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Avatar universal

lymph nodes

i know im wearing this site out and im sorry if i am getting annoying....but i have had what i thought were large pimples on the back of my ears are those swollen lymph nodes and should i worry i tried to reseach it but couldent get any info that made sense to me i dont know why but i am really worried what the hell am i going to do if i have hiv
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Avatar universal
haha...ya veterans...I wish it was of something else though.  Good to know she is doing well.  I completely understand what you are saying about how you could notgo there, I hope she does too.

I had an 8 week, negative.  I also found out she was tested in this time as well and she is fine, so so am I!
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Avatar universal
yeh, she is fine.  Just called her 2 days ago to check in.  Her viral load has crept up just a bit, so may start on meds soon.
She found a boyfriend who is cool with situation.  I just could not deal with it.  Even though deep kissing, oral, is fine according to most of the forums, I just cannot "go there"..

You would think that escorts are clean as they are run as a business..I am still fascinated by this and the psychological implications, so may stick around to advise like you are.  We are truly "veterans".
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Avatar universal
She was an escort so no not an SW....I consider them much riskier and have never really hired one......years ago yes I did but 1 or 2 only and protected.

Yes it is a fragile disease and hard to transmit for the most part.  IV drugs and anal being the exceptions.  I had a scare in the ealry 90's but for some reason I did not panic nearly as much as this time......I don't even think I panic'd but then I was drinking alot and probably buried any thoughts...:)  I picked this girl up in the bar, went to her room at a hotel, ended up having completely unprotected sex with her twice in one night and found out she was a hooker later on, although looks like I got a freebie.  The sex was dry and I ended up with an open wound on my penis from it, thats what concerned me.  Waited 6 months back then and got tested, was ok.  I am positive she was an IV drug user as well.  She was probably the highest risk woman I have been with.  Anyway, this was 1993.  I went for the test then results and the nurse told me,even back then, that vaginal transmission was tough.  She also mentioned a couple who had been having sex for 4 years, she ended up being positive, he did not get it in all that time.  I believe this was some kind of couple in the public spotlight.  I cannot remember who it was but may have been a "local" celeb couple...not sure.  The point is is that this nurse told me my risk was small even back then in the earlier days of the disease.

I have been investigating and looking for cases of vaginal transmissions and can't seem to find cases of them.....and before someone jumps in that this is "vastly a hetero disease worldwide" I am speaking only in terms of North America not Africa.

Vaginal fluids, from the literature I have found, contain low concentrations of the virus in general, not nearly as high as semen and blood.  It already takes lots of virus (as the doc says) for the infection to take, I would assume logic dictates that it would take a greater amount of vaginal fluid to transmit to a male.  Even then, without some access to blood and certain cells, it has to cross a mucus membrane (urethra)(which is not easy) with all of its RNA strands in tact, the find the cells, then replicate.......so it is a big process.  For a fragile disease this is alot of work.
Read this thread and the doctors reply re:syringe.  Kind of tells the story.

http://www.medhelp.org/perl6/STD/messages/1569.html

So, if you avoid receptive anal, and avoid sharing needles, odds are greatly in a guys favor.  Anyway, we are fine and that's the main thing.  Too bad it did not workout with her but I can understand why.  Hope she is doing ok.
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Avatar universal
I am just happy that this is a very fragile virus and difficult to transmit from female to male.  I performed some pretty intense oral on her in addition to the vaginal sex.  I feel like I saw the "white light" and lived to see another day!!

It sounds like you are just fine with that 8 week test given the unknown status of the woman involved...was she a SW?  

Appreciate talking to the WELL worried..and sharing the experience.  This is so much pyschosomatic; I was convinced that I had it early...but then questioned that the symptoms never really went away, unlike the actual illness which hits and then goes away very soon.  That did set off a bit of a light bulb at the time.  I was still having "symptoms" at 6 weeks, and then remember that when I got my first set of testing results, these symptoms started waning..mind over matter.  Very goofy "disease".
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Avatar universal
I am doing well thanks.  Glad to hear everything worked out for you as the doc figured it would.  Ya, if you had a six month you should definitely be movingon with that.  I had n 8 week test (vaginal sex like you but unkown partner status) and was negative and I am happy with that.

I still frequent here, for now, to learn a bit more from the doc and the "real" risks for hiv, which more and more I see(and hear) is not vaginal exposure......well, it is rare anyway.  A nurse I spoke to said he had seen one case of a hetero guy getting hiv but his penis was pierced at the head??why I really do not know, but he has said the ring would move back and forth and rip the skin allowing hiv an open entry to enter the body.  Even then, the nurse questioned his hetero status, but nonetheless it was recorded as such.

Anyway, good to hear you are well and moving on.take care.
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Avatar universal
more like twice that amount, counting last year.  Really got lucky...

