Pre-Test Jitters

[Dean1208]

Hey I am going to get tested on monday morning, if its negative it will be one of the few amazing mondays ha. I got off of the sites and worrying for a while up until now and just recently I had some diarrhea and what appears to be allergies or maybe a runny nose/sneezing. I think the diarrhea is anxiety driven because this morning I woke up had normal stool and then later after I started thinking about things again i had it again. Has anyone else experienced this or other symptoms before a test? I hope these aren't real symptoms im 8 weeks past a low risk exposure (what ive been told).

[Applecakes]

Although nothing that anyone could possibly tell you would be of little solace to you, I can vouch to say that after nearly SIX weeks of negative HIV testing, I had EVERY symptom in the book that "clearly pointed to" HIV: Sweats, chest tightness, spleen discomfort, frequent urination, joint pain, back pain, fullness of the ears, rashes, constipation, frequently minimal bowel movements, dry coughs, breakouts, exhaustion, lymph node enlargement (which turned out to be my NORMAL sized lymph nodes), pain that radiated from the buttocks all the way down to feet, burning sensation in lower extremities, etc. I went to the health department, got tested, and it was conclusively negative. The adviser at the health department left with some less than encouraging parting words, and the cycle started ALL OVER AGAIN---so the NEXT day, I was admitted into the emergency room for ALL of these symptoms. They did a BATTERY of tests: Xrays, blood tests, urine, etc. And guess what? After ALL of that, they found NOTHING out of order---not an infection, no pneumonia, nor URI, not UTI, no WBC counts out of order ... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! I was COMPLETELY normal. That's when I knew that it was time to STOP worrying because after FOUR weeks, people usually know when they have been infected. ALL of my symptoms were manifested by STRESS AND ANXIETY. You worry yourself into SICKNESS! Don't do it to yourself! It's not worth it to sit in the hospital hooked up to machines, IVs, poked and prodded, FOR NO REASON! I don't know your risk, but chances are, YOU ARE NOT INFECTED. Symptoms mean NOTHING---because ALL symptoms of HIV are the SAME symptoms of STRESS. So RELAX, and stop worrying about something you don't have. Take the test, and get happy!

[Teak]

You didn't have a risk and you don't need to test.