Needs reassuring

[Deglingue]

Hi there.  This is basically my story (posted on the Doctor  - Hiv prevention) board: http://www.medhelp.org/posts/HIV-Prevention/Should-I-even-worry-and-test/show/1610292

Basically, I deep kissed a man, had unprotected oral sex  and protected anal  sex.  There was no ejaculation involved.

I know I  should be satisfied with doctor Hook's answers, but I'm not convinced.  There is too much implications  for  me to gamble on what is a contentious point in the medical community (the risks or unprotected sex).

Please read the whole  story if you answer...

It all started  with a sore throat at 10 days after the encounter.  Then sneezing and sinus congestion appeared but it went away in 2-3 days.  Then it developped into what  look like bronchitis.  No coughing, just spitting up huge phlegm of crap in the morning.  I was put  on antibiotics and had monospot done (which came  back negative, even though I had mono before).  It almost all went  away for a while so I was  relieved that it was just a bacterial infection.  But today, I woke up with pain lymph  nodes again...not  swollen, just feel  like  someone is pinching them and  it migrates from left to right and down and  up.  It's very random.  The sore  throat is back but with no phlegm when coughing.  The mild headache is back and top of that, I have developped a mouth ulcer  and a rash on my penis (to be fair, I get eczema often down there).     I've been experiencing bad memory since the  symptoms began.  I constantly forget what I was doing when my memory is usually the first quality people recognize in me.

I was prescribed antibiotics because my doc thought I was starting a pneumonia upon inspection and this website says pneumonia is an early symptom of HIV with men:  http://www.buzzle.com/articles/early-symptoms-of-hiv.html   Is it true?

I thought it was just anxiety and that I needed something radical to
shake it off.  I had a few drinks and  got  high but the pain is still very much there, even moreso.

I'm very confused about these random symptoms that are resurfacing and while I'll get  tested, I need an elaborate and exhaustive response to explain to  me  why I am  fine.  

Thank you in advance.

[Deglingue]

I thank  you as well.  I needed this talk :-/

[RainLover71]

Well don,t do this to yourself again then,You clearly had no Hiv risk and it would be sad if you put yourself through this hell for nothing all over again.The problem with many websites about Hiv is that the information is so outdated and old and this is where the confusion begins.It,s best to stay away from those sites and stick to sites that state the facts.You can break the cycle by excepting the facts about Hiv and how it,s transmitted and what real ARS symptoms are and when they appear and so on.The first thing you should do is except that you had no risk.

[zamzam4]

You are very welcome.  You need to move on from this incident, stay off the internet and get outside and do something else.

[zamzam4]

This doesn't change anything at all.  Still no risk whatever spin you put on it.  Nothing you are reporting is a risk and no additional facts change that.

I urge you to seek professional help with this fear, it is irrational.

[Deglingue]

Thank you for your detailed replies.  You've helped someone a lot today.  :-)

[Deglingue]

I think doctor Hook seemed less definitve in his answer  because he might I thought I may have forgot what happened and was underreporting with all the alochol and  drugs involved.  

But no, I took so much stimulants that I was very aware of what I was doing and I remember each seconds of my encounter.  

Those same stimulants worry me because I spent the night doing having ticks with my mouth that really left my lips chapped and my throat heavily irritated.  Plus,from experience, hard drugs tend to weaken your immune system and make  you catch every little bug out there so I wonder if I didn't increase my chances of getting HIV through oral sex, no matter much we're told it's safe.

[zamzam4]

It is  not credible.  I think you could put just about any 'symptom' into google and HIV would come up somewhere.

You sound to me like you need to see a psychiatrist, if I were you I would get a referral from your GP and discuss this with them.

You serioulsy have nothing to worry about, you are blurring the lines between fear and facts and allowing your HIV anxiety to convince that something is a threat to you when in actual fact it isn't.  Its a slippery slope to head down.

If you need to test for peace of mind then do so, it will be negative of that I can guarantee you.

[Deglingue]

I didn't get an HIV test at 4 weeks.  I haven't done the 4 weeks test yet.  

I'm the first one to admit that anxiety can mess you up.  Last year I had a similar encounter and caught mononucleosis (which is  similar  to  ARS)  5-6 days later. I spent the following 3 months worrying for nothing.  I  even thought about suicide for a while to avoid admitting this to my family.  It ruined me.

After  I  got tested and it came back negaitve, I laughed at my ridiculous  irrational fears and how time I wastede on them but now because lo and behold, I have symptoms again right on the spot after sex with some dude I don't know and who's been evading my questions.  And since  I'm staying inside, being sick, I get in the same  loop of googling for information that validates my fear.  I have no idea how to break this cycle.  Can you tell me if the link I posted (about pneumonia  in ARS) is credible or if it's just another article written by people who don'tvknow much about this disease?

I thank you  for your patience.

[RainLover71]

You had no Hiv risk but you may have placed yourself at risk for other more common STD,S which you should test for.I read Dr Hook,s answers to you and the only thing that surprised me was his comment about your 4 week test not being totally conclusive as i,ve heard him say before.Perhaps it was the type of test that you had,however you never needed Hiv testing in the first place so it makes no difference.I don,t know what these symptoms could be as they are not related to Hiv obviously,so it would be a good idea to go to your local clinic and have these STD tests and put this matter behind you.All the best.

[zamzam4]

You really have nothing to be worried about.  Whatever, is going on with you has nothing to do with HIV.  

First of all the symptoms you describe are not indicative of HIV infection.  HIV is not a mucus producing virus, sinus congestion, sneezing, is not  a part of ARS.  If lymph nodes swell during ARS they they are NOT painful.  The rash, if you were to get one is normally on the torso and sometimes legs and arms.  It is a generalised rash not loacalised to one area i.e your penis.

Nothing you report sounds like ARS to me, top that with the fact that you did not engage in any risky behaviours, along with a negative at 4 weeks is proof that you did not get HIV from this incident.  If any of your symptoms were ARS you would have tested positive or in the very least indeterminate.  

Oral sex is not a risk, saliva contains over a dozen proteins and enzymes which render the virus inactive and unable to infect.  Nothing else that you engaged in was a risk either.  You used protection for the penetrative sex which would make it impossible to get HIV.  There have been not only scientific studies that prove this but also studies on sero-discordant couples where the only protection they used was for penetrative sex and not one of them, NOT ONE got HIV.  We have years and years of intensive study in the virus which allows us to know confidently how the virus is and is not transmitted.

Anxiety really can mess with you, maybe you have just a general cold/virus and now you are putting your body under the HIV microscope.  Using alcohol and drugs will only give you a temporary relief from anxiety and will actual make it worse in the long term.

The timing of your illness is a mere, unfortunate, coincidence and not indiactive of your hiv status which is most definitley negative.