POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: astro_man on August 22, 2006, 11:44:41 pm
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Hello,
Thanks for this website it is very informative and I hope to get some expert opinions on my situation.
I am in my early 20's and evidently have a lot to learn about avoiding high-risk behaviour.
Back in February I got together with a young Black stripper in Dallas. This was my first time being intimate with a person of this kind of occupation. Well this was most definitely the last. We had protected sex with plenty of water-based lube. However when I was removing the condom, her vaginal secretions landed on the fresh sore I had at top of my thumb. I immediately felt the burning sensation (like lemon was squeezed on it)
I was too relaxed to panic and didn't wash it off right away. Several minutes later washed it off with Hydrogen Peroxide a few times.
5 days later I started experiencing weird noises and movements in my intestines. Several days after that I began feeling more hungry than I usually would. 10 to 12 days later I began to feel a weak and started sweating more. At 14 days I became really sick. Lymph nodes in my neck, armpits, groin sprang to action. Weakness in the body, feeling very, very tired, muscle aches very white tongue - never thought it could get this white!
Sore throat, and night sweats. Lost some weight as well. Started developing peripheral neuropathy 2 months or so into the whole thing. Like twitchings of body parts. My brain function had decreased as well. I forget things, make simple typing mistakes, saying wrong words sometimes (English is my second language), difficulty concentrating...
My metabolism sky-rocketed and would remain there for the next 3 months. I did DNA PCR test at 14 days. Negative. Also negative for HIV-1 and HIV-2 at 3 months. And all the standart STDs as well. Just did another one at 6 months last week. I am still feeling extremely tired, non-stop sore throat for month, headaches, twitchings, occasional runny nose.
Can you please tell me what is going on with me? What was my risk if she did in fact have HIV infection? And whether I unwittingly made things worse by applying Hydrogen Peroxide! (it disinfects but irritates the skin badly and opens the wound!)
This is surely a viral infection but all the doctors I been to say the blood work is normal. Although the white blood cells seemed elevated slightly - another indication of the viral infection.
Thank you very much!
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Under NO circumstances is this an HIV situation. HIV is spread through unprotected anal and vaginal sex, NOT from incidental contact with vaginal fluids, even on a sore finger or thumb.
From the verbiage in your original post here, I submit that this has far more to do with your guilt than with any scientifically quantifiable risk. Frankly, the occupation and race of your sexual partner is irrelevant. It's not WHO you have sex with, it's WHAT you do.
Fact is, you used a condom for penetrative sex. Ergo, no HIV risk for you.
I am always curious as to what variable, what adjective, managed to place a person over the edge into unreasonable HIV fear. Young? Black? Stripper? Some combination of the three? Regardless, you can safetly bang your way through the minority age-challenged women throughout the greater Dallas/Fort Worth region, and NEVER get HIV so long as you use a condom.
Conversely, that lily white schoolteacher from Iowa can toss you a virulent strain of HIV if you partake of penetrative sex without a condom.
Seriously, I urge you to take some time and explore what's really stressing you out. Intellectually, you have to know it's not HIV. And of course, having read the welcome thread and lessons regarding HIV transmission, you know that's what any of us would say on this forum.
What you do with that information is entirely up to you.
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The chances are probably along the lines of .000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% (give or take a zero [or zed if you're of that persuasion]) that you were infected with HIV in the encounter you describe. You could have some sort of hepatitis or other viral infection but it's not HIV -- the virus is not that easily transmitted. It could be a bacterial infection but your bloodwork would probably register something if it were a virus or bacteria. Who said your white cell count was slightly elevated? You or a doctor? An increase in the white blood cell count can be an indication of a low-grade infection but if you've tested for standard STDs I don't have any idea what might be causing your symptoms.
Given that you have tested for physical ailments I second Jonathan's suggestion that you investigate psychological causes for your symptoms. Your mind can make you as sick as any virus or bacteria if you're dealing with guilt or fear you cannot control.
I don't know if you have a physical illness or not but you've tested negative for HIV. Good luck.
Boo
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astro,
Can I ask why you are using different usernames while posting to our forums? Thus far, you have also used T79 (http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=2829.0). I also know about the
mysee (http://forums.poz.com/index.php?action=profile;u=1986) account you created last night, but did not verify via your email address.
Please realize that this kind of activity is disrespectful of other forum members, as well as our moderators. People spend a considerable amount of time helping others in these forums. Using multiple accounts is at the very least annoying, if not deceiving and disrespectful of others. It is also against our Terms of Membership (http://forums.poz.com/Terms.htm) which you agreed to when you became a member. This information is also contained within the Welcome Thread (http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=220.0), which you should have read by now. So really, you have no excuse.
You must realize that the answers won't change, no matter how many names you post under.
I would appreciate a reply to this message, and I hope you will commit to using just one account - preferably your original one. If not, you will be banned from further access to the forums.
