Thanks for support

Thanks for the support Lizzie and others.
Sadly I now have other symptoms - + 9 days. Nights last night, so I could not sleep, up early going out of my mind. Tingling in my hands. Although Candidia is not a common tell of ARS, it certainly a sign and could not have been caused by anything else. I pray to God for a miracle.

[worried826]

Candida is not a telltale sign of HIV at all and I bet you havent even been diagnosed with candida by a doctor, you are guessing on your own.

Go see a shrink and get some anxiety meds to get you through the next few weeks until you can get a reliable test.

[helpplz03]

Dude I have tinglings and muscle spasm all over. I had a negative test in London at 6 weeks and still worried. This is anxiety catching up with you man. Get ur doc to prescribe you some tranquilizers to get thru the next few weeks.

[rufinus]

Thanks for comments Mr.. you are right I need to get some help,I am going out of my mind with worry, smoking and drinking, not able to sleep or eat.
And worst of course is that I cannot share it with my partner. We work and live together and I cannot at the moment jepodise the porjects we have on. OF course he knows that something is not right, which makes it all the worse. Just trying to get the timing right to tell him. **** will hit the fan.
I just think that I know my body well and woudl not be freaking out if it was all working normally.. should  have gone on PEP but it is a it late for that now.

[helpplz03]

Its a positive feedback mechansim. Thats what Im trying to make myself believe. All you need is a trigger point and then you start stressing and focusing on that. Because of that anxiety other symptoms start to occur only to expand the scope of your concern. Its a ciricular reference and quite mentally destructive. Ive been thru 2 other HIV scares and only to find out that I was being totally ridiculous. Everyone on this thread including the docs that I'm doing it again but thats my personality and I hope to god that they prove correct. My body feels destroyed and it was the same way in my prior concerns. THe mind is a very powerful medium and once that type of thinking gets in motion its hard to stop. YOu will need shorter term anxiety meds (I dont recommend SSRIs because they take 4-6 weeks to take effect and are meant for longer term treatments).  

[rufinus]

What is your situation. have you already tested negeive after 6 weeeks?

[rufinus]

Having a tongue coated with white, a dry metallic mouth and sweaty palms are tells of ARS, not the more usual ones. I have checked out enough web sites, I know it does your head in, to know. Would love to be able to think otherwise.

[rufinus]

.. My first email shoudl have read, night sweats alst night. Although I will be tired tonight I am terrified of going to bed as the night sweats will start again. and I sleep beside my partner.. who will then start to worry.

[helpplz03]

who knows... symtoms (symptoms) as the docs will say are meaningless. I have a white tongue too but I'm hoping thats because of GERD (acid reflex) which I have and gets 1000 times worse during anxiety. If you have acid reflex because of this anxiety then that could be a reason for ur tongue...  that + sweaty palms are more likely to be anxiety driven and in fact sweaty palms is classic anxiety.

[rufinus]

what is your situation? are you in Limbo.. only problem is that I have never had acid reflux. so I cannot put it down to that.

[rufinus]

.. How long have you been on the tranguillisers for?

[rufinus]

.. Sadly I do not think I am being irrational and I now starting to get very sweaty and show a temperature /fever.. jesus what an idiot I have been, finding it very difficult to live with my actions..

[worried826]

Im not any meds. I deal my anxiety without meds. Ive had anxiety for like 8 years, it flares from time to time but I usually do OK with it.

White tongue is not an indicator of ARS and either are sweaty palms. Night sweats, fear to sleep, and dry metallic mouth are classic anxiety symptoms. Go see a dentist about the white tongue, tons of people have white tongues and I havent found one case where someone has a white tongue and it was caused by hiv and trust me I searched and searched.

Quit trying to convince yourself you have HIV because if thats what you want to do then you can look up every possible symptom on the internet and somehow tie it to HIV. What good does that do? None, but it will get your nerves worked up more though.

[rufinus]

.. Yeah but believe me I woudln't be so ridden with angst if I didn't have some symptoms, its just too coincidental that the whaite tongue/ Candiada came about in the winodw period after having unsave sex....Jesus my head is going around in cricles .. becoming HIV+ is bad at any time.. but this is really bad timing... so much work on and the business is just about to take off.. and I cannot tell my partner so am going throught this alone... need cigarettes and booze to keep me going.. feel I have let so many people down, family, friends, client and of course my partner...

[worried826]

Look, search around this website and you will find lots of people that got white tongue not long after a possible exposure, myself included. All of them that I have seen have tested negative for HIV. Besides you dont know if you have Candida unless you have a culture done by the doctor, you cant really self diagnose it because there are plenty of reasons that the tongue gets a white coating. There are people that havent even had exposures that suddenly develop a white tongue, they dont have HIV either.

Your anxiety is driving you to not eat or sleep, plus you are staying on booze and smokes which will make your tongue worse. Get off thsi site and call a dentist to have a look at the tongue and then call to make an appointment for a counselor, you need it man.

[evenflow1121]

Dude first of all white tongue is not a symptom of ARS.  Nightsweats can be caused by a lot of things even your own anxiety.  Now then, relax and take into account that a lot of things can happen in 12 weeks, someone can for example cough on you and you may end up with the flu on the 4th week for example, doesnt mean ARS, its just flu season.  Just test in 3 months, I am sure it will be a negative.

[rufinus]

Thanks m8 , I wish  I shared your confidence , but thanks for the post anyway. It's not flu seasin where I am , but my nerves have been numbed slightly with a good swig of whisky. With all the night sweats and tingling fingers do not know how I am going to make it to the 25 day mark, let along 3 months.

[evenflow1121]

You know drinking can give you night sweats right, now that you mention whisky. Let me tell you my story, maybe this will help you. A long, long time ago in a galaxy far away, I had unprotected sex with a girl that is now my soon to be wife, but I started freaking out like most people do.  About the 6th week after my exposure I developed a terrible sore throat followed by fevers and night sweats, dry coughing, and head aches, my lymph nodes on my neck also swelled, 2 weeks later I developed a terrible rash.  Yep, like you I thought I had HIV for sure.  Well I went on the 12th week and got tested, and came back negative.  As it turns out, the sore throat, fever, lymph swells, ect.  were a result of a bad case of strep going around (wasnt flu season either), and the rash was sea lice that can be found in gulf of Mexico Waters, cause as soon as I started to feel batter, I jumped on my kayak and the kayak flipped over.  So while I was worrying thinking I had caught this disease, there were other outside factors that played a role that had nothing to do with HIV.  Thats why you need to relax man, HIV is a very rare disease, and your one time exposure puts the odds highly in your favor, just get tested and move on.

[alienshadow]

can you say ANXIETY lokk the symptoms up and get over all the nonsense my friend

[rufinus]

Anxiety yes but I would not be feeling anxious if I had no symptoms. slept very well until the symptoms started. ****...I ahve really ****** up.

[alienshadow]

see thats my point dude this is the anxiety and stress taken over your mind trust me dude youll be fine 10/4

[rufinus]

Thanks m8