Tested positive 2 months ago - question about my 3-week illness...

[catboy]

Hello everyone.  I am curious as to what was happening to my body that left me very, very ill for 3 weeks with viral meningitis, thrush, the flu, cold symptoms and a bad headache to completely knock me down like I have never been.  I know now it was the onset of HIV, but why doesn't a person continue to be that ill.  I pulled out of it ever so slowly at the same time I began to see my specialist.  I was terrified that I was going to stay that way.  I am a person who never got sick.  My doctor figures I was exposed last autumn sometime.  My first complete blood test came back as CD4-371 and VL 450,000.  My second blood test is at the end of August.  I started Atripla immediately in May and I feel great now....a lot of energy and no side effects at all.
Got a little off subject but does anyone know how the onset of HIV slaps you down and then backs off?  Thank You.

[catboy]

Hey everyone....Being new to this site, I was just reading on and learned about sero-conversion.  That is what I had for sure.  Thanks for reading...

[mikeyb39]

Hi Catboy,
yeah that's the same thing that happened to me as well.  I was bad sick for 3 days, lost about 25 pounds, been on Atripla since December, but yeah that was you're seroconversion.  Glad things are better for ya.

mike

[mecch]

Hello everyone.  I am curious as to what was happening to my body that left me very, very ill for 3 weeks with viral meningitis, thrush, the flu, cold symptoms and a bad headache to completely knock me down like I have never been.  I know now it was the onset of HIV, but why doesn't a person continue to be that ill.  I pulled out of it ever so slowly at the same time I began to see my specialist.  I was terrified that I was going to stay that way.  I am a person who never got sick.  My doctor figures I was exposed last autumn sometime.  My first complete blood test came back as CD4-371 and VL 450,000.  My second blood test is at the end of August.  I started Atripla immediately in May and I feel great now....a lot of energy and no side effects at all.
Got a little off subject but does anyone know how the onset of HIV slaps you down and then backs off?  Thank You.

Welcome to the forums.

You describe a seroconversion.  What month did you have this?  You said you then went to a specialist? 

If you were infected in Autumn, then your serocoversion was a few weeks after infection - so, in Autumn.

If your serocoversion was two months ago, when you said you tested positive, then your infection date was not last autumn. 

Just, in case you were wondering.

Good to hear your great results with Atripla.

[catboy]

Thanks for that info about when I was most likely exposed.  That was another question that I was going to ask.  So sero-conversion is usually within a few weeks after exposure?   That actually helps me figure out who might have passed this on to me.  Thanks for the kind words!
Ya, in the 3 weeks I was soooo sick, I went from 148 lbs to 134 lbs.  Now I am exercising and eating like my old self again and slowly gaining my weight back....up to 138 now.  My metabolism and genes have always kept me very slim anyway.

[Ann]

Hi Catboy, welcome to the forums.

Seroconversion illness, if it happens at all (not everyone experiences a noticeable illness), normally happens around two to three weeks after infection has taken place. The illness is generally a reaction to the process the body goes through while producing antibodies, rather than the virus itself. The body produces several chemicals during this process, notably interferon and interferon is notorious for causing flu-like symptoms.

Seroconversion means the blood is converting from hiv negative (no antibodies) to hiv positive (enough hiv antibodies present in order to test positive). That's why it's called seroconversion illness.

I've heard two theories on what effect seroconversion illness - or the lack thereof - will ultimately have on disease progression. One is that people who experience no obvious illness will have an easier time of managing hiv on their own and will have a slower progression rate. The other is the exact opposite - that people who had a severe illness will progress faster.

I had a very severe illness - never been so ill in my life - and fourteen years later I'm still not on meds. I will be one day, possibly within the next year. I've heard stories both ways and so I think that the absence or severity of the seroconversion illness really has no bearing on disease progression. It's probably like a lot of other things where hiv is concerned - everyone's body reacts a little differently.

Don't twist yourself in knots trying to figure out where you got your infection. What matters the most now is that you know your status and you can take care of yourself and your health. Don't dwell on the past and the what-might-have-beens, look to the future.

Hang in there Catboy, it does get easier in time.

Ann

[mecch]

I've heard two theories on what effect seroconversion illness - or the lack thereof - will ultimately have on disease progression. One is that people who experience no obvious illness will have an easier time of managing hiv on their own and will have a slower progression rate. The other is the exact opposite - that people who had a severe illness will progress faster.


Ann

Hi Ann.  Is there a mix up in wording there? 

[Ann]

Hi Ann.  Is there a mix up in wording there? 

Uh, yeah, good catch.

What I meant to say is that I've heard it both ways - that a severe illness leads to faster progression and I've also heard that it means the body mounted a strong defence and leads to slower progression.

I've heard the same basic thing about people with no noticeable illness too - that their body didn't mount a strong defence and that will lead to faster progression, and I've also heard that people with no noticeable illness means their body took hiv in its stride and will have a slower progression.

It all depends on who you talk to and what studies you read. The only thing I know for sure is my own response - a severe seroconversion illness and my body keeping my VL low and CD4s in a normal range - apart from the odd blip - for fourteen years.

The take-away message is that nobody really seems to know for sure - so I've decided that it's just another one of those ways in which we all respond a little differently to hiv infection. Just my opinion.

Thanks for the catch.