Symptoms after 5/6 Days? Possible... Swollen Glands, fatigue, etc

[mrnobody]

I am incredibly, incredibly scared. I'm a smart person that has done a VERY stupid thing. Please don't lecture me about my actions - nobody is more aware of how stupid they are then me... but please tell me if I have cause to be concerned about HIV.

I met some girl online, purely for sex. I went to her hotel and we had sex... I gave her oral and had sex with her for a few minutes with NO CONDOM. (I'm an idiot!!!)

Anyway, this was on Friday night and on Wednesday morning I started to feel very fatigued. I initially thought it was caffeine withdrawl because I was giving up coffee but on the Thursday I started to noticed pressure in my ears, a little headcold and SWOLLEN GLANDS IN MY NECK.

After reading on here, swollen glands and fatigue are classic primary HIV infection symptoms... but can they show up so quickly? Most of that I hear is 2-4 weeks.

Anyway, I went to the doc on Friday and told her what happened - she said I am fine, but she did give me a pass for STD test (going to wait a month before taking it so I have antibodies.)

The doc also gave me a corticosteroid and a z-pack (anti-biotic). I started those on Friday afternoon and I'm feeling much better already (Sunday), but I'm still scared shitless.

Please give an honest opinion - given the symptoms and how fast they came on - does this seem like an HIV infection?

[jkinatl2]

First off, we don't lecture here. Sex is a normal human need. It's a drive that reaches into out reptile brains. It's also pretty awesome. If you are looking for judgment, you won't find it here.

As for your symptoms, I have no idea where you read about "classic" primary HIV symptoms, but truth be told, there are NO symptoms unique to HIV infection. Glands can swell due to allergies or stress or by fooling around with them.

As for your HIV risk, there was NO risk in the oral sex. None whatsoever. There IS a risk in having had unprotected intercourse. Of the four sexual risks for HIV infection, yours sits at the bottom of the list. In other words, your risk was on the lower end of the scale, but it DOES meet the qualifications. A test at six weeks will be all but definitive, but at the present, a test at three months is considered the gold standard.

Don't be too hard on yourself. You aren't an idiot. You're a human being, If you were infallible, you'd be boring. Everyone slips up. Just remember to wear a condom next time, ok? Not worth the anxiety.

[mrnobody]

Thank you. I feel a little better. Agreed, sex is need that sometimes makes temporarily reorder our priorities. And yes, it's pretty awesome

As for oral, I have read that it's very low risk, however I may be a slightly higher risk than most because I have 4 impacting wisdom teeth that sometimes mess around. As a consequence I remember a dentist once saying that I have a large open wound at the back of my mouth between the teeth. Not good.

Naturally I am going to wait 5-6 weeks more before going to get tested (humm. I better check that paper the doc gave me doesn't expire for the lab tests).

Anyway... I know that nobody on here can give me an answer and I'm just going to have to get tested, but of those that exhibit ARS symptoms - is there any data to suggest that they can show up within 5-7 days?

Hummm. actually despite all my googling I may have only found the answer now:

When HIV enters an uninfected person it usually takes 10–14 days before any symptoms show, but symptoms can start as early as three days after infection or as late as 10 weeks after infection

http://www.racgp.org.au/afp/200305/20030501anderson.pdf

*shudder* ... I have a bad feeling about this.

As for the "classic" symptoms... I read some research document that said that about 57% of people get the malaise/fever/fatigue - swollen lymph nodes was second on the list I believe.

Another thing I thought was interesting was that I didn't have a runny nose while I was feeling bad - but that would normally happen with a typical head-cold, no?

[RapidRod]

Symptoms or the lack of will never tell you anything about your status. The only way to know your status is by testing and just for further information HIV has no specific symptoms.

[mrnobody]

Symptoms or the lack of will never tell you anything about your status. The only way to know your status is by testing and just for further information HIV has no specific symptoms.

