Likelihood of Infection?

[canthinkright]

I had unprotected sex with a co-worker at the end of March 21st 2008. I then had unprotected sex with her then one more time on April 25th 2008. Both occasions we were both under the influence of too many beers. She is engaged and is 24 years old now and has been living and dating her fiancé since she was eighteen and a freshman in college. We are both Caucasian’s and I am a circumcised male and I am married and have two children and have been with my wife for 15 years. Back to timeframe details-The following week on April 29th I started getting a fever and sore throat and cough. The fever was very high around 103-104 degrees and the cough was non-stop. I stayed at home for several days then finally went to the doctor on May 5th 2008 who gave me a chest x-ray and said I had the start of walking pneumonia and gave me a breathing treatment and antibiotics and an inhaler. Two weeks after this my wife also had a very high fever but I do not really remember her having a cough. I did not think back to that much until lately as I have been having some symptoms and have become silently obsessed and it has consumed my entire life inside my head. I am not sure of the statistics of the heterosexual HIV positive population in northern Florida but I am very concerned. I have had several symptoms, which of course according to the Internet all lead to HIV. It has been 1 year and over the last month I have been very tired and have had extremely sore joints and a very sore low back and swollen nodes. My wife has also been tired and has had a sore middle back and occasional headaches. My children have recently had fifth disease which I thought could have attributed to my pain but as I now look back on it I believe the pain and tiredness started before we knew they had it. Here is my other reasoning behind it. The co-worker I work with has been having headaches and also has been very tired and has not been sleeping well for over two months now. I constantly ask her how she feels and always says ok, just feels tired because she has not been sleeping well and recently had a stomach ache at night out of the blue which kept her up all night. Now my main concern is her fiancé who has a lot of tattoos which she has two small ones as well. I am worried he may have contracted HIV from getting those tattoos or maybe he had an outside relationship as well? I am very depressed and have asked her before if she ever has had an STD. I know I did not have HIV prior to this exposure as I had a new life insurance policy issued to me two months prior and all was clear as February 2008. I am an absolute wreck and cannot get myself to get a test. Everyone thinks I am a hypochondriac but I am really worried and the symptoms of joint pain and tiredness have been overwhelming. I have not sleep in several weeks now since this has started to consume me. I am not sure if I am wasting this forums time with my anxiety ridden rhetoric or if I have made any points to be answered by your cooler heads. If anyone has any wisdom please enlighten me. I am going to go to CVS and get a Home Access HIV test and hope with all my heart for the best. I am very scared and very disappointed in myself and my actions, which may have destroyed the quality of life to my wife who has absolutely no reason to be involved in my poor decisions.

[canthinkright]

BTW-

Thanks for the replies! This seems to be a very straight forward and responsible forum with knowledgeable and intelligent people like yourself and many others as well I am sure.

[canthinkright]

I will buy the Home Access test tomorrow at CVS and hope to gain the courage over the next week to do it. I am very terrified of having a positive result from my two indiscretions with my co-worker.  I am sure everyone must feel an extremely large sense of anxiety when facing possible life altering news. I think that I must learn to understand that this situation for me is based on my absolute reckless and inexplicably poor lifestyle and behavioral choice I made having those two unbelievably stupid unprotected sexual encounters last year.

[Teak]

Symptoms or the lack of will never tell you anything about HIV. Go test and obtain your conclusive result.

[canthinkright]

So may I assume anything other then no accounts of HIV transmission via tattoos? I feel that stress and anxiety may have a certain factor on my ailments but my wife’s and co-workers really have me pondering this situation. I may add my co-worker had a very high fever several months before we slept together which kept her out of work for 4 days.

[Teak]

There has never been anyone infected with HIV from a tattoo.