Question

[Possible??]

Just a few questions, I appreciate your help.

1) Does anyone know if coated tongue or slightly hairy surface of the tongue is a sign of HIV infection?

2) If someone was to have HIV symptoms (ARS) would this insure that two months later would result in a conclusive antibody test or is there no corrolation and even with symptoms someone may not test for 3 months or more after the symptoms?

Thanks again

[Xhost]

Nope, not a chance, the results you received were conclusive beyond a doubt. You do not have HIV, and that's that. What you are experiencing are the lingering doubts that many experience. But, the cure for those is time. Trust me, they will fade, and you will be free of them. Just have a little patience, it will happen. And I speak from personal experience. Take care of yourself.

[Possible??]

Thanks Xhost for your comforting words.

I did have a negitive test using a Home Acess test at 108 days after my exposure. I felt good about the results, but in the last month I have been having headaches and the surpface of my tongue seems strange with slighlty overgrowth of my taste buds and it got my mond thinking again. Could it be my results were wrong and I really do have HIV? I am trying to forget about it but like eveyone on e here knows that easy easier said then done.

Thanks again.

[Xhost]

1. Please stop looking around for symptoms of primary HIV infection. They are too numerous to list here (based, I suspect, on shoddy information that you probably will find on a number of sites), and, they mean nothing in terms of determining one's HIV status. You could list every "symptom" that you feel you are experiencing, and it would mean absolutely nothing. Why is that? Mainly because the symptoms of primary HIV infection so closely mimic those of other, more common illnesses, such as mono, or the flu, or your garden variety cold virus. Thus, is it a bit of a fool's errand to sit around, poking one's lymph nodes and examining one's tongue. In the end, it is a pointless exercise.

Understood, being worried about something like this naturally tends to encourage symptom hunting. But, please, take it from someone who has been there, it will do you no good whatsoever to indulge in the behavior. It will only drive you crazy, and you don't need that.

2. I take it that you are 3 months past the event that has you concerned? If that is true, you may walk into any clinic and take a conclusive HIV test right now, today. The CDC recommends a 3 month test for a definitive result, some recommend a 6 week test for the same result. Either way, it does not matter much to you, as it sounds like you are past 3 months anyway. So, if you haven't done so already, go ahead and take the test.

And, to answer the question, certainly, if someone had experienced ARS, an antibody test would certainly have been positive two months afterwards. ARS is indicative of seroconversion. In other words, the body begins producing antibodies to the incipient HIV infection at this point, and symptoms result, and it is those antibodies that are tested for in any standard antibody test.