First post - Dry cough and swollen lymphs

[Zarsan]

TO CLARIFY: Yes, I did have unprotected anal sex after she gave me oral sex.

Hello people of the internet!

Okay, so I have been extremely concerned the last 2-3 months. I was in Thailand 3 months ago, and I managed to do (possibly, but hopefully not) the most stupid think I've done in my whole life.

I had sex with a thai-woman, somewhat unprotected. I was drunk as hell, and I danced with her and things got steamy, and we ended up in her place. We had sex, first I used a condom (good eh? Wait for it...) but then she wanted to suck me, and I thought, being a total goner, let's take the condom off.. (woopey!) Then in the end I gave her anal sex, (because I didnt want to make her pregnant..). When I was about to leave, the horror-message comes... She wants money. My whole world falls infront of me. I had promised myself, NEVER to pay for sex. In anger I pulled up some notes I had in my pocket and threw it at her. I ran out of the place, and managed to get back to our hotel. I had already been coughing since I arrived to Thailand, but it was kinda moderate.

The day after I had the unprotected sex, I started to cough even more, and it lasted.. and it lasted... and it lasted... (I must say, I have always been alot sick, would say I almost have had a chronic cold since I was born..lol). Now it's gone almost 3 months, and I am still coughing. There has been some weeks I have gone days without coughing, but it has always returned.. The coughing is like this:

I wake up in the morning, and I feel like something is in my chest, and I cough intensely for aprox 1 hour, until I get out all the slime. I can then go the whole day without having to cough, but it starts at night-time again.

A few weeks after the unprotected sex, I started to think about HIV. It crossed my mind when I saw an article about people getting HIV-infected in Thailand. So I started to check up the symptoms, and I saw that you would get swollen lymph nodes, and you could get a cough, along with other symptoms.

I have not had any fever what so ever, it has only been that annoying cough, and I feel my lymph Nodes. Both in my arm-pit and my neck. I'm not 100% sure about the arm-pits, but there are some lumps there, and Im pretty sure it's that. The thing is, I havn't really felt my neck for lymphnodes or my armpits before, so I can't say for sure it was there before the unprotected sex or not.. Other than that I feel pretty good, been active all summer, having a great time. (when it comes to sex, I ofc use condom)

Not really sure why I'm writing here, I guess it was to calm my nerves, to get people to say "that's not HIV" etc.. But the last month I have psycologicly prepared myself to having HIV to the extent that I've been checking which meds I should take and which support groups I should attend to. I know I can only get this answered by going to the doctor, but I have been too scared to go.. I will do it within this month for sure. The psycological pressure of not knowing, is pretty much tearing me apart 

I must say I have alot of respect to all of you, for being so motivated and supportive of everyone, even though you have HIV. Alot of creds to you all 

I don't really fear the disease itself, I fear the psycologic impact it will have on my life. I had a girlfriend, but I am not sure how I will ever have one again. And I have always wanted children... And the regret will probably be the worst.

I feel like I can write a book about what I feel and think right now, but I would end up boring you guys till death 

Anyways, thank you for reading, and answering in any ways.


So long 

[jkinatl2]

Could you please clarify?

Did you have unprotected anal sex after having had protected vaginal sex and receiving oral sex?

[Zarsan]

Sorry, yes, I did have unprotected anal sex after the oral.

[Ann]

Zarsan,

You have had a risk on the lower end of the scale and you do need to test. I would not expect you to test positive over this one-off insertive incident. Hiv is much more difficult to transmit to the insertive partner from the receptive partner.

The earliest you should test is at six week, as the vast majority of people who have actually been infected will seroconvert and test positive by this time, with the average time to seroconversion being only 22 days.

A six week negative must be confirmed at the three month point.

Provided this incident happened twelve weeks or more ago, you can test now for a conclusive result. I fully expect you to test negative.

Neither symptoms nor the lack of symptoms will ever tell you a single thing about your hiv status, so stop thinking your symptoms mean hiv. They are not hiv specific. Just go test and find out where you stand.

Ann

[Zarsan]

Zarsan,

You have had a risk on the lower end of the scale and you do need to test. I would not expect you to test positive over this one-off insertive incident. Hiv is much more difficult to transmit to the insertive partner from the receptive partner.

The earliest you should test is at six week, as the vast majority of people who have actually been infected will seroconvert and test positive by this time, with the average time to seroconversion being only 22 days.

A six week negative must be confirmed at the three month point.

Provided this incident happened twelve weeks or more ago, you can test now for a conclusive result. I fully expect you to test negative.

Neither symptoms nor the lack of symptoms will ever tell you a single thing about your hiv status, so stop thinking your symptoms mean hiv. They are not hiv specific. Just go test and find out where you stand.

Ann

Thank you for that nice respond. It actually did calm me a bit. I will make an appointment to my doctor and take the test, lets hope I don't have to cross over to the forum below in a few weeks (just tested poz)... 

Until then, will update this thread when I get the results