Random stabs of pain. Anxiety or HIV?

[ashler1977]

Post this question on the Anxiety group but no-one answers there, hope someone can help here. Thanks.

I am a male in my mid 30s who did something very stupid early February. Met a girl in a bar and we went on to have unprotected oral sex (she did a fellatio to me) followed by protected sex. Full story here:

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/HIV-Prevention/Lump-in-the-neck-after-unprotected-oral-sex-insertive/show/1701567

I have been told several times in this and another forums that I had no HIV risk whatsoever, however I had very scary symptoms three weeks after the incident including a small-marble size swollen lymph node in the left side of my neck followed by an urinary infection. All this went away 2 weeks later (Dr. suggested me to take Cyprofloxacin). I took an HIV test (4th Generation) 5 and 9 weeks after the incident. My urologist told me I can be calm with the 9 weeks test, although official guidelines suggest a 12 week test. Again, due the nature of my "risk", most experts I consulted said I have nothing to worry about.

14 weeks after the incident I also tested for other STDs: Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, NGU. Everything came back negative. Instead of being happy I was a bit sad none of them was positive. I was hoping one of these could explain the lymph node on the neck and the urinary infection.

Shortly afterwards (so +3 months after incident) I have started experiencing random stabs of pain throughout my body. They are in very small areas, I get them in lymph node areas like jaw, armpits, groin. Sometimes I get them in areas that are not lymph nodes as well. They last for a few seconds, then they go away. Lymph nodes are not swollen.

Of course, those random pains in my body have scared me A LOT and now I am considering going for a final HIV test, but at the same time I am VERY scared to do so. I am thinking that I may be a case of delayed seroconversion (virtually everyone infected with HIV test positive at 6 weeks, but some do test later, hence the 12 weeks window).

I would like to know if anyone had similar symptoms. Can be this be caused by stress and Anxiety? It's about 4 months now since that night and there has not been a single day where I didn't think of HIV :(

Thanks in advance.

[Crazymind123]

I am experiencing the same thing!! I have pain in all those areas but I can feel my lymph nodes in my neck as well. I have a conclusive test but came here because I was worried about these pains. Maybe we are all suffering from anxiety??

[ashler1977]

That's it. My blood was drawn for the third and last time (hopefully). Results next week.

Testing is a very relaxing and liberating thing. Going to get the results, that's a different story.

But is always better to be sure than killing you with anxiety thinking "what if". Hopefully, I won't be the first on this forum to seroconvert after a 4th generation test 9 weeks post incident. Or better said, hopefully, no-one in this forum will seroconvert beyond that time frame, ever.

[AngeloA]

I had the same symptoms while I was anxious about HIV. I also got random pains in certain areas. I don't know it could be caused by anxiety, but I guess it could be the trigger.
Here's a link with an explanation of anxiety symptoms:
http://www.npadnews.com/anxiety-symptoms.asp

I know the feeling and I hope with the final test you can finally move on.

All the best.