I may have a problem, please help.

[thirdtimesacharm]

Hello everyone. Here is my story.

Exactly a week ago, I joined some of my good friends at a party . There were guys that were friends of my other friends at the table. So being among friends, people who my friends trust, imagine my surprise when after about an hour, I started to feel odd. Dizzy, lightheaded, off balance, nauseated, weak. I knew I wasn't drunk because I barely had anything yet. My friends were already very drunk, one of them later had to be carried out. The point is, I felt the effects of a drug immediately, and they were familiar, because I'd been raped and drugged before, in my sophmore year of high school.

I don't remember anything afterwards. Not leaving, not who I left with, nothing. I remember coming to when the cab driver was helping me out of the car, already in front of my building.

I was so disoriented, I just walked into my room and passed out. The next day, I had a really bad sore throat, and my bronchis were acting up. So I decided that if it would get worse, I would take my zithromax, because when I get bronchitis, I don't start coughing until very late into the infection. So I thought I was just sick, until I got out of bed and found it a little hard to walk. I then noticed bruises on my body, on my arms, breasts, and in between my thighs. I can't honestly say I felt like I was (pardon me) fucked by king kong, but my vagina felt  sore. I don't know which of the guys it was, if it was just one or two of them, if they used a condom or not (which I think they might have, because I usually experience this type of soreness from the spermicide on the condoms).

It's been a week now. I went on zithromax from wed. to fri. (3 day treatment). I had a slight fever and swollen glands on friday. The sore throat is minor, but still persistent. No other symptoms so far, except that as of saturday, I've been taking twice daily cold prescriptions and cough medicine that was prescribed with my Zithromax. Other than that, sweats. I know that symptoms usually appear about 2-4 weeks after infection, and come at once. Because I've been raped twice before, I've done my fair share of research on symptoms, transmission, and risk.

A friend told me that even now, an oral swab would be able to detect antibodies. What I plan on doing, is getting an oral swab this week, and hopefully, if negative, get a retest about 6-8 weeks after that, as well as a full panel.

What I'm looking for here, is support and reassurance. I know I need to get tested, which is what I'm going to do. The problem is, I've had this minor cold for the past week that won't let up, with the sore throat and ccasional cough, so that's making me nervous as hell. I've been reading about probabilities of transmission and am looking at everything from a worst-case scenario pov. I read on multiple sites that the risk for a woman to get HIV from one instance of unprotected vaginal intercourse is 0.01 %, or 1 in 1,000. However, if the guy(s) were positive, and were during the initial period of their infection, where the virus is multiplying rapidly, or if they had STDs (I don't, or rather, didn't, having just been to my gyno recently for my routine checkup), my risk could've been as high as 1 in 25. I've also been looking at the CDC table for NY statistics for 2005, where new HIV cases are divided by age, race, sexuality, etc. Assuming they were heterosexual, non IDU, white non-hispanic males, I know that improves my odds, because they are not considered to be of a certain risk group.

If there's any other advice or reassurance that can be given, it would be much appreciated. I'm trying to keep myself grounded, knowing that relatively speaking, I'm low risk, but that once is indeed all it may take. I'm scared.

[Ann]

third,

Good friends? Are you sure about that?

It sounds like you need to have a complete sexual health care check up. Most of the STIs can be tested for ten days to two weeks after an incident has occurred, and sooner if symptoms such as an unusual discharge occur.

As the vast majority of people who have actually been infected with hiv will seroconvert and test positive by six weeks, a negative result at that time would be an excellent indication of your true status, but MUST be confirmed at the three month point. Syphilis shares a three month window period.

I would suggest that you stop practicing medicine without a license and go see your doctor about your chest worries. It's nothing to do with hiv because as you yourself know, ARS symptoms do not occur so quickly.

There is no point in speculating over your hiv status. Symptoms or even the lack of symptoms mean nothing when it comes to hiv infection. ONLY testing will reliably inform you of you hiv status.

Ann