anxious,worried,soon to be dad

[edward_79]

Good morning! My wife and I are expecting our first born child in a few months.. We knew that the docs would be doing a routine hiv screening for her during the first round of blood work,  and I am a very nervous person when it comes to this type of thing so I went out and bought us each an oraquick test, both came back negative, and when her blood work came back a week later it was also negative as well...I felt great about the results but then like some people I could not leave well enough alone and started searching the net for ways to doubt my results... <not good as we all know.... I even went out and bought a second test , and that to was negative..  My concerns/questions are my exposures (before my wife) would have been at 9,12,and 15 years ago... I am  worried about the antibody loss that I hear can give false negatives if you have had hiv for a long time and really want to know how true this is because of how long ago my exposures would have been... Also, I know testing rules over symptoms every time but I have a few odd things that I wanted to see caught your attention.. I have had a white patchy "island like" toenail fungus on my big toenail only for about 2 years, and for at least 6 months there has been a hard bump in my groin the size of a bb that could be a lymph node, but not sure.... I can pinch it in my skin fold and feel behind it and move it around... Not sure if you can do that with a node, or if this even sounds like something that would be relative to hiv.... thank you so much for any help/advice... I have been worried for months that "what if" I am infected and could be passing this on to my wife/baby still...

[nursegirl6572]

What you need to do is stop searching the internet and start addressing the anxiety you clearly have.  Your wife doesn't have HIV, and neither do you.  Rely on the FACTS, not random, vague info you've found online.

Continuing to test is just going to fuel your anxiety, as you would be sending a message to your brain that HIV is a concern.

[Teak]

Oraquick is an FDA approved test and when taken 3 months post exposure it is as accurate as taking any other HIV test.

[edward_79]

So much info out there its hard to tell what is true..very frustrating.. As far as my situation, do you recommend any other type of testing or should I have full confidence in the oraquick product?

[edward_79]

thanks for the fast response.. Any idea why there is info out there about core antibody loss in late stages, or are these just rare cases or just not true at all? It only concerns me because my exposures would have been so long ago.. thanks for your time

[Teak]

There is no such thing as antibody loss. Once a person is infected with HIV they will always have antibodies to HIV.