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Are These HIV Symptoms?
Dear doctors, first I just want to let you know I really appreciate this forum that helps concerned people like myself. It has given me a lot of valuable information and knowledge regarding STDs. I'm 28 YO and lives in South East Asia. The following is quite lengthy but please bear with me as I just want to be clear with my situation.
I had two possible exposures in the past, one in Mid Sept 2016 and another is at the end of Nov 2016. Based on a lot of posts in this forum I think I'm not at risk of HIV but I just want to have a reassurance before getting a full STD test next week, which is the 1-month mark for my possible end of Nov 2016's exposure.
1) Mid Sept 2016's Possible Exposure:
My first time having sex and it was with a sex worker, STD status unknown. She gave me an unprotected oral sex and because it was my first time, I couldn't control it and ejaculated in seconds. She wasn't expecting it so she screamed and pulled her mouth immediately. I wasn't sure if she had any ulcers in her mouth but she had nothing on her lips. Later we tried having sex but I just couldn't get hard. She put a condom over my flaccid penis and asked me to try having sex with her anyway in hopes that I would get aroused in the process and getting my penis hard, but in the end I just couldn't get it hard and I think the penetration was at most getting the tip of my penis inside her. When everything ended the condom was still intact as far I could remember.
2) Symptoms after Mid of Sept 2016's Exposure:
4-5 days or a week after the exposure (don't quite remember), there's a dry red rash at the tip of my foreskin. It wasn't painful, no blisters, no lesions, no bumps, no wound, it was just really itchy. The rash lasted for 3-4 days and it disappeared after. I didn't feel pain when passing urine and I don't think there was any noticeable discharge, the only thing that I felt weird was maybe one day I saw what I thought was additional pre-cum in my underwear. Sometimes I have pre-cum in my underwear but that day was slightly more than I'd usually see, just slightly more. I'm uncircumcised and I just found out recently I have phimosis so I can't pull back my foreskin to see if there's any abnormalities at the tip of my penis. But as far as irritation is concerned it's only the rash on my foreskin. I had no usual ARS like fever or sore throat during that time until the next exposure.
3) End of Nov 2016's Possible Exposure:
Went to a massage parlor in Bangkok and had sex with a sex worker. The experience this time was much better than the last and since I knew I was going to ejaculate quick I requested not to have a blow job. We had sex twice, protected but my penis head wasn't really big (probably due to the phimosis) so the tip of the condom has a lot of "space", even when fully erect. Nonetheless I'm pretty confident the condom didn't break after the sex because my semen did not flow out when I stood up to remove the condom. And the person in charge of the parlor was confident that the girl was free of STD/ HIV because they do checkups every month.
4) Symptoms after End of Nov 2016's Exposure:
- 4 days after exposure I woke up at night with a fever, had the urge to go to the toilet to **** which I did, but wasn't diarrhea. The fever subsided within 12 hours after I popped a paracetamol. I never had fever since then.
- 5th day, suddenly felt like vomiting at 10am but I held it back. After lunch I rushed to the toilet to have a diarrhea. Went to the doctor and she said it's food poisoning. When I told her about me feeling weird that the fever came before the diarrhea she said it's normal if I caught the bug first.
- The food poisoning lasted for 5 days. 5 days were too long and I was really scared because I've never experienced this long. I only had diarrhea on the first and last day though, and never vomited, so I also thought it's long because the virus was not quickly cleared from my system. Also, on the 5th day of food poisoning I went to the doctor again only to find that I kept eating food that made the food poisoning worse, i.e., coffee, oat and wholemeal bread. Anyway, during these 5 days I felt really lightheaded, like I was constantly drunk/ stoned, varying level of disorientation and I also had really light nausea on and off, without actually vomiting like I mentioned earlier.
- After the 5 days my lightheadedness continues. On the 10th day after exposure, went back to work but my colleagues said I looked extremely pale, and my lips were white. My workstation is directly under an air-cond so about 10am I walked to the fire staircase which is a warm place (mind you I didn't feel cold, I just felt like needing to go to a warm place) and I started to feel the urge of vomiting but it went away quickly. What's next was me suddenly feeling my shirt and pants were tight and my eyes were starting to black out. Then I jumped around and screamed a bit and only calmed down after I sweat. I was petrified that it could be an ARS so I quickly called my doctor friend. She said it could be because I was malnutrition instead because the 5 days food poisoning I only ate food that would trigger more bowel movement so technically I ate nothing aside from an egg in the morning. I quickly asked my colleague to give a pack of chocolates and my face looked better after I finished all of the chocolates. Went to see a doctor again and she said I could be dehydrated. She wanted to do a blood test if my condition persists for two more days. She suspected I could have anemia.
