POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: ProbablyInfected on July 27, 2006, 01:46:58 pm
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Hi everyone,
let me introduce myself shortly: I am probably going to be the first poster on the fears board who has been infected without having had unprotected vaginal intercourse or needle sharing. Now, a lot of people have probably made this claim before, but in my case, things really are different. If you bear with me for a moment, I will explain my situation.
I am a european male, 29 years old, who unfortunately happens to be extremely unpopular with women; without prostitutes, I would hardly ever get laid. As a consequence, I have been visiting prostitutes quite often, 70 times for the last two years might be a reasonable guess. As another consequence, I have never ever, in my whole life, had unprotected vaginal intercourse. I got unprotected blowjobs a total of three times (two from working girls, one from one of my extremely rare one night stands), and I gave oral once to a working girl who demanded this (I tried to explain to her that I considered this risky, but she said that she did not have any problems and after some convincing, I gave in). In the last two years, no condom ever broke on me, at least as far as I remember, and I have a habit of checking for condom failure after intercourse. Infection prior to this period has been ruled out by a negative HIV antibody test 12 weeks after a failed condom two years ago. Until a short time ago, I was considering my overall HIV risk to be acceptably low, because I felt I was playing by the rules, and that HIV was a scourge one could be quite safe of avoiding if one did so. In particular, I did not worry much about the cunnilingus incident (which by the way happened four months ago), because apart from a very short episode of licking her outer genitals, I had resorted to stimulating her genital area through rubbing my closed lips against her, working hard to avoid intake of genital fluids. I did force some of my bodily fluids out in the process, partly because I thought using spit as lubricant might be a good idea do avoid the skin of the lips getting broken, thus becoming a potential site of entry for HIV or other dangerous pathogens. In addition, most of my visits were to high-class brothels in germany, and in fact I never made use of street prostitution; so I thought that the girls I fucked with had a low probability of having HIV in the first place. However, it now appears that the enemy still sneaked in. Now, I can hear you say that I had close to no risk; but bear with me a little longer, the evidence will become more convincing as we go.
Around six weeks ago, I got athletes foot. It started with blisters in between two of my toes. The blisters were painful, but initially I did not think about it very much and would just put a disinfecting cream on them when they broke. After several weeks, I realized that this was not going to get better on its own and went to the doctor. At this point, the infected site had become badly inflamed because of heavy bacterial overgrowth. The inflammation receded completely and very swiftly upon starting antfungal and antibacterial treatment, but the fungal infection has not completely resolved even two weeks into application of topical antimycotics.
Now, you may still wonder what the matter is here. After all, a fungal infection that does not go away after two weeks is not that unusual, is it? And I agree that my athlete's foot, on its own, is no reason to panic. Neither is the fact that the site became infested with bacteria. It can be argued that I brought both upon myself, by wearing closed sport shoes in summer, not changing socks for weeks, and waiting another couple of weeks until seeing a doctor with my problem. In a sense, I could, up to this point, count myself happy that this did not spread further than the space between those two toes.
So, will there be a happy ending to this story? I doubt it, for there is a final twist to it: today, the hospital sent me the lab culture results from the swab that they had taken from the infected site on my foot. The things that were growing there, in addition to the fungal infection, were apparently not those which had been expected upon visual examination by the doctor who treated me. Instead, it seems to be so that I had THREE different strains of bacteria living in that wound concurrently. One of them was Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is an opportunistic invader. Another is also a kind of bacterium that is rare in immunocompetent individuals. As I have no other risk factors for immunodeficiency, this leaves but one conclusion, I fear.... :'(
I will be going for an HIV test tomorrow. Where I live, there is no rapid testing, so I will have to wait for a whole week for my results. But then, it seems, I will join the ranks of the other boards here, having been infected through cunnilingus and having had extremely rapid progression to an immunodeficient state. I guess these characteristics will make me a first on this side of the board, but I also guess someone has to be first.
