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HIV-type symptoms mirrored by wife...
I had unprotected sex with a sexually active woman while on a business trip 3.5 weeks ago. Since then I have had several ARS type symptoms such as sore throat, lymph swelling, headache behind the eyes, nausea, diarrhea, rashes on face, neck, and upper back and chest. The worst symptom was thrush... I got an anonymous email from the girl telling me to "get checked for STDs" I went in and was given Zithromax and Flagella as precautions--leading to a nice case of THRUSH in my mouth. The Dr told me that thrush after broad spectrum antibiotics isn't uncommon, but it's RARE. He said that thrush in adults is usually caused by HIV, not the anitbiotics. I just bought a rapid kit, but it's still posibly too early to get a positive result...if I/we am/are.
Week 1-- swollen glands on left side of neck for 24 hours, sore throat for 48 hours, diarrhea for 48 hours
Week 2-- thrush after antibiotics, muscle aches in neck and foot/leg cramps, slight fatigue
Week 3-- rash on sides of neck, upper chest and back and on sides of face--pimple like bumps and a few flat ones
Week 3-- fatigue 3 days straight. 1 hour after sleeping 8-9 hours feel as if I stayed up all night with no energy all day. Rash happened during this fatigue, but not sure if I had a fever. rash on neck started to clear after 48hrs, but then rash got worse on face and spread further. rash has been present 3 days now but seems to change areas and severity.
My wife has had all the symptoms above almost exactly 3-5 days after I had them and with similar severity except the thrush and her rash is on her forearms. We had sex 3 days after my encounter. I have not told her about the encounter and she thinks the antibiotics were for a UTI.
Is is possible that we are HIV infected?
How long does the ARS rash usually last?
Week 1-- swollen glands on left side of neck for 24 hours, sore throat for 48 hours, diarrhea for 48 hours
Week 2-- thrush after antibiotics, muscle aches in neck and foot/leg cramps, slight fatigue
Week 3-- rash on sides of neck, upper chest and back and on sides of face--pimple like bumps and a few flat ones
Week 3-- fatigue 3 days straight. 1 hour after sleeping 8-9 hours feel as if I stayed up all night with no energy all day. Rash happened during this fatigue, but not sure if I had a fever. rash on neck started to clear after 48hrs, but then rash got worse on face and spread further. rash has been present 3 days now but seems to change areas and severity.
My wife has had all the symptoms above almost exactly 3-5 days after I had them and with similar severity except the thrush and her rash is on her forearms. We had sex 3 days after my encounter. I have not told her about the encounter and she thinks the antibiotics were for a UTI.
Is is possible that we are HIV infected?
How long does the ARS rash usually last?
My 4 week rapid result was negative. I field a report this morning on the incident in the lab in December.
...and the reason I fear for my child is that she managed to cut my inner nostril with a fingernail and then her hand went to her mouth instantly. This was before I had a clue I might be infected.
All I can do now is wait for my testing via my job and hope 3 months passes quickly.
...and the reason I fear for my child is that she managed to cut my inner nostril with a fingernail and then her hand went to her mouth instantly. This was before I had a clue I might be infected.
All I can do now is wait for my testing via my job and hope 3 months passes quickly.
You have no education in HIV and or testing and have no business advising anyone about testing.
Guys, you are making me nervous here. I am waiting on my 14 days PCR result, due in 2 days. And was thinking I would move on if it turns out negative, God willing!
But looks like there could be more to come. I agree with Micky12 that reading online about HIV is not very healthy. I have been doing that constantly for 2 weeks now. Had to take days off from work as they wanted me to go to Moscow again, where my "exposure" happened (I am never going there again, unless the terrorists hijack the plane and insist on going there- even then I might resist!)
Starting day 14, I developed soar throat (first time in years), mouth ulcers, swollen neck lymph nodes, all in 2-3 days. I sleep 10-12 hrs a day and wake up tired.
But I have found numerous people showing exactly ARS symptoms, who test negative eventually. So this is kind of relieving that test results over weigh symptoms. Checkout this case here: http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/427421
Probably very similar to ours....
I am getting married in less than 4 weeks-- so can't really wait for conclusive tests, I will do every possible test..do my due diligence and leave the rest up to God and my fate. My fiance hasn't showed any symptoms yet...but its been only 17 days today.
Please post your test results-- this will help me assess my status too. I will do the same for mine. Good luck!
But looks like there could be more to come. I agree with Micky12 that reading online about HIV is not very healthy. I have been doing that constantly for 2 weeks now. Had to take days off from work as they wanted me to go to Moscow again, where my "exposure" happened (I am never going there again, unless the terrorists hijack the plane and insist on going there- even then I might resist!)
Starting day 14, I developed soar throat (first time in years), mouth ulcers, swollen neck lymph nodes, all in 2-3 days. I sleep 10-12 hrs a day and wake up tired.
But I have found numerous people showing exactly ARS symptoms, who test negative eventually. So this is kind of relieving that test results over weigh symptoms. Checkout this case here: http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/427421
Probably very similar to ours....
I am getting married in less than 4 weeks-- so can't really wait for conclusive tests, I will do every possible test..do my due diligence and leave the rest up to God and my fate. My fiance hasn't showed any symptoms yet...but its been only 17 days today.
Please post your test results-- this will help me assess my status too. I will do the same for mine. Good luck!
Benzdude72,
I unfortuantly am in almost the same predicatment as yourself minus the child. My Fiance has been experiecing ars symtpoms that I had a few weeks ago.
