Broken Condom + Number of Suspicious Symptoms

[Mosfet]

Hey everyone, thanks for taking the time to read this.

So, in early February I had vaginal sex with a girl in Thailand of unknown history. Wore a condom, but, shit happens, and it broke; somehow I didn't know until I'd finished. (Like most poor decisions in my life alcohol was involved and there's a high chance it had something / everything to do with this). I'm not circumcised.

The next day, upon realizing what an idiot I was, I went to a hospital for PEP. At about ~ 36 hours after the incident I felt this was worthwhile, but was told by a doctor (quote) "PEP doesn't even work anyways and you don't want the side-effects so we're not giving it to you".

...fuck

However, (I thought) the odds were in my favor at ~ 1/1000 chance of transmission per incident, so I continued my travels having a merry time and eventually returned to China. So it goes.

Here's where it got weird: about 3.5 weeks after the incident I began to get the feeling that my cheeks were flushed. No redness, just a hot face that would come and go. No night sweats, just this odd intermittent flushed feeling. After a week of this, a mild sore throat appeared, once again intermittent, in addition to general malaise and swollen nodes in my neck and groin. At this point I'm trying to stay cool, but, to top it off, the skin on my palms has become fragile and dry, easily peeling off after a brief shower when drying myself with a towel. Strange, and absolutely unlike anything else I've come across. This is ongoing.

Now it's been 7 weeks since exposure, and 3.5 weeks since the first flushes came. I still feel hot in the face at times, particularly when I wake in the mornings, and my nodes continue to feel slightly larger than normal. I'm really concerned only because I've never, ever, experienced an illness like this, and the timing matches up quite well with ARS. Aside from everything you've just read I am (usually) a very healthy young man in my early 20s who rarely gets sick.

I'm wondering if any of you more informed people could please shed some light on these symptoms? Particularly the peeling palms and flushing; I haven't read much about these as ARS but nothing else fits the bill. Anything helps, really - I can't talk to colleagues over here about this and would never want to worry my family with something so uncertain. Though, to be honest, I've kind of already accepted this idea that I'm poz purely from the absurdity and uniqueness of how I feel...

Let me wrap this up by saying that without a doubt I will be getting tested ASAP upon my return home in just under a month (if I test + here I will get deported immediately... oh China).

Many thanks,
moz

[Jeff G]

Hi Mosfet . The only way to know if you have HIV is to test at the appropriate time and that is at 6 weeks and then again at 3 months to confirm a negative result .

Its been 7 weeks post exposure for you so you could test now but if you must wait until you leave China then that's the choice you have to make .

Your symptoms are not specific to HIV and we do not discuss symptoms here because you cant diagnose any thing over the internet and the only way to diagnose HIV is to test . Best of luck .