Testing for HIV & 4-5 week test

[Overlystressed]

1st Question:

I just got tested (free) on Monday at a Deparment of Health anonymous testing.  They took blood from my arm and i would need to call in next week Wednesday for the results.  Ive read from the post that there are many different kinds of tests.

Could someone tell me which test i took and how reliable it is.  

2nd Question (Posted Last Week):

I got tested 5 weeks after receiving uprotected oral sex from hostess bar girl and 4 weeks after sucking breasts (assuming had breast milk) from Vegas stripper who gave birth 8 weeks prior (i had dry lips with cracks that felt like cold sores).

Im still stressing out after reading other website forums regarding the breast milk issue.  Here they say no risk but at "The Body" forum they say there are risks.

Stressing out big time.  If this is negative am i home free or do i need to get another test?  I know i should have waited to at least 6 weeks but couldnt wait.  What is my risk with the breast incident in relation to oral sex?  Since ive read on websites breast milk is worse than vaginal fluid.  So does that mean what i did with the breast milk is worse than giving oral sex to a woman with sores in or on my mouth?

Teak, worried, ECN, and others, would appreciate your responses again.  Im killing myself and taking years off my like with all the stress.  Thanks!

[gtshubha]

I think you are doing the right thing. I think they will do a standard blood test and a negative result will give you good confidence that you are fine. Stiil, I think you should for another test at 6-8 week mark, where a negative test result can be treated as 95-98% accurate.
They always say oral sex carries minimal/potential risk. I think receiving oral sex has negligible risk, atleast the doctors says so (you are only exposed to her saliva which is a good inhivator of hiv and even it does contain some hiv the amount is very low to affect you). So the odds are in your favour. Just try to relax a bit and wait for your results. I think you can give them a call on friday and probably they will have your result by that time. I understand that anxiety can kill you (it's the same for me), but I am sure you will be fine.

[ECN44120]

You were never at risk, so you didnt even needed a test, only the place where you were tested can tell you what kind of test they used,

Before you start asking why? well becouse receptive oral sex from a positive partner is just 1/20000 risk (almost impossible) then the chance the hostess had hiv is 0,1% (hiv prevalence in woman in the us)  so your overall risk would be of 1 in 20 millions and thats is ZERO, then from the breast milk, first if she just gave birth 8 weeks ago then you can be pretty sure she was negative, becouse if she had being positive the gyn and the doctors would have give her a medicine to supreme the milk production that is commonly used whit positive mothers, and little babies get infected through breast feding since they drink breast milk 10 times a days for 1 year period, and they also doestn have the abilitie to produce antibodies and fight small hiv viruses in their body.

So finally no risk, so then no test needed.

[worried826]

Youre not at risk really. The breats milk thing is a huge long shot. You dont really have anything to worry about.

Sounds like you got a standard ELISA antibody test, they are highly reliable and accurate. At 5 weeks the chances of showing positive if you are infected are high. After you get your negtaive result chill out until 12 weeks and go back again for a final test.

[Overlystressed]

Stripper told me she stopped breast feeding after 3 weeks after birth.  I dont know why she stopped breast feeding since its important for the baby.  Thats when i started stressing out and assumed she might have something and didnt want to infect the babe.  During the lap dance she would squeeze her breast down toward me so thats making me concerned she was squeezing something on to my face (eye, lips, mouth).  With my lips being dry and cracked, throat being dry, and having bloody nose everynight i assume the risk is there. She told me she was clean but she owned an escort service.  And according to her, most of her workers did not use protection when on the job.  Made me more worried since she would allow that as their boss.    

Still been sick going on 4 weeks with sinus problems with thick yellow mucus.

[worried826]

You obviously are not a parent judghing by not understanding why women would stop breast feeding early. Yes it is good for the child but not every mom has time to do it. Whats really important is that for the first few weeks they are breastfed because the first few weeks of milk is great to develop the immune system of a baby. Whether or not the mother choses to or not is her decision alone. Plus if she knew she was infected she would not have breastfed at all. Women are usually tested for HIV during pregnency also so she would have known.

Still either way you were in a no risk situation.

[gtshubha]

I am sorry for this question, but I always thought that oral sex is a minimal or negligible risk. I understand that it's almost impossible to become hiv affected from a single oral exposure. However, Isn't it good to atleast get tested after 6-8 weeks to be 100% sure about it! It's just my idea developed from reading this forum (Dr. HHH told many times that a single exposure oral sex carries negligible risk or may be even no risk, however for peace of mind a 6-8 week standard negative Elisa test result is conclusive) as I am suffering from the similar thing.

[Overlystressed]

yes i am a parent with 2 kids.  If i was single i would not be as worried as i am now since i would only screw up my life.

Im not an expert at women breast feeding but would assume mothers would like to breast feed a lot longer than 3 weeks for the babys immune system.  I thought 3 weeks was not much at all.  I guess im looking at the negatives and finding ways to worry more.

I hope im worring for nothing.  Others say having/not having symptoms make no difference which is true.  But it helps the stress a lot if there were no symptoms.  The cold symptoms add major stress.

I always thought sucking breast was safe.  

[worried826]

A cold is a cold, they happen all the time. You are getting all worried for no reason.

My son was breastfed for a longtime but my daughter was only breastfed for like a month. 3 weeks is enough to give a baby a much more healthy immune system. Actually whats the most important is the colostrum that comes from the breast right after childbirth, that is the most beneficial to the child immunce system.