So, what is the take-home message? In my opinion, it should be: don't fail to take the possibility of infection through the oral route serious! It can happen, it does happen, and when it happens, it happens for a lifetime. While of course it is possible that in fact a condom broke on me without my noticing, I tend to doubt it; I can only reiterate the fact that I do check my condoms after sex, I do check that girls are using water-based CE-certified lubes on me, I did everything right in this respect. And, condom breakage is not a subtle thing, when it happens, it is quite easy to detect. So, this leaves oral in my case.
I just hope that this post prevents others from doing the same mistakes as myself. Staying safe means avoiding contact, in any way, shape, or form, to potentially infectious bodily fluids. Keep this in mind, and the things that are now about to happen to me won't also happen to me.
Stay safe, stay well,
ProbablyInfected
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ATTENTION GENERAL READERS OF THIS THREAD: PLEASE NOTE THE TITLE OF THIS THREAD IS MISLEADING. IT IMPLIES THE ORIGINATOR OF THE THREAD IS LIKELY TO HAVE BEEN INFECTED THROUGH CUNNILINGUS. NOTHING THAT HE REPORTS IN HIS OPENING OR SUBSEQUENT REMARKS SUPPORTS THAT SUPPOSITION ON HIS PART.
I do wish you good luck with your test result.
However, I also urge readers to consider that you are presuming to caution others against becoming infected through giving cunnilingus when you have in fact no proof at this point that you are HIV+. By the way, please clarify if you are saying you have never had unprotected intercourse with anyone and cunnilingus would be the only means by which you could have been infected, if indeed that has happened.
Your story also sounds remarkably similar to one which has shown up in this Forum before and I can't help wondering if you have written about this here previously under another name.
We always advise anyone who's sexually active to get a full panel of STD tests done regularly, which means at least annually and every six months would be even better. Getting checked out regularly would certainly have been warranted before this given the experiences you have detailed. Are you now current with tests for other STDs?
At this point it remains uncertain as to whether you are in fact HIV+. As I said before I wish you good luck with your test result.
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I wish you well with your HIV test.
Thanks. Given the circumstances, I'd need a hell of a lot of luck indeed....
However, I urge readers to consider that you are presuming to caution others against becoming infected through giving cunnilingus when you have in fact no proof at this point that you are HIV+.
Well, I could theoretically have another type of immune disorder. But I dare say that all of them are rarer than HIV.
By the way, please clarify if you are saying you have never had unprotected intercourse with anyone
Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. The only situation where I would consider having unprotected intercourse with anyone is in a mutually monogamous relationship. So far, nobody has ever fallen in love with me, so I have never had a relationship. Consequently, I have never ever had unprotected intercourse. Condoms have failed on me, but not during the time not covered by my last HIV test of two years past, which was negative.
and cunnilingus would be the only means by which you could have been infected, if indeed that has happened.
Can't think of any other way it could have happened, unless it happened by insertive oral, which I doubt because I consider getting a blowjob to be really much closer to zero risk than cunnilingus. Likewise, I consider protected vaginal intercourse essentially zero risk for HIV, if a latex condom is used and does not fail.
Your story also sounds remarkably similar to one which has shown up in this Forum before and I can't help wondering if you have written about this here previously under another name.
Nope, I have not written about this under another name before. However, I would be curious to see a similar story, if you happen to have a link ready.
Are you now current with tests for other STDs?
I last checked for the most prevalent STD's (HSV-2, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea) one year ago and the result was that I never had one of them. I did not check for genital HPV infection, because it is my understanding that one cannot do anything about asymptomatic HPV infection, if it happens, and because I felt that I was following safer sex guidelines religiously anyway, so I thought I was not at risk of giving anything to anybody.
ProbablyInfected
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You don't have to have an immune disorder to get Pseudomonas aeruginosa. You only have to have a port for it to enter.
