POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: scaredoflonely19 on February 13, 2009, 10:37:04 pm
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December 1, 2008 I had unprotected anal sex(no ejection on both parts) with a great guy I met off the chat(Very Stupid). About 3 1/2 week later I had an headache and was soughta tired. Maybe because I didnt eat that day. So i went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night feeling a little hot an sweating a bit(The heat was up in the house so idk). idk what made me do it but something told me to look up hiv symptoms. I did and I discovered I was showig them. I immediatley freaked out. I text the guy and asked him did he have hiv he replied "no lol why u ask? I told him because I havent been feeling so good. I have been extremely tired with achy legs, arms, lower back.i decided to wait for for another week to get tested for hiv. i went to the clinic and tested negative for hiv on the elisa rapid test after 4 1/2 after unprotected anal sex with him. I was relieved. It seems like after that test the problems really started. I had small hairy tounge thingy sick up, toncles swollen with white stuff on them and pus coming out them when i squeeze them. I told myself no way am I not hiv positive the test had to be wrong. I then called the guy fussing him out asking him why did he lie to me and telling him i hate him. after all that he called me and told me he will go get tested to prove he doesnt have anything which he did and came out negative. I apologize to him but really really didnt want to yet because i still have that feeling that something is wrong. As weeks went by I started to feeling poking things in my hands and feet with still swollen toncles and lower back pain also with soles of hands and feet turning red at times. (I have to say this could just be anxiety and depression because I notice as i looked up symptoms on the internet they did infact show up on my body. Only symptoms I didnt have was a rash and diarrea). So i decided this time to make a appt. with my family doctor. I told her everything. i was so stressed out at that time i couldnt remember everything that went on at the apptment. She decided to test me for syphillis, hep and hiv at 8 1/2 weeks after sex with the guy. I had to call her office the next week to hear my results. i spoke with her asst. she told me that syphillis-neg, hiv-neg, and my shot records shows im immune to hep c everything negative. does that mean I was expose to hep c? I hear negative at 8 1/2 weeks is good! I keep bothering the guy about this and he's getting more and more fustrated. help me guys plz
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Woah! Slow down there.
Let's address one thing first. Stop bothering that guy. It's not going to help the situation and can only cause you to panic. If he was HIV positive, that doesn't mean you are.
Let's address another thing. OK, you had unprotected sex with someone you didn't really know - and I hope that you have learned that you shouldn't do that without protection. But he didn't ejaculate and that makes it less risky. I'm not going to say it wasn't risky, as it was and that is a way you can get HIV - so remember that.
Finally, although you can google your symptoms, HIV doesn't really have any symptoms that differ from a cold or flu. Nothing I have read in your story makes me think that you are HIV positive. Symptoms alone are not enough to cause concern for HIV even though you had unprotected sex. Think back to any cold you have had - you didn't think you had HIV then. What's different now is that it came within a few weeks of a sexual incident. I suffer from colds too, and I work in a HIV lab but I never think it's due to HIV. I sometimes get a cold and that's the most likely explanation. I've had glands come up, feel tired, ache all over, spots on my tongue, puss on tonsils too - but all are due to the fact I had a cold. If I google my symptoms, I would probably get HIV returned from my search too. But it's not, it's a cold - and it is cold season. I do have to take HIV tests every 3 months and they have always been negative. Also symptoms of acute HIV infection don't last weeks - maybe 1-2 at most, but not 4 as your story indicates.
You had a negative test at 8.5 weeks and that is very encouraging. It's likely that the only thing you will be left with from this incident is a bit of knowledge of what to do when you have sex with someone you don't know. Read the lessons about safe sex and resist the urge to put yourself at risk again. You don't want to go through this anxiety again.
R
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scared,
The window period for hiv testing is three months. While your eight and a half week negative is unlikely to change, you need to confirm that negative result at the three month point.
You can't be immune to hep C as there is no vaccine for hep C. You're most likely thinking of hep B, as there IS a vaccine for hep B.
You need to wise up and start using condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse. You need to be using condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, every time, no exceptions until such time as you are in a securely monogamous relationship where you have both tested for ALL sexually transmitted infections together. To agree to have unprotected intercourse is to consent to the possibility of being infected with an STI. Sex with a condom lasts only a matter of minutes, but hiv is forever.
Have a look through all three condom and lube links in my signature line so you can use condoms with confidence.
Anyone who is sexually active should be having a full sexual health care check-up, including but not limited to hiv testing, at least once a year and more often if unprotected intercourse occurs.
If you aren't already having regular, routine check-ups, now is the time to start. As long as you make sure condoms are being used for intercourse, you can fully expect your routine hiv tests to return with negative results. Don't forget to always get checked for all the other sexually transmitted infections as well, because they are MUCH easier to transmit than hiv.
Use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, correctly and consistently, and you will avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple.
And don't forget to confirm your negative result at three months - I don't expect your result to change by you MUST confirm.
