Possible ARS symptoms

[Nonickname1234]

Hi Doctor,

i was in las vegas on dec 14 and had a lap dance where the young girls anus was in contact with my mouth briefly,
i noticed a week later dec 21 my lymph nodes under my jaw line were very swollen.  i went to the doctor and he confirmed they were swollen lymph nodes one was over 2.5cm. Around feb 07 my throat began to get very sore with a few white spots in the very back, i wen to the doctor where he did a swab for mono and strep, both came back negative.  he gave me penicillin just in case which i took for 10 days and it seems to get better briefly.  My throat is still sore, going on  over 3 weeks now no white spots and no change in the size of the lymph nodes.

I don't seem to have another swollen lymph nodes that i can feel anyways.  I did have a yellow tongue for a few weeks as well.

i had a needle and core biopsy on them and they came back negative for cancers.... he said they look like they are reactive.....  and that was the end of it.   I asked him about HIV and he didn't really seem too concerned. although I am.

I dont see how this is just coincidental that all of this starts happening right after the lap dance.

I cannot focus on anything but this, it is literally ruining my life.  I have gone for an HIV test last thursday and if they find anything they will call me be the end of the week feb 28 2014

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Thanks for the follow-up.  Glad I could help. EWH

[Nonickname1234]

Doctor,

I just thought i would let you know my results came back negative.

Thanks for your comments

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Testing a lymph node for HIV virus is not always straight forward.  If cancer had been present however, it would have been most likely to see it in the biopsy.  EWH

[Nonickname1234]

Thanks for your response,

if they did not see cancer in the core biopsy would they have not checked for other infections?

Can they check for HIV infections from a biopsy of a lymph node?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to our Forum.  I'll be glad to comment.  Your brief oral contact with a dancer's anus was a virtually no risk event.  In general oral sex of any sort is low risk for acquisition of HIV (no greater than a 1 in 10,000 change of infection IF your partner was infected) and while you do not provide a lot of detail about the anal exposure you mention, this too would be low risk.  Even before you consider the exposure however, it is probably worthwhile to remind you that most commercial sex workers, including exotic dancers, do not have HIV. Thus is not only unlikely that you would be infected if exposed but unlikely that you were exposed at all.  You have done the right thing to get tested to rule out HIV and allow yourself to get some peace of mind- I anticipate that your test results will be negative.  

It sounds as though your initial sore throat in December went away and then you got a second sore throat earlier this month.  It would be unusual for a sore throat associated with recently acquired HIV to recur or to last three weeks,  Further, there are many, many possible causes of swollen lymph nodes in the neck.  If HIV is the cause of your swollen nodes your test will be positive.  I anticipate that this will not be the case.  Please feel free to share your results with us when they are back (and they may be back before the 28th- often this is the case).

I hope these comments are helpful. EWH