result.