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Author Topic: Can you help me please  (Read 3232 times)

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Offline help922

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Can you help me please
« on: September 11, 2007, 04:00:20 pm »
about 2 1/2 years ago i had a run in with blood on a tool at work(a guy using them had cut himself)(a drug user). that guy no longer works there. i waited 2 months and had a test. it was negative and they told me not to worry. now i have lost my voice (hoarse) a good month now and have muscle aches. i have looked a my last 3 blood test from the last 2 years and note the white blood count is going down,6-10-2005 it was 6.0. 7-10-2006 it was 5.7 and 9-1-2007 it is 4.4. tomorrow im getting a second hiv test cause i'm not sure if the 8 week test was long enough. could i have picked up something from the blood on the tool? it's a metal shop we all get cuts on our hands. i washed my hands right away. this is freaking me out now. back when it happened i went to the boss i was so upset.  it looks like the neutrophils are the cells that are going lower.

Offline Andy Velez

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Re: Can you help me please
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2007, 04:52:16 pm »
OK, here are some thoughts:

1. The average time to seroconversion is 22 days.

2. All but the very smallest number of those who are going to seroconvert will do so within 4-6 weeks after an exposure to the virus.

3. Given that the exposure you were worried about was from blood on a workshop tool and HIV is not transmitted in such a manner, you have needlessly troubled yourself for far too long.

4. By all means re-test for your peace of mind. A negative test result in relation to this incident is a slam dunk.

5. Take the time to read our lesson on transmission. There's a link to it in the Welcome thread which opens this section.

I'll wish you good luck on your test result on general principles and not because I have any doubt about a negative result.

Cheers,
Andy Velez

Offline help922

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Re: Can you help me please
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2007, 04:58:19 pm »
Thanks for your reply Andy. I was worried that the 8 weeks was not long enough. I was worried that I could have seroconverted and had no symptoms and now its been tearing down my system for 2 1/2 years. The white blood count is whats really worrying me.

Offline Ann

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Re: Can you help me please
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2007, 05:03:04 pm »
help,

You need to work with your doctor to find out what is going on with your WBC. I've been positive for ten years and my WBC is always in normal ranges. It's a subset of white cells that is tracked in hiv infection, not the WBC.

You didn't have a risk for hiv infection with the blood and the tools.

However, if you have ever had unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse with someone whose hiv status you don't know, you HAVE been at risk as this IS the way hiv is spread.

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.

Ann
« Last Edit: September 11, 2007, 05:05:47 pm by Ann »
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"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

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Offline Andy Velez

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Re: Can you help me please
« Reply #4 on: September 11, 2007, 05:13:57 pm »
Good one, Ann.

I forgot to include in my laundry list that a wavering white blood count is never to be mistakenly assumed to have to do with HIV. There's absolutely no correlation between the two.
Andy Velez

Offline help922

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Re: Can you help me please
« Reply #5 on: September 11, 2007, 05:41:30 pm »
Andy & Ann. Thank you for your help.

 


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