Ann
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Thank you guys for the feed back. Im extremely scared. Idk what's going to happen. Im currently a college student and the stress out soo much. My question I have now is that could the sickness I had be related to hiv? I still have swollen toncles with eye nerves twitching, hands and feet feeling really weird at times. I even notice that my skin is soughta marked easily. Idk. Maybe I could just be freaking out. Another question if I was around three weeks after sex with him wouldn't these results show up on a 8 1/2 week test already? Thank you guys so much. Im glad I found ppl I can't relate too.
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Hi Scared,
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 a risky incident. Which is why Ann has told you that your negative result at 8.5 weeks is very, very unlikely to change when you take a final test at 13 weeks. We expect you to continue to test negative.
What is very important for you to remember for the future is that you can have anal sex with anyone you like. You just need to always do it the safer way which means the insertive partner must wear a latex condom. Then you're well protected and your partner's status becomes irrelevant.
As for any ongoing symptoms you may have, that's something to discuss with your doctor. There is nothing HIV-specific in anything you are reporting. Stress has a way of knocking down the immune system so that maybe playing a part in whatever is going on. We cannot diagonse anything here. That's for you to sort out with your doctor.
I do expect you to come out of this incident ok as far as HIV is concerned.
Cheers.
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Thanks andy for the feed back. With all the stress and anxiety I don't know. Im going to take your word and believe you because I see you guys almost specialize in this stuff. :)
But I will def keep you guys posted.
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While waiting to take your 13 week test, turn your attention to other productive matters in your life. It will make the waiting go much more quickly than you may imagine is possible. And don't tell us that you're too upset to do focus on other things. That isn't going to fly here. Get busy with other things and you'll see how it goes. And whenever you may find yourself tensing up, take good, deep and slow breaths in and out. It always helps. Then get on with other things.
Cheers.
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I will def get a test @ 13 weeks because I often read around the internet about ppl having negative test at 6-8 weeks then positive at result at 13 weeks. What's so hard for me is getting this situation off my mind. Everytime I get lonely(which I do often) I start to think about hiv, how my body felt and feels now. I forgot to mention I had the stomach virus a 2weeks before these symptoms of swollen toncles, glands in neck,nightsweats, poking and sleeping hands in feet. I also had a ppd shot and flu shot during the recovery of that stomach virus so idk. Could those shots delay a pos result? What do you guys think? Do you question the results of a negative test now?
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Man, you sure are torturing yourself and totally unnecessarily. No, those shots would not delay or otherwise affect the validity of your test result.
None of your symptoms are in any way HIV specific. If any of them persist you should discuss them with your doctor.
I expect you to continue to test negative.
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scared,
If you've "often" read about people seroconverting between 6-8 weeks and 13, then you must be reading the same few people over and over. Quit scaring yourself and get off the internet.
Your result is highly unlikely to change, so calm down and confirm at the appropriate time. According to your first post, you can test the first week in March.
Ann
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Hey guys,
srry im back again but I tlk to the guy yesterday and he was telling me how if I caught something from him he wouldn't want anything to do with me because he would have his own crap to deal with. Idk guys but I feel like I didn't luck up this time. I now start feeling like these nerve problems throughout my body which I've been feeling for a while but haven't paid it any mind til now. Like when im laying down I somewhat twitch a lil bit throughout the day. Do you think me stressing and beening depressed for 2months caused this? And how bout hands turning red in areas? I also lost about 5 pds so far. About a week or 2 ago I was laying down and my right eye began really red for no reason. My nose bleed a lil now when I pick it too. I don't really feel any sores up there or nothing. idk im nervous guys plz bare with me. I had a 33 day negative rapid elisa test and 59 day negative antibody test I took at my doctors office. Idk what kind of test they used there but I know it took a couple of days for the results to come back. I just want all this to be over now im tired of everything. If im negative good I can't learn from my experience, if im positve Im ready to fight for my life.
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None of your symptoms are in any way HIV specific. I expect you to continue to test negative.
If your symptoms persist you should discuss them with your doctor. While you're waiting to get tested again and to collect what I expect will be another negative result, you need to get busy with other things in your life. Don't tell us you're too upset to do that because that won't fly here. Surely your life includes other things for you to turn your attention to.
Stop with all the drama. I expect that you're going to come out of this ok. Really.
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:'( :'( ugh andy and ann
I had accident in class today. I thought I had to pass gas but it was the other stuff. This is so depressing because its all over. My 12yrs in high school I've completed and to become the 3 person in my family to graduate college.
Plz guys keep me in your prayers
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scared,
Big deal. So you crapped yourself. It happens to everyone sooner or later. What ever caused it, it isn't going to be hiv. Your 8.5 week result is not going to change.
Keep posting this symptom based stuff and you know what will happen. Stay off the internet and get busy with your life.
Ann
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Hey ann
That last message u sent me was really uncalled for. I know my body ann. This never happen to me my entire life. idk im so scared and out of it right now. If my test does change will this be the first time you seen this happen?
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Well there is a first time for everything. So you shit yourself instead of farting, you aren't the first, nor will you be the last to have that happen. As Ann has advised you that it is unlikely for your test results to change when you get your conclusive test result.