[ECN44120]

Yes offcourse but anyway testing at 6-8 weeks even for oral sex wouldnt be conclusive so anyway a 3 month test would be needed, but in my opinion it would only be warranted to test if you are 100% the other partner was positive, since the 99,3% of people is not hiv infected.

[ECN44120]

Sorry the 99,7% of people are not infected in the US

[ECN44120]

It doesnt matter at all why she stopped breast fedding, thats up to her, but if she was positive she wouldnt breast fedeed at all, so that plus that there she just bresatfeeded for 3 weeks and then you suked her niples 5 weeks after ahe stoped the breastfedeng, (breastmilk suplly is not unlimited once the suction stimulation stops breast get dry in 2-3 weeks) so when you sucked her nipples she would have been dry.

[Overlystressed]

Thanks! You seem to be very knowledgeable about this issue.  I hope i can overcome the fear and move on.

[gtshubha]

I agree with your comment. I had my experience in India and it was protected vaginal but unprotected cunnilingus. I had a standard blood test after 21 days in Canada and it was negative. No symptoms for me but obviously I am worried. I am planning to do a 7 week blood test to be sure about it or atleast 98% sure about it (according to Dr. HHH and Dr. Hook who area world renonwed persons in STD research). In the whole world 99.35% people are not HIV infected and for India the % of HIV infected people are .35% considering the toal population of 1.1 billion. It's difficult to say if the message parlour girl was infected or not, although they say that they don't do sex without condom and no anal sex is allowed. In addition, they do the blood tests for HIV every month.

[ECN44120]

Cunnilingus is not risk, the CDC doesnt even have and stimated risk for it, try to move on

[gtshubha]

Thank you for the well wishing note. I went to CDC clinic, they said that cunnilingus without protection is a low risk activity, however they don't have any risk estimate for that. Few HIV infected cases in the world are believed to be due to cunnilingus. However, I agree that in most of the time when people engaged in cunnilingus they also involved in various other sexual activities. Therefore it's extremely difficult to measure the actual risk of cunnilingus. I think the risk is around 1 per 10000/20000 episode.

[ECN44120]

No thats the risk for receptive-insertive penile oral sex, and thats even inflaited, and the cases believed due to cunnilingus are so rare and have some doubt over it, You shouldnt even been worried at all,

[Overlystressed]

My stress is going out of control now.  I have been sick for almost 4 weeks now.  Still have thick yellow mucus all day.  Doctor gave me Allegra D and has not done much at all.  Now my wife (started yesterday) has fever, sore throat, body aches all over, and felling just exhausted.  She never felt like this before.

Just to recap my issue:

I got tested on 5/12/08 after receiving uprotected oral sex from hostess bar girl on 4/4/08 and after sucking breasts (assuming had breast milk) from Vegas stripper who gave birth 8 weeks prior (i had dry lips with cracks that felt like cold sores) on 4/12/08.  Test results to be ready on 5/21/08.

Now the stress has been elevated to unbearable.  I didnt think what i did was risky but with all the symptoms i hope i didnt ruin my wifes life.  I aint never doing this shet again.  

Does anyone change their opinion on my risk about being infected?  Honest opinion please.  Im freaking out!!!!

[ECN44120]

No I havent change my opinion, but if you feel that bad, dont wait until the 21 go now or tomorrow and get a rapid test it only takes 20 min, and if your unprotecetd oral was on the 4/4 from then to tomorrow would be excatly 6 weeks, with that you can call it done, since oral sex isnt a even a low risk, is a lot lower than extremly low risk,

The symptoms your or from your wife are meaninless.

Good luck

[worried826]

I agree with ECN, go tommorow for a rapid test and be done with it. Symptoms mean nothing.

Stress is a killer and can take you down faster than HIV can. Your risk is virtually non-existant anyway.

[Teak]

You were never at risk of contracting HIV and didn't need any tests.

[worried826]

I have noticed that saying that is pointless to the worried wells, they cant accept a non-risk situation. Hell most of them cant even accept the negative result. Cant hurt to get tested thouigh ya know?

I need to change my screenname, I wouldnt have made it what it is if I had read some of these crazy threads around here before I registered. I was just worried about my white tongue, plus I have a **** load of unprotected incidents.

[gtshubha]

I think, you just do a test to rest your mind out of any anxiety. You are fine and please don't overly stressed yourself. Do a test and get a negative results and you will be fine.

[Overlystressed]

I hope everyone is right.  I have diarrhea again today twice which i hope is stress and still have mucus from cold lasting almost 4 weeks.  Only good news right now is my wifes sister caught a similar cold so maybe my wifes one is not related to hiv.  im praying its not.  my wife continues to have a bad sore throat now with 2 significant lumps on the back of her throat near the tonsils, one on each side.  I hope thats normal.

one more question...is it okay to have unprotected sex with my wife?  (i guess continue since i already had it about 5 times w/ejaculation.  Tried not to have sex recently in the last week)  

I think im going to try and manage and wait to 5/21 to get my results.  I have no idea where to get that rapid test.  Is it annoynomous?  Does it go on my medical records?  Im clueless.  ive only been to the free testing agency provided by the department of health.  I actually asked for the oral swab instead of the blood because i was afraid my wife would see the bruise which i still have very slightly after 4 days.  But they said they would need to send it somewhere for testing.

thanks everyone!  im praying for a negative result.

[worried826]

Yes rapids are annonymous, www.hivtest.org  put in your zip code.

What a coincidence, your in-law has a cold also. I guarantee neither of you have HIV, you both have colds and maybe a stomach bug.