Negative HSV test after 3 months?

[judy_in_disguise]

Hello,
I have been reading this board since I was diagnosed with genital herpes 3 months ago. It has been a great help. I will give a detailed history. sorry as i know it will be long..My Doctor did only a visual inspection to give diagnosis despite my asking for a culture and type testing. I pretty much thought it was herpes only the symptoms were not typical. I never had any blisters on my genitals.

I developed severe swelling after rough..and dry sex(sorry to be graphic) that never seemed to stop being sore after 2 days. I then noticed what appeared to be paper cuts in the folds of skin. I developed a lesion with jagged bright red edges inside my vagina and two weeping small sores(that resembled razor burn) right at where my pubic hair starts. The reason I type this in detail is because when reading others questions..it seems to help if you have similar symptoms. This site has been so helpful.
By day 4   I was in the doctors office because I knew I had something and was in severe pain. I could only wear loose sweatpants. He said genital herpes and i had no reason to doubt it.

The partner had a history of cold sores since childhood(but didn't have one at the time...oral sex...again sorry for the detail) but denied any genital symptoms ever...he promptly said "good by". leaving me pretty much devastated by the whole thing in general. I just assumed that I had contracted HSV1 genitally from his oral hsv1.

Well I then got very very ill. Sore throat, rigid neck and total loss of appetite. I lost 35 pounds! I would stand up and have to lay down because I felt that I was going to pass out. The throat and tongue selling was horrid. no blisters though. The constant headache was so bad that I truly felt I should have been hospitalized but didn't go out of sheer embarrassment of my illness. It lasted about 3 weeks before my ears totally stopped ringing. The Valtrex did seem to help and sores