After having this on my mind for 6 months 24/7.  I am trying to let go.  How are you doing?
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Avatar universal
I remember your post.  Did you not have sex 8-10 times before finding out she had hiv?

Glad it all worked out for you.  TIme to get on with life.
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Avatar universal
it wasnt protected it was oral sex non protected
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Avatar universal
Unfortunately, we have parted ways.  But, I really learned a lesson...as you can imagine.
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Avatar universal
I'm very happy you turned ok.  Are you still in contact w/your (ex) girlfriend?  How is she taking it?  Anyway, it all worked out for you.  You must go out and celibrate.
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Avatar universal
try to relax....like everyone else said on the post....swllen noads don't mean much.  You also mentioned that you sometimes can't move your jaw and it hurts to swallow.  That combined with the swollen nodes (maybe) behind your ears, sounds like you have TMJ.  I forget exactly what it stands for...tempmandibular something or other.  Anyway, I have TMJ, which really only flares up when i'm stressed out....I get the same symptoms..swollen nodes behind ears and they're painful...as well as difficulty moving my jaw.  relax....sounds like your'e ok....when in doubt, get tested....that's the only way to really know anything.  diagnosing yourself based on a few symptoms is ridiculous....common symptoms of HIV that are listed by the cdc are also symptoms for miilions of other tiny things such as colds, simple viral infections, stress, etc..
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Avatar universal
depression lines up with anxiety.. so do headaches and gobs of other stuff.
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Avatar universal
depression lines up with anxiety.. so do headaches and gobs of other stuff.  Depression also lines up with guilt.  It all adds up to tests mean everything.  Symptoms dont.
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Avatar universal
when I was testing I had days I felt depressed, Had headaches, felt burned out.  I tested at 4, 6, 10 week all neg.
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Avatar universal
I have read that in many patients one of the first parts of the body affected by the HIV virus is the nervous system so people can often have early symptoms such as headaches, depression and other psycological symptoms related to HIV infection.

The problem with diagnosing HIV based on symptoms though is that unlike many or most other illnesses, it does not create predictable symptoms in all people, but instead very variant symptoms from what I have read.
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Avatar universal
I insisted that she get tested, because in the back of my mind, I thought she might be a bit promiscuous.  I was confident and so was she that she would be negative, at the time.  I might have saved her life, or increased it, but I know I saved mine and who knows how many more..
What a surprise when she got the bad news... she had a fairly low viral load of 8700 copies, and no other STD's.  I remember 3 days later that I developed "symptoms" which manifested into strep throat.  I was certain that I had it.  This is 99% mind over matter.  On Monday, I received the all clear on my Elisa at the 6 month mark.
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Avatar universal
that has to be great news i just asked the girl i had unprotected sex with and she said she had been tested recently and is clean so the only thing i have to worry about is the prostitution thing.Should i get tested or just let it go
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Avatar universal
if the prostitution thing was protected let it go
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Avatar universal
yeh, now I have to "deprogram" myself, after 6 months of this BS.
I have not told anyone about this, so you can imagine what I have been thru.  Thank goodness, for that DNA PCR, that gave me the strength to perservere.
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Avatar universal
Your girlfriend tested positive?  How did she get it?  I assume you tested negative.  I know it's hard.  My best friends father died of AIDS.  He was a heroin addict.  His widow remains hiv negative.
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Avatar universal
u ever feel like throwin up because thats how i feel and i cant eat im really hopin its just because im stressin out im just scared that if i go in for a test and find out that i am hiv how will i pay for the medicine since i have no insurance and wont they have to inform the public or something?
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Avatar universal
Heres why I think HIV symptoms are lame.  Anyone who got HIV probably was freaking out creating  symptoms not related to their HIV.  These symptoms get passed to the MD's who pass it on to ww as key symptoms which is inaccurate.  I saw one the other day that had depression as a symptom.  I was like huh?  get real.
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Avatar universal
It's interesting, that right after I found out that my girlfriend tested positive, that within 3 days I started running a mild fever, had a headache, sore throat, the works...turned out I developed strep throat.. the point I am making is that this strange HIV deal is 95% pyschological, and with the real odds of 1 in 2000, much, much less than 5% real..and then you have to deal with the dreaded window..

What an odd "disease"..
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Avatar universal

Word of advice: stop feeling your lymph nodes. They start to hurt after you poke and prod them enough times. Also, whatever you do, stop surfing the web looking for symptom information - it will only do you more harm than good. In fact, it's rather pointless, as the supposed symptoms, you may have seen by now, are so numerous and so varied that they mean practically nothing. Add to that fact what the doc says: the absence or presence of supposed "symptoms" means absolutely nothing.

My advice to you: take a deep breath and remember the risk that you contracted HIV from the episode(s) you described in your original post is very nearly 0.
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