POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: thedekk on February 27, 2012, 09:12:37 pm
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Hi all,
For all those who are nervous or scared about getting tested...
In November 2010 at the age of 18, I entered my first relationship with a guy at my school. I was very naive about relationships in general. He told me he was tested and negative, so in November we began to engage in unprotected oral sex. About a month after we had a risky, drunk encounter where there was unprotected insertive anal sex (me being the insertive partner) for about 10 seconds. We continued oral sex after that.
In December during winter break my throat was sore for about 3 days. After that, my tonsils had enlarged and I had horrible pharyngitis and upper respiratory issues along with body aches and soreness by my neck. These issues continued for about a week until I went to the doctor, who diagnosed me with strep (with no strep test) and administered antibiotics to me. Around that time I had a swollen sub-occipital lymph-node right beneath my hairline, and also a swollen lymph nodes in my armpit and throat. I took the antibiotics for about 3 days with no improvement.
Once again, I went to another doctor. I told this doctor that I had engaged in unprotected oral sex multiple times, and he looked for a rash (which I did not have) and immediately recommended I get tested. Of course, being far too scared, I did not get immediately tested. It was then that my BF told me about the 3 month window period that exists before an HIV test, and as he was very sexually active he had multiple encounters within that period before he was tested. I freaked out and after we had broken up (for other reasons) he went to get tested and said he was negative, but he was a serial liar so I didn't believe him. My illness eventually went away after 12 days with the antibiotics doing nothing to help me.
2 months after that, I ended up having unprotected anal sex with him twice. It was a very stupid mistake and unstable point in my life.
Over the summer I began to have horrible anxiety. I encountered headaches that I blamed on HIV and my lymph nodes were still present 6 months after the illness. I saw on the internet that lymph nodes in the occipital region were an indicator of HIV. I decided to put it in the back of my head because I was too scared to get tested at that time. The downside was that I became depressed and had horrible anxiety. A month after summer my friend pointed out a quarter sized rash on the back of my neck with dark red bumps that were close together. I had never had a rash in my life before this.
At this juncture, I was sure I had HIV. I even read someone's post on the internet about the exact symptoms I was having in a similar time-frame, and they ended up testing positive. I decided to suck it up and finally go get tested on my own. At the testing center my heart was pounding the entire time. When I came back into the testing room, I was told that I tested negative. I almost didn't believe it when I heard it. I learned a lot about myself in this period of time, and was really proud of myself for going.
I just wanted to share this story to everyone who may be afraid about testing or cause themselves anxiety. I showed many symptoms after risky encounters with someone who is very sexually active (and wasn't always safe) and was even told by a doctor that I might have HIV, yet came out negative. I'm not guaranteeing that everyone is going to come out negative because that's not how the world works. I just wanted to share my story in order to encourage others to go get tested. It's the right thing to do.
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dekk,
Your story is nearly identical to many, many others in this forum.
Neither symptoms, nor the lack of symptoms will ever tell you a single thing about your hiv status. ONLY testing at the appropriate time will.
To other members of this forum (aside from authorised responders) - do NOT reply in this thread. I recognise that it may be tempting for some of you, but we do not permit exceptions to our posting rules, which are available for all to read in our Welcome Thread (http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=220.0).
Anyone (aside from the OP and authorised responders) who decides the rules don't apply to them and posts here regardless will be given a time out. I'm serious.
Ann