Diarrhea & HIV?

[WorriedHeart]

Hello Community,

Please don't yell at me to go get tested right away, I will do it soon, just trying to understand a few things going on with my body. I've been tested negative in Apr and Sep of last year, and since then only had 1 potentially risky situation with a condom failure diring vaginal intercorse with a CSW in Nov of last year.

For 2 months now I've been having constant gurgling in my stomach, soft stools and yellowish watery diarrhea in the morning and sometimes during the day. Went to a gastroenterology specialist, he ran stool tests and CBC. Nothing was abnormal found in the stool test, and blood counts appear to be normal. Can anyone tell me if CD4 cell count is done during a normal CBC test, and where can I find it? The only thing that looks somewhat recognizable is:

TSH/FREE T4 IF TSH ABNORM (TSH, 3RD GEN):
2.09 [0.40-4.00] uIU/ML

CBC WHITE CELL COUNT:
9.5 [3.5-10.5] K/UL

DIFFERENTIAL
LYMPHOCYTES: 21% [15-50]
ABSOLUTE LYMPHOCYTES: 2.1 [1.0-4.0] K/UL

Can HIV by itself cause chronic diarrhea without having any other parasites in my gut? I have read that HIV attacks the gut and chronic diarrhea is one of the first signs of HIV infection, so I'm scared to the stage where my hands are shaking when I'm typing this :(

Thank you all!

[nursegirl6572]

Diarrhea by itself is not a symptom of HIV.  Plus, if you had had TRUE ARS symptoms...they would have occured a long time ago...not this long after the exposure.

Like Teak said...the only thing to do here is to get tested.  You can go for a rapid test and have the results very quickly...so you can put this behind you for good.  There is honestly no reason to put off getting tested.  In the rare instance that you were infected, you will be able to seek the appropriate medical care.  In the likely chance that you weren't, you will finally be able to move on and rest easy.

[WorriedHeart]

Teak, thank you for the reply. I know I have to take a test, I am just trying to find answers to my question about diarrhea if it's caused by HIV. Would it develop within the first year? I know that if my last test was correct, I am negative as of Sep of last year, less than 10 months ago. Would HIV progress to the stage of causing diarrhea within that timeframe? I'm not having any other problems or symptoms, just diarrhea every day. I'm sorry for asking again, I'm just very scared. Please let me know.

[Teak]

I don't know what you expect us to tell you. The only test that will determine if you were exposed is an HIV test. You can test now and receive a conclusive test result. HIV has NO specific symptoms and you cannot use symptoms to diagnose HIV.