POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: wellworried2012 on December 31, 2011, 03:07:16 pm
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I can't believe what my body has been through and I can't envision myself testing negative at this point. To the day, 6 weeks of dry mouth(wakes me up very early in morning), 5 weeks of oral thrush, About 3 weeks ago developed sublingual ranula cyst on floor of my mouth(indicating blocked salivary gland) and as of a week ago submandibular lymph node is palpable and tender. Oh and I forgot, floaters as of about a week. I can't believe this, could all of these be symptoms be hitting me at once? I mean seriously, there are symptoms and there are SYMPTOMS, been coughing a lot with some post nasal drip but no fever, I thought my situations were no risk? Am I missing something? These were my only exposures. Please help
the facts are as follows. About 8 to 9 months ago I went to an erotic massage parlor and after about a 40 min massage lady took clothes off and i gave her massage which was follow by me spooning her nude I was nude as well I didn't put my penis inside her her Anus but because of the anatomy of the erection it wrapped around the crack of her butt cheeks and the head of my penis may have rubbed against the inner wall of her anus. There was no friction or pumping motion or anything or anything I didn't even think of this event until A second time about a month ago when I fingered an escort after a massage and
She put her mouth around my penis for about 7 seconds. I became scared with the situation and started panicking about every other risk situation. After talking to a few counselors about risks I thought I Felt better, however I have been going crazy. Huge amounts of panic, distress and anxiety that I have never felt before which have manifested itself with some scary symptoms what is really troubling me. I have never health any health issues and although stress can cause some things, they cannot from what I know cause a blocked/inflammed salivary gland. Please help if you can doc I am running out of answers
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There is nothing HIV-specific about any of the symptoms you are reporting. Which is not surprising since you haven't reported anything that was an actual risk for HIV.
Sexually the only confirmed risks for HIV transmission are unprotected vaginal and anal intercourse. Rubbing or frottage,which is what I think you had, is NOT a risk.
For you testing is only for your peace of mind since I don't see any risk in your story. Your symptoms are something to sort out with your doctor. This is not an HIV situation. Leave your lymph nodes alone. They are very sensitive and squeezing them and such can create a real problem.
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I can't believe what my body has been through and I can't envision myself testing negative at this point. To the day, 6 weeks of dry mouth(wakes me up very early in morning), 5 weeks of oral thrush, About 3 weeks ago developed sublingual ranula cyst on floor of my mouth(indicating blocked salivary gland) and as of a week ago submandibular lymph node is palpable and tender. Oh and I forgot, floaters as of about a week. I can't believe this, could all of these be symptoms be hitting me at once? I mean seriously, there are symptoms and there are SYMPTOMS, been coughing a lot with some post nasal drip but no fever, I thought my situations were no risk? Am I missing something? These were my only exposures. Please help
the facts are as follows. About 8 to 9 months ago I went to an erotic massage parlor and after about a 40 min massage lady took clothes off and i gave her massage which was follow by me spooning her nude I was nude as well I didn't put my penis inside her her Anus but because of the anatomy of the erection it wrapped around the crack of her butt cheeks and the head of my penis may have rubbed against the inner wall of her anus. There was no friction or pumping motion or anything or anything I didn't even think of this event until A second time about a month ago when I fingered an escort after a massage and
She put her mouth around my penis for about 7 seconds. I became scared with the situation and started panicking about every other risk situation. After talking to a few counselors about risks I thought I Felt better, however I have been going crazy. Huge amounts of panic, distress and anxiety that I have never felt before which have manifested itself with some scary symptoms what is really troubling me. I have never health any health issues and although stress can cause some things, they cannot from what I know cause a blocked/inflammed salivary gland. Please help if you can doc I am running out of answers
At no time were you ever at risk of contracting HIV.
HIV is transmitted by;
Unprotected penetrative anal and/or vaginal sex
Sharing works with other IV drug abusers
Mother to child
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Thank you Mr. Andy, just for my own edification, when you say penetrative anal, you mean the head of my penis would have had to go in between her cheeks into her anus, and for me to be infected I would have to have blood from inside her anus enter in through my urethra or open cuts/abrasions? The timing of the symptoms are quite scary!