- Anyway, I took my doctor friend's advice and started eating proper meal. Whenever I eat proper meal I would feel ok again, though there's still a bit of lightheadedness remains, and it's not sustainable as my energy level would go down really quickly like an hour or two after. However, my condition improves everyday. I still have nausea on and off but they'd go away after I eat. By the 12th day after exposure I could "feel" my mind/ brain, but still lightheaded.
- My condition improves everyday but I'm only back to 100% after 1.5 weeks of eating proper meal, which is 3 days ago. I've not experienced any ARS after the 12-hour fever mentioned above, except maybe a light sore throat that lasted about 3 days but I know ARS sore throat would be much severe.
- Yesterday I felt some tingling sensation at the tip of my penis. I didn't feel itchy when I scratched it and I couldn't check the tip because of my phimosis but it subsided in a day so I'm guessing it's just my anxiety when I looked through the STD section of the forum.
Unknowingly, when I went to a doctor to do a basic blood test last Saturday, the test included HIV and syphilis. It wasn't a 1-month mark from my End of Nov exposure yet so I'll do a full STD test next week. The basic blood test result would only come back this Saturday.
I know MedHelp's stand for HIV is that I was never at risk for unprotected oral sex and protected vaginal sex. But can I get a reassurance that the symptoms above are not at all ARS? That is:
1) Is the red rash on my foreskin a HIV rash? If not, what kind of STD do you think it is (I hope it's not herpes)? My doctor friend suggested it could be the bite mark from the sex worker when she pulled off her mouth immediately but I doubt bite mark would only appear days later. And she said if it's a bite mark then there's a possibility to have tiny wounds not obvious to the eyes at that moment, which would expose me to HIV, though very slim chance - is this true?
2) Is my lightheadedness experience a HIV fatigue?
3) I saw in the forum that rapid test can be inaccurate so is a blood test for HIV like I mentioned above always the best at 1-month and 3-month mark?
I had two possible exposures in the past, one in Mid Sept 2016 and another is at the end of Nov 2016. Based on a lot of posts in this forum I think I'm not at risk of HIV but I just want to have a reassurance before getting a full STD test next week, which is the 1-month mark for my possible end of Nov 2016's exposure.
1) Mid Sept 2016's Possible Exposure:
My first time having sex and it was with a sex worker, STD status unknown. She gave me an unprotected oral sex and because it was my first time, I couldn't control it and ejaculated in seconds. She wasn't expecting it so she screamed and pulled her mouth immediately. I wasn't sure if she had any ulcers in her mouth but she had nothing on her lips. Later we tried having sex but I just couldn't get hard. She put a condom over my flaccid penis and asked me to try having sex with her anyway in hopes that I would get aroused in the process and getting my penis hard, but in the end I just couldn't get it hard and I think the penetration was at most getting the tip of my penis inside her. When everything ended the condom was still intact as far I could remember.
2) Symptoms after Mid of Sept 2016's Exposure:
4-5 days or a week after the exposure (don't quite remember), there's a dry red rash at the tip of my foreskin. It wasn't painful, no blisters, no lesions, no bumps, no wound, it was just really itchy. The rash lasted for 3-4 days and it disappeared after. I didn't feel pain when passing urine and I don't think there was any noticeable discharge, the only thing that I felt weird was maybe one day I saw what I thought was additional pre-cum in my underwear. Sometimes I have pre-cum in my underwear but that day was slightly more than I'd usually see, just slightly more. I'm uncircumcised and I just found out recently I have phimosis so I can't pull back my foreskin to see if there's any abnormalities at the tip of my penis. But as far as irritation is concerned it's only the rash on my foreskin. I had no usual ARS like fever or sore throat during that time until the next exposure.
3) End of Nov 2016's Possible Exposure:
Went to a massage parlor in Bangkok and had sex with a sex worker. The experience this time was much better than the last and since I knew I was going to ejaculate quick I requested not to have a blow job. We had sex twice, protected but my penis head wasn't really big (probably due to the phimosis) so the tip of the condom has a lot of "space", even when fully erect. Nonetheless I'm pretty confident the condom didn't break after the sex because my semen did not flow out when I stood up to remove the condom. And the person in charge of the parlor was confident that the girl was free of STD/ HIV because they do checkups every month.
4) Symptoms after End of Nov 2016's Exposure:
- 4 days after exposure I woke up at night with a fever, had the urge to go to the toilet to **** which I did, but wasn't diarrhea. The fever subsided within 12 hours after I popped a paracetamol. I never had fever since then.
- 5th day, suddenly felt like vomiting at 10am but I held it back. After lunch I rushed to the toilet to have a diarrhea. Went to the doctor and she said it's food poisoning. When I told her about me feeling weird that the fever came before the diarrhea she said it's normal if I caught the bug first.
