I had unprotected vaginal sex with a girl on Feb 14th (and again the following morning). She wasn't an intravenous drug user or a prostitute, but I didn't know her, don't have any way to contact her, just your run of the mill one night stand. Before anyone chastises me, I'm aware that I should practice safer sex.
About 2 1/2 weeks later, around March 4th, I came down with one of the most severe sore throats of my life, swollen to the points that swallowing my own spit was almost impossible due to the pain. I went to the doctor where I was prescribed prednisone and amoxicillin, although the swab test came back negative for strep throat. I had night sweats and I presume fever too and my lymph nodes in my neck were swollen as well. At this point, I started to worry (I'm painfully aware of psychosomatic effects, please read on). I got better almost immediately from the sore throat, but I was still having light sweats at night, body aches, and weird headaches I'd never had before. Regardless, I was starting to feel better and I took an HIV PCR DNA test and antibody test on March 11th, 23-24 days post exposure. I was led to believe that the HIV PCR DNA test could detect HIV as soon as 9-11 days post exposure and that at 23-24 days, it was almost 100% accurate. After feeling better for a couple of days, I came down on Friday with flu like symptoms, nausea, fever, headache, body aches. I went to the ER and was discharged after some basic care, anti-nausea medication and motrin. They gave me a viral syndrome diagnosis and my bloodwork showed increased neutrophils and decreased lymphocytes, but only as a percentage, I didn't get absolute counts (not sure that this would matter regardless). After getting discharged, I went home and starting having the worst diarrhea of my life, I went 20-30 times for the next 3-4 days. During this time I also had painfuly swollen lymph nodes around my neck/collarbone as well as rib cage / armpit area. I even had a bit of a rash on my upper back that felt sorta like a sunburn. It was small and didn't last long. I took an OraQuick test on March 15th, 4 weeks post exposure which was negative. I finally got my results of my tests from the previous week on March 17th, and it was also negative. I celebrated, put my worries to rest and went about the rest of my week. My diarrhea resolved. However, I'm still having some symptoms. Now I'm having joint pains, tingling in my hands, sharp muscle pains, my lymph nodes are still seemingly swollen and tender/painful and I have a pain in my right rib cage that is radiating to my back. Were my tests conclusive? Were they at least highly accurate (95-100% sensitive). After reading about this more, I realize I may have put to much stock in to my PCR DNA and antibody tests and consequently I may have put another person at risk this past weekend (had unprotected sex with another girl who I know and I'm not worried at all about her HIV status, unless I've unknowingly put her at risk).
If I do end up being negative, I will write a post about how it's possible to have a whole bunch of typical HIV symptoms and not be positive. The anxiety surrounding testing, waiting for the window period to past is brutal in its own way.
Thanks,
H!VW0RRY