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Yes, anal intercourse means the penis is actually inside of the anus.
Neither the presence nor the absence of symptoms can ever be a reliable guide to HIV status. In the case of a genuine risk, only an HIV test taken at 3 months can give a conclusive negative result. But you have not had such a risk so testing is not necessary for you.
You should get on with your life.
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Ok and in terms of what transmits the virus inside the anus potentially, its blood right? I would have to enter her anus and absorb blood into a cut or urethra? Tough to move on with these scary symptoms that I have never encountered before in my life, please respond I promise this is my last question.
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Use a condom correctly and consistently and you won't have to worry about contracting HIV.
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Understood but what fluids transmit HIV? Is it blood, semen and vaginal fluid? Or is there something else?
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i.e. what would have to be absorbed into one's blood stream, blood?
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Worried,
It's simple. If you cannot bring yourself to believe that you had no risk, go test, collect your negative result and get on with your life.
You did NOT have a risk for hiv infection.
If you feel unwell, go see a doctor. It's nothing to do with hiv.
Use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, correctly and consistently, and you will avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple!!!
Ann
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Thank you Ann I appreciate the info, I was just hoping for my own education what DOES transmit the virus, what does the urethra or cuts have to absorb into the blood stream? In the case of the anus it would be blood correct? That's all I am asking
Thanks
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Worried,
Hiv is a fragile, difficult to transmit virus that is primarily transmitted INSIDE the human body, as in unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse where the virus never leaves the confines of the two bodies.
Once outside the body, small changes in temperature, and pH and moisture levels all quickly damage the virus and render it unable to infect (non-viable). For this reason, frottage (rubbing genitals together or against the outside of the anus without penetration) is not a risk for hiv infection.
Infectious fluids are those bodily fluids which have enough viable virus present to be able to infect. These fluids are blood, semen, anal mucus, vaginal fluids (the type found deep inside the vagina) and breast milk.
The viable virus from these fluids must come into contact with the very few types of cells that hiv can latch onto and infect. These cells are found in the lining of the urethra and inner foreskin in men, the lining of the vagina in women, and in blood stream and lining of the anus in both men and women.
None of the activities you describe would have resulted in an exposure to viable hiv had this woman been hiv positive. You did NOT have a risk for hiv infection.
None of the symptoms you are experiencing are indicative of hiv infection. If you continue to feel unwell, see a doctor. Whatever is going on has nothing to do with hiv infection. YOU DID NOT HAVE A RISK!!!
If you read the Welcome Thread (http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=220.0) before posting like you're supposed to, you will have read the following posting guideline:
Anyone who continues to post excessively, questioning a conclusive negative result or no-risk situation, will be subject to a four week Time Out (a temporary ban from the Forums). If you continue to post excessively after one Time Out, you may be given a second Time Out which will last eight weeks. There is no third Time Out - it is a permanent ban. The purpose of a Time Out is to encourage you to seek the face-to-face help we cannot provide on this forum.
Please consider yourself warned!
Ann
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Sometimes I just think of contributing factors though due to my symptoms, what if her butt cheeks were a little spread apart themselves without me spreading them and my urethra came in contact with something on the walls of her rectum? Doesn't anyone think something must have happened based on the symptoms alone? A seemingly healthy person all of a sudden with all of these strange health issues that mirror HIV infection?
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If you feel unwell see your doctor, you don't have an HIV concern.
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How can you be so sure? My unprotected penis could have come in contact with fluids on the inner walls of her rectum, no? are you saying anything exposed to air is non viable? I.E. if her butt cheeks were wide open exposed to air the virus is not transmittable due to exposure to air?
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■Anyone who continues to post excessively, questioning a conclusive negative result, or no-risk situation will be subject to a four week Time Out (a temporary ban from the Forums). If you continue to post excessively after one Time Out, you may be given a second Time Out which will last eight weeks. There is no third Time Out - it is a permanent ban. The purpose of a Time Out is to encourage you to seek the face-to-face help we cannot provide on this forum.