I told her about part of the indescretion (told her it was 1 min of oral, it was really 10 mins vaginal, told her I was testing for stds but didnt tell her about all my symptoms). Good news is I have 5 week and 6 week negative antibody test under my belt. The bad news is my lymph nodes in neck and arm pits have been swollen bad for 5 days now (7.5 weeks past exposure) and my fiance is still feeling ill 2 weeks now. I have an 8 week antibody scheduled this week(praying to god for a miracle). Here is my advice. Here in New york there is free testing by state and city for stds (anonymous or confidential). Im sure PA probably has those also. I went to my regular doc three times and free clinic once. I think free clinic guys see and know a lot more than average doctor because they see it more. I wish I would have went there first. Look into one of those in your area, or make the trip out to NY, they can do 30 min rapid finger ***** test and probably pooled RNA test. Here is the link, they even have Saturday hours (Ihttp://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/std/std2.shtml) .Im really convinced I have HIV and gave it to my fiance ,so I know exactly how you feel. I can barely make it through the day. I see your symtpoms started the first week after the encounter? Im not an expert but i believe with hiv you are syptomless the first 2-3 weeks if infected and then they bascially hit you all at onece. I felt fine for two weeks than on day 17 day after encounter got weird rash on gentials 24 days after felt like i got hit by a train (lasted about 10 days). I keep telling myself its in my head but fiance's health issues keep reaffirming my fears. I will add your family and you to my prayers. Im praying like 15 times a day now. Im kind of relieved Im not the only one with this type of situation. Keep me informed and ill do the same. Should have my 8 week results by thurs/ Friday and will let you know. God willing this will just have been a slap on the wrist and wake up call and not the end of my fiance and my lives. In the mean time try not to surf the net to much, it will make your mental situation much worse , trust me on this.
I unfortuantly am in almost the same predicatment as yourself minus the child. My Fiance has been experiecing ars symtpoms that I had a few weeks ago.
I told her about part of the indescretion (told her it was 1 min of oral, it was really 10 mins vaginal, told her I was testing for stds but didnt tell her about all my symptoms). Good news is I have 5 week and 6 week negative antibody test under my belt. The bad news is my lymph nodes in neck and arm pits have been swollen bad for 5 days now (7.5 weeks past exposure) and my fiance is still feeling ill 2 weeks now. I have an 8 week antibody scheduled this week(praying to god for a miracle). Here is my advice. Here in New york there is free testing by state and city for stds (anonymous or confidential). Im sure PA probably has those also. I went to my regular doc three times and free clinic once. I think free clinic guys see and know a lot more than average doctor because they see it more. I wish I would have went there first. Look into one of those in your area, or make the trip out to NY, they can do 30 min rapid finger ***** test and probably pooled RNA test. Here is the link, they even have Saturday hours (Ihttp://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/std/std2.shtml) .Im really convinced I have HIV and gave it to my fiance ,so I know exactly how you feel. I can barely make it through the day. I see your symtpoms started the first week after the encounter? Im not an expert but i believe with hiv you are syptomless the first 2-3 weeks if infected and then they bascially hit you all at onece. I felt fine for two weeks than on day 17 day after encounter got weird rash on gentials 24 days after felt like i got hit by a train (lasted about 10 days). I keep telling myself its in my head but fiance's health issues keep reaffirming my fears. I will add your family and you to my prayers. Im praying like 15 times a day now. Im kind of relieved Im not the only one with this type of situation. Keep me informed and ill do the same. Should have my 8 week results by thurs/ Friday and will let you know. God willing this will just have been a slap on the wrist and wake up call and not the end of my fiance and my lives. In the mean time try not to surf the net to much, it will make your mental situation much worse , trust me on this.
Let's talk about the chances of false +ves then. Based on what I have read (mainly online- I know not the most credible resource) the accuracy of results are mainly based on the quality of the labs. And that the probability of getting a false +ve in a PCR test is 1 out of 100, and in a 28 day DUO is 1 out 4000. Plus all the false positives are verified with a confirmatory test.
Now let's be realistic-- what are the odds of someone getting a false +ve in a PCR post 10-14 days (which looks for HIV virus DNA/RNA) and then a DUO (that looks for antibodies)? (.01)(0.00025) = 0.0000025. Let's increase that probability by 10 times, to give a margin of error. This makes it 0.000025 or 99.9975% chance of accurate results. With his wife showing same results, the chances of a false +ve would be, in theory, half, so 0.0000125
In no way this is 100%-- and I do understand that statistics don't apply on individuals-- but based on these numbers, and the fact that Benzdude72 had a fairly low exposure-- I think they can accept a negative on 2 tests as reasonably conclusive.... and move on.
What do you think?
Now let's be realistic-- what are the odds of someone getting a false +ve in a PCR post 10-14 days (which looks for HIV virus DNA/RNA) and then a DUO (that looks for antibodies)? (.01)(0.00025) = 0.0000025. Let's increase that probability by 10 times, to give a margin of error. This makes it 0.000025 or 99.9975% chance of accurate results. With his wife showing same results, the chances of a false +ve would be, in theory, half, so 0.0000125
In no way this is 100%-- and I do understand that statistics don't apply on individuals-- but based on these numbers, and the fact that Benzdude72 had a fairly low exposure-- I think they can accept a negative on 2 tests as reasonably conclusive.... and move on.
What do you think?
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