- The food poisoning lasted for 5 days. 5 days were too long and I was really scared because I've never experienced this long. I only had diarrhea on the first and last day though, and never vomited, so I also thought it's long because the virus was not quickly cleared from my system. Also, on the 5th day of food poisoning I went to the doctor again only to find that I kept eating food that made the food poisoning worse, i.e., coffee, oat and wholemeal bread. Anyway, during these 5 days I felt really lightheaded, like I was constantly drunk/ stoned, varying level of disorientation and I also had really light nausea on and off, without actually vomiting like I mentioned earlier.
- After the 5 days my lightheadedness continues. On the 10th day after exposure, went back to work but my colleagues said I looked extremely pale, and my lips were white. My workstation is directly under an air-cond so about 10am I walked to the fire staircase which is a warm place (mind you I didn't feel cold, I just felt like needing to go to a warm place) and I started to feel the urge of vomiting but it went away quickly. What's next was me suddenly feeling my shirt and pants were tight and my eyes were starting to black out. Then I jumped around and screamed a bit and only calmed down after I sweat. I was petrified that it could be an ARS so I quickly called my doctor friend. She said it could be because I was malnutrition instead because the 5 days food poisoning I only ate food that would trigger more bowel movement so technically I ate nothing aside from an egg in the morning. I quickly asked my colleague to give a pack of chocolates and my face looked better after I finished all of the chocolates. Went to see a doctor again and she said I could be dehydrated. She wanted to do a blood test if my condition persists for two more days. She suspected I could have anemia.
- Anyway, I took my doctor friend's advice and started eating proper meal. Whenever I eat proper meal I would feel ok again, though there's still a bit of lightheadedness remains, and it's not sustainable as my energy level would go down really quickly like an hour or two after. However, my condition improves everyday. I still have nausea on and off but they'd go away after I eat. By the 12th day after exposure I could "feel" my mind/ brain, but still lightheaded.
- My condition improves everyday but I'm only back to 100% after 1.5 weeks of eating proper meal, which is 3 days ago. I've not experienced any ARS after the 12-hour fever mentioned above, except maybe a light sore throat that lasted about 3 days but I know ARS sore throat would be much severe.
- Yesterday I felt some tingling sensation at the tip of my penis. I didn't feel itchy when I scratched it and I couldn't check the tip because of my phimosis but it subsided in a day so I'm guessing it's just my anxiety when I looked through the STD section of the forum.
Unknowingly, when I went to a doctor to do a basic blood test last Saturday, the test included HIV and syphilis. It wasn't a 1-month mark from my End of Nov exposure yet so I'll do a full STD test next week. The basic blood test result would only come back this Saturday.
I know MedHelp's stand for HIV is that I was never at risk for unprotected oral sex and protected vaginal sex. But can I get a reassurance that the symptoms above are not at all ARS? That is:
1) Is the red rash on my foreskin a HIV rash? If not, what kind of STD do you think it is (I hope it's not herpes)? My doctor friend suggested it could be the bite mark from the sex worker when she pulled off her mouth immediately but I doubt bite mark would only appear days later. And she said if it's a bite mark then there's a possibility to have tiny wounds not obvious to the eyes at that moment, which would expose me to HIV, though very slim chance - is this true?
2) Is my lightheadedness experience a HIV fatigue?
3) I saw in the forum that rapid test can be inaccurate so is a blood test for HIV like I mentioned above always the best at 1-month and 3-month mark?
COMMUNITY LEADER
In adults, HIV is transmitted by:
1) having unprotected, penetrative vaginal or anal sex, or
2) sharing IV drug needles with other IV drug users.
You are not at risk for HIV when you have oral sex, or when you use a condom for penetrative anal/vaginal sex and it does not break - and you would know if a condom broke. There's no such thing as "microscopic holes" that lead to HIV transmission. Whatever symptoms you are experiencing have nothing to do with HIV.
1) having unprotected, penetrative vaginal or anal sex, or
2) sharing IV drug needles with other IV drug users.
You are not at risk for HIV when you have oral sex, or when you use a condom for penetrative anal/vaginal sex and it does not break - and you would know if a condom broke. There's no such thing as "microscopic holes" that lead to HIV transmission. Whatever symptoms you are experiencing have nothing to do with HIV.
3 Comments
Thanks CurfewX, but for my knowledge could you let me know the answers to my 3 questions above please? At least, the third question is still relevant.
You need to read curfew's advice a few times until you understand it instead of resubmitting your question for no useful purpose.
Then it is time to get back to your happy life.
Then it is time to get back to your happy life.
Sorry I should have said questions instead of question.
I also had really white tongue during the food poisoning period, the doctor said it could be dehydration. Is white tongue thrush? I didn't have white spots in my mouth or throat and didn't experience any oral pain.
1 Comments
Sorry I also had one night sweat during the lightheadedness period mentioned above...
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