I know... I guess I'm just looking for opinions on probability from people educated on this subject given my specific situation. Maybe we could make this fun and turn it into a bet ha ha (I don't mean to joke about something so serious, but trying to be light-hearted lol). Any takers?

My personal take is 50/50 right now. What would you say?

[jkinatl2]

I know... I guess I'm just looking for opinions on probability from people educated on this subject given my specific situation. Maybe we could make this fun and turn it into a bet ha ha (I don't mean to joke about something so serious, but trying to be light-hearted lol). Any takers?

My personal take is 50/50 right now. What would you say?

More like 80/20

Which is not to say that the risk isn't there. It's just not as large as you think.

[Ann]

My personal take is 50/50 right now. What would you say?

More like 80/20

Which is not to say that the risk isn't there. It's just not as large as you think.

I'd go so far as to say 98/02 that you won't end up poz over this one brief incident.

The only risk you had was the brief unprotected insertive vaginal intercourse. (Going down on a woman is NOT a risk.)

Hiv is a fragile, difficult to transmit virus that is much more difficult to transmit from a woman to a man. You're more likely to find an abandoned gym bag full of hundred dollar bills on your doorstep one morning than you are to end up poz over this one brief experience. Seriously.

Of course stranger things have happened, but how likely is it that a bag of money is going to appear? Not very.

Now if you'd had unprotected receptive anal intercourse with ejaculation, then you'd have good reason to fret as much as you are doing. But insertive vaginal? Chill out already.

Yes, you need to test to make sure, but I'm fully expecting you to test negative.

In the meantime, if you feel unwell, see a doctor. It's highly unlikely to have anything to do with hiv.

Please note that you will not be permitted to use this website to continually wring your hands or to give us a laundry list of your symptoms. Go see a doctor about your anxiety and symptoms - we're not interested and there's nothing we can do about either anyway.

Ann

[mrnobody]

Thanks Ann and jkinatl2,

Don't worry - I've read through some of those other threads on here where people rub up on a person of unknown status and post here 30 times petrified of being poz, even after a neg test... I'm not that guy!

I'll let you guys know when I get tested and the results are in... Just the way everything happened and knowing all of the little details like I do, my intuition is throwing up red flags.

Anyways. thanks again.

[mrnobody]

Just an update... I went to the doc Friday before last and she gave me an antibiotic and corticosteroid. Well they worked and I felt better, but about a day after I finished the meds I started to feel drained again, like a I had a cold again... Not the swollen glands this time, but I did have a sore throat, mild headache, running nose, lots of phlem in the throat, stuffed up ears, bad night sweats, etc.

I don't know if that's good or bad. My understanding in that antibiotics don't do anything for ARS / Acute infection symptoms, so it's good then that they temporarily went away, but bad that I fell sick again (who knows if it was the same thing or something else).

The one thing I find interesting is that through all of this, I don't think I had a high temperature, which I think is the real attribute of a "fever", right?

This sucks.... I'm never sticking my dick is anything ever again ha ha ha.

[Andy Velez]

There is absolutely nothing HIV specific about any of your symptoms. And like Ann I expect you ultimately to come out of this situation ok.

As for never sticking your whatsis into anything ever again, yah, yah, yah. You can stick it in anywhere you want to. Just do it the safer way which always without exception using a condom. Really.

[mrnobody]

So, I decided to get an early HIV antibody test. Potential exposure on the night of the 1st, blood drawn for test on the 22nd. Results today are negative.

Hardly conclusive, but from what I'm reading online, about 50-75% would show a positive after 3 weeks, so this is a VERY good sign. I generally have a very strong immune system (never get sick, recover fast when I do, etc.), so by my non-medical professional reasoning I would expect that I produce antibodies fast, and thus would be one of those to test positive early via. antibodies test. I will get another in about a month, but at this point I'm 90% sure that too will be negative.

[Andy Velez]

A negative result is always a happy thing.

We expect you to come out of this ok.