cunnilingus, swollen nodes, reactive arthritis

[pendingdoom]

Hello Dr,
I am a 33 year old otherwise healthy male
In early december I had an encounter with a girl, I performed unprotected cunnilingus on her and protected vaginal sex. After the encounter I noticed she had bumps near the front of her arm pits with surgical marks. I did not think much of it at the time. Now I am very concerned. This was my only risky experience

About 2 weeks later I felt nausious, a few nights of night sweats, stiff neck, photophobia,diarrhea for a few days, headache for a few days, and a shooting pain mostly in my armpits but also in my groin.

Since then I have found a swollen gland in my neck I believe is my thyroid it feels squishy and large  and both arm pit nodes feel like grapes (almost 4 months later)

I do believe I am urinating quite often now, my eyes are always red and my knees, ankles, wrists, sometimes fingers are hurting.

I also have pain in my fingernail beds near the tip as if I have cut my nails too short.

My knee caps feel different to the touch like there is a hard buildup on them.

I also experience some abdominal pain frequently  

I have not gone to a doctor yet due to fear. I have convinced myself I have HIV and if I test and its positive I have no hope. I am a single father and I have a great career I feel my life is in shambles now.

I am need of some reassurance... Thanks

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to the Forum. The title of your post made me suspect that you were over-reacting to some sort of sexual exposure and reading your post confirms it.  The chance that your partner had HIV is very, very low- fewer than 1 in 10,000American women have HIV and even in the unlikely circumstance that your partner had HIV, there was no meaningful risk in the sexual activities that you describe.  Condom protected vaginal safe sex and there are no reported cased of HIV acquisition EVER occurring as the result of cunnilingus.

As for your symptoms, they are totally non-specific and in some cases (such as urinary frequency) are likely to be the result of anxiety, not infection.  

My advice is to stop worrying and go get tested to prove that your concerns are unwarranted.  Testing will not change whether or not you have HIV and, based on your comments, I am quite sure testing will prove that you do not have HIV.

I hope my comments are helpful to you.  EWH

[pendingdoom]

Also I forgot to mention plantar faciitis in both feet on and off and a lot of fatigue