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I am very sorry that this site has failed to assist you to your satisfaction.
However, nothing you have reported, no matter what spin you put on it, is in any way an HIV situation.
Fluids on the inner walls of the rectum are found INSIDE the anus. That is not a place you visited during your encounter. You would absolutely have known, as it is a very tight muscle and one does not just "slip" inside.
I understand the mental strain and anxiety over what is perceived to be an immoral event or act. However, please understand that in addition to being irrational, your fear that HIV is somehow a punishment or natural consequence for your actions also presents an insult to those of us who actually HAVE the virus.
It is a virus. It is not a judgment or a punishment. It is neither moral nor immoral.
You were not at risk of HIV in any way, shape or form over the incident as you describe it.
Ann has already warned you about coming back time and again over this NO RISK incident. This site can simply NOT help you get over your fear. Science and rational thinking cannot penetrate irrational thought. I urge you to find your help - and your peace - in a more appropriate venue.
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JKinati,
I apologize for any overtures that would be indicative of something judgmental towards anyone who is infected. I have no moral standing to make any judgment on anyone infected or not. I was just stating facts in my situation and reporting symptoms that I have NEVER had in my life before. Yes the anus is a tight muscle and the fluids of the rectum are inside the anus, but Teak reported something very different to me when I gave him my situation. He said because the inner wall of the anus is exposed to air that the virus would not live whenever it is exposed to air, i.e. whenever the blood/rectal mucous was exposed to open air it is not transmittable, I just wanted verification regarding that. I guess I should have made the distinction between the inner wall of the cheeks versus inside the actual anus, which for the record, you are right, I would have remembered penetrating since it is not easy to do at all, especially with a woman. Like any worried well I question all of the "what ifs" and maybe I wouldn't be if I didn't have any symptoms, but dry mouth with salivary gland swelling, ranula cyst and oral thrush are all pretty unique symptoms that don't pop up in a healthy person all of a sudden at the same time, I know every person is different and symptoms vary but these are all very REAL symptoms, not self diagnosed, not "In my head",
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Your symptoms could be that of an actual, treatable infection that you absolutely should discuss with a doctor, if they continue to trouble you.
It is frustrating (to say the least) to discuss symptoms of acute HIV infection when other, decidedly more aggressive infections could be going undiagnosed.
HIV is a virus. It can be viable or non-viable, but not technically dead nor alive. Some scientists have disputed that characterization of viral morbidity, but since HIV cannot reproduce without the assistance of a human host, it fails a fundamental test of life as we define it. I personally have no trouble with this categorization, since it further assists in limiting the anthropomorphic.
HIV is also an extremely fragile virus. Far more fragile than bacterial STDs. Imagine if you will a tennis ball covered in tiny thin plungers. Those plungers are the means by which HIV attaches itself to VERY few types of immune and dendritic cells within the human body. Now imagine that this tennis ball is made of ice.
Once outside it's established environment, those tiny receptors disintegrate. Just like that ice ball would, once out of the freezer.
This is why it's been such a difficult path, finding treatments and studying HIV. Keeping it viable in a petri dish is nothing short of scientific wizardry. Between the obvious temperature changes, there are also pH changes, exposure to oxygen (HIV thrives in an anaerobic environment) and thousands of other factors that make it impossible for HIV to remain viable outside of a human body.
You scientifically can NOT get HIV from the activity you describe.
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So scientifically if there were blood or rectal mucous in the inner cheek area between the cracks and my urethra ran against it there is no risk scientifically?
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So scientifically if there were blood or rectal mucous in the inner cheek area between the cracks and my urethra ran against it there is no risk scientifically?
There is absolutely no risk in the activity you described. You seem concerned with what fluids MIGHT be present, rather than WHERE the fluids are present. I submit that it is the latter fact, the one you seem to be ignoring, that is the most important.
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You have already been told repeatedly that you did not have a risk. We're not going to continue this just one more what if series of questions with you. If you come back again about the same incident you are going to get a Time Out.
Consider yourself warned.
HIV is not your problem. If you can't let go of this unwarranted fear see a therapist or other professional to discuss the matter. We can't do anything more for you here.