Ann
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Sometimes when I post here, I make the mistake of posting from my heart as well as my brain. The mistake of assuming that the poster is sincere and legitimate, as I try to be.
I apologise for my misidentification in that regard, and respectfully withdraw from further conversation with this poster, in any incarnation.
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Thank you Jonathan and Boo for your expertise. It has been a horrific and extremely emotional 6 months for me. The reson why I think I've picked up the virus is because there is no other logical explonation. Psychiatric reasons wouldn't give one a white coated tongue and other viral signs for weeks and months. I have tested for everything hepatitis among them. Unless it is some new not yet identified ailment there is no other explonation.
Boo the WBC count jumped from 500 to 700.
My main concern is not that the vaginal secretions made contact with the brake in the outer skin layer but the fact that instead of washing it with water I applied Hydrogen Peroxide which among the disinfecting properties also irritates the skin and opens the wound and potentialy provides the bug with the entrance passage it needs to get into the bloodstream. Only time will show I guess.
Thank you all for your help!
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Ann,
Apologize for misunderstanding. I no longer wanted to use my old screen name and chose a new one. There was no option of deleting the acount or changing the name so I had to abandon the old one. There was no intention of using multiple acounts at the same time - that makes no sense.
You can probably check that I haven't logged on with the other one in a long time, nor do I intend on doing so. Astroman is the one I am keeeping for the entire time being.
Thanks for the great service and help that this website provides!
Peace!
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astro,
Stick to this account and you'll be ok. Create a third (well, a fourth) and you will be banned, simple as that, no questions asked. I've disabled your other two accounts.
And by the way, you didn't have a risk by any stretch of the imagination.
Ann
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Thank you Ann!
I am really puzzled though. What coulod it possibly be? I am getting my 6 months result sometime next week. In your oppinion can Hydrogen Peroxide do the kind of damage as to allow the verus to enter the blood stream? The skin on the thumb (by the nail) is very thin in comparison to other parts of the body.
Thanks!
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Read the Welcome thread and go to the lessons link and transmission.
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I read this on the "Welcome thread"
This is precisely my case!
"HIV enters the body through open cuts, sores, or breaks in the skin; through mucous membranes, such as those inside the anus or vagina; or through direct injection.
While it is theoretically possible that someone who has an open cut or fresh abrasion on his or her finger or hand can be infected with HIV if coming into contact with blood in the anus or vagina or vaginal secretions, there has never been a documented case of HIV transmission via fingering.
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If you become infected via fingering, then you will have a lucky experience with HIV. Why? Because you will get all the free health care and study you need, more study and care than anyone on aidsmeds.com, I imagine. Because you will have been the first human to be infected via this route. If you are infected through fingering, then either the virus has changed from an infectious disease to a contagious one, or your chemical makeup does not coincide with any human on the planet.
Either way, I imagine they'd spring for free dental too.
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Jonathan,
It wasn't through fingering but through a sore/brake in the skin. I've read you reply 3 times and still didn't find it amusing.
But hey, what do I know I am not an expert.
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astro_man, it was not meant to be amusing. It was meant to be direct.
Seems that your problems stem in an interpretation of the events in question, along with the assumptions based on the occupation and ethnicity of your partner. I was trying to point out that you had zero risk, as have all the others who responded to your various incarnations. I suspect you know that. I suspect you know exactly what you are doing here, and I also suspect that your motivations are not above board.
I am sorry that you found my post distasteful. By all means, please disregard any of my subsequent ones. Because I intend to stick with you, and this thread. My motivations are rather transparent. I intend to make certain that this remains a safe place.
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Jonathan,
No harm done man. If anything I am only gratefull for yours and other experts' opinions.
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Hello,
Can someone please clarify why some people seroconvert from 6 moths and up? Is it baseed on the individual's genetics, the particular strain or type of the virus? Can this be the case if the person has a weak immune system that the body fails to produce the antibodies within 3 months mark? All the while feeling sick.
Thank you all.
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Astro,
I've merged your new thread into your original thread - where you should post all your additional thoughts or questions. It helps us to help you when you keep all your additional thoughts or questions in one thread.
If you need help finding your thread when you come here, click on the "Show own posts" link under your name in the left-hand column of any forum page.
Please also read through the Welcome Thread (http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=220.0) so you can familiarize yourself with our Forum Posting Guidelines. Thank you for your cooperation.
Astro, let me remind you that you did not have a risk of infection.
People don't take longer than three months to seroconvert and test positive. There may be a few, very rare, exceptions. These are people who are on chemotherapy for cancer, anti-rejection drugs following organ transplant or people who have been injecting street drugs, every day of every week for years. Even the majority of these people will test positive within three months.
And one more time, you didn't have a risk to begin with. If you feel ill, see your doctor. Whatever is going on, it has nothing to do with hiv. You are reliably hiv negative, period, end of story.
Ann