HIV or Lyme?

[vitaminD3]

I recently left a 2 year long monogamous relationship. My ex had previously had an addiction to prescription painkillers (and was being treated with suboxone) but never used injection drugs. I believe him as he always seemed scared of needles and I thought he would have been honest about it, but still my mind runs away with thoughts he might have lied. He also claimed to have only been in monogamous relationships with other women prior to meeting me, and had not been with someone for three years up until we met. I have severe OCD and now I am terrified and sick with worry that he lied to me, that he did use IV drugs, that he cheated, that he's secretly gay, etc. and that I could have HIV.

What really worries me about all of this is that about two months ago, I suddenly came down with a very severe illness, mainly characterized by arthritis like symptoms. It began with a very high fever, then a stiff neck, a very mild sore throat for just a day and slightly swollen throat glands, and then severe arthritis that settled into all of my joints with migrating joint pain. During this time, I also had hives that would randomly appear on my trunk and legs. One thing that was strange was this little itchy red spot that formed on my index finger, that overtime just turned redder and eventually blistered and peeled away as the illness went away. Anyway, my doctor suspected lyme disease or some type of viral infection and ran tests for parvo, mono, etc. (no test was ran for HIV). My preliminary ELISA showed an equivocal result for Lyme so she put me on Doxycycline right away. Some of the symptoms began to resolve after just a day or so (I was having severe muscle spasms in my calves which was the most alarming symptom but they went away very quickly), but other symptoms remained and seemed to take their course. According to what I read, most people who have lyme feel 100% better within just a day or so of taking the meds. It took about three weeks for the arthritis to go away down through my shoulders, arms, and wrists (and also in knees and feet - the bottom of my left foot in particular would hurt when I got up and stepped down from the bed in the morning). At my three week appointment, I still had wrist stiffness but for the most part was feeling better. She prescribed an additional three weeks of antibiotics and during that time took more bloodwork, CBC w/ differential, many tests for different types of inflammation, and a repeat lyme test. This time, very frustratingly, the lyme disease came back showing no sign of infection. My doctor said that because of the antibiotics, I may not have fully "seroconverted" because they caught it early enough. On the other hand, she said I may have just had a weird virus. All the bloodwork the second time around was excellent. No sign of lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or elevated c-reative protein/sed rate or anything like that.

However, I am still experiencing intermittent joint pain throughout the day. My doctor has told me to keep an eye on it. In the first three weeks of my illness, I had extreme stiffness that was very severe after sleeping or sitting/lying down for a while, exactly like someone with RA would have. That has completely disappeared, but still, the random shooting pains linger in my arms and legs. Also sometimes feel cramping in my toes and fingers.

I am so terrified that what I actually had was ARS and that I am still having symptoms of it. Is it possible that the sudden onset could have been ARS? Are the symptoms I had consistent with it? I also have a minor dry cough that comes and goes but it is very inconsistent - like I only cough maybe once or twice a day, like a little tingle in the back of my throat. I have pretty bad allergies and I think it's probably from that but still, that fear lingers in the back of my mind.

I have also been under very, very extreme stress with the break-up. I'm sure that is not helping my symptoms.

I would like to know, though, if it could have been ARS that caused me to have that equivocal result for Lyme which later turned to a negative. I'm really confused by the ELISA and Western Blots, but I think what happened is this: the Elisa was positive the first time around, Western Blot was negative, and then the second time around, she only did the Western Blot which was again Negative. I am really not sure. She basically said though, based on my test results, I don't have Lyme disease, or I never had a chance to fully seroconvert.

My mind is running wild right now, and I don't know how I'm going to cope with this. Please tell me if my symptoms could have been related to ARS. I don't remember getting a tick bite, but I am in a lyme endemic area, my dog gets ticks all the time, and I run through the woods a lot. I had been in the woods a lot around the time I got sick. I am just so afraid my boyfriend lied to me about his past and has given me HIV/AIDS. Also, not sure if this helps or not, but over the course of the last 2 years, we'd had unprotected sex several times a month - he only ejaculated inside me a couple of times (maybe like a dozen or so over the course of that time). I know it only takes one time, but I guess I just wanted to put it out there to help in analyzing my situation. Also, I had my yearly GYN check-up over a year ago, and another one just a month ago -- both times, no STDs, no herpes, I got clean/healthy pap smears.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[RainLover71]

3 months after your last unprotected sexual encounter with your ex will be conclusive.

[vitaminD3]

I also wanted to add that during this time I have lost no weight at all (in fact - I gained about 5 pounds). I only had a high fever on the first day or so of the illness. However, I have been compulsively checking my temp for weeks now (bad I know) and it is always running right around 98.6. I seem to remember my temps always running lower than that before all this happened, so that freaks me out too that my body must be constantly fighting something off. Would that have shown up in the CBC labs though? All my labs were good the second time around after the brunt of the illness went away. The only thing that did show up was a low vitamin D level which I am working to correct with vitamin D supplements.