Skin and soft tissue infections, including wound infections, pyoderma and dermatitis. Pseudomonas aeruginosa can cause a variety of skin infections, both localized and diffuse. The common predisposing factors are breakdown of the integument which may result from burns, trauma or dermatitis; high moisture conditions such as those found in the ear of swimmers and the toe webs of athletes and combat troops, in the perineal region and under diapers of infants, and on the skin of whirlpool and hot tub users. Individuals with AIDS are easily infected. Pseudomonas has also been implicated in folliculitis and unmanageable forms of acne vulgaris.
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Probably,
It's HIGHLY unlikely for you to have been infected in what you describe. Cunnilingus is very, very low risk (esp. wth the superficial way you performed it).
You could change your name to "ProbablyNOTInfected".
It's not surprising that you contracted a serious foot infection when "wearing closed sport shoes in summer, not changing socks for weeks, and waiting another couple of weeks until seeing a doctor with my problem".
Let us know what you find out.... but I would expect a negative result.
Morgan
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It can be argued that I brought both upon myself, by wearing closed sport shoes in summer, not changing socks for weeks, and waiting another couple of weeks until seeing a doctor with my problem.
Prob,
You don't change your socks for weeks - and I bet you don't wash your feet either - and you wonder why you have weird bacteria growing between your toes?
No wonder you're not popular with the ladies. It sounds like a little personal hygiene wouldn't go amiss. Go take a shower (with soap) and quit blaming your foot problems on hiv. You haven't had a risk.
Ann
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Now that we have a few more unpleasant details your totally inappropriate thread title is even more offensive than I thought at first.
Nothing you are reporting supports that this is an HIV situation.
However, in more ways than one it would appear you need to clean up your act.
And I still wish you good luck with your test result.
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Did i get that right ? there is a small risk with cunnilingus ?
Probably,
It's HIGHLY unlikely for you to have been infected in what you describe. Cunnilingus is very, very low risk (esp. wth the superficial way you performed it).
You could change your name to "ProbablyNOTInfected".
It's not surprising that you contracted a serious foot infection when "wearing closed sport shoes in summer, not changing socks for weeks, and waiting another couple of weeks until seeing a doctor with my problem".
Let us know what you find out.... but I would expect a negative result.
Morgan
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Asianboy,
Cunnilingus can be a small risk with menstrual blood involved. Seriously, you can relax about this "theoretical" risk.
Morgan
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Asian,
If you have questions, start your own thread. We do not tolerate thread hijacking, as you will discover when you read the Welcome Thread (http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=220.0).
Start your own thread. Thank you for your cooperation.
Ann
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Hello everyone,
I just picked up my test results. When I went to the clinic, I was really trembling with fear, not only of getting back a positive result, but also of in fact having to start treatment very soon, and of course because of the possibility that maybe infection would rule out any possibility of finding what I have always sought but so far not managed to get, namely the love of a nice young woman. Now, the news still has to sink into the deeper levels of my fear-ridden mind, but according to this test, which I have no reason not to trust, I am antibody-negative for HIV-1/2 and p24-antigene-negative as well, so clearly my fears turned out to be completely unfounded . I also realized that my unfounded and irrational level of HIV anxiety might have been offensive to some here; anyone who has been offended by my previous posts, and by my completely inappropriate user-name I truly wish to ask for their forgiveness. On a related issue, it would be interesting to know if I am allowed to change my user name or to create another account here, because the one I now have has clearly not been a choice to be proud of.
The next thing I will do now is get some rest, and some sleep. Thanks to everyone who has posted to this thread for their kind support, you did manage to give me some hope, and certainly helped me to find the strength to actually go through with testing and picking up the results.
Best of luck to all of you,
Probably_a_tiny_bit_stupid ;)
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GOOD FOR YOU!!!! But this isn't a shock! Move forward and we hope to NEVER see you here again for all the RIGHT reasons!
Andrew
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Probably,
Well, I hate to say I told you so...... oh the hell with it. I told you so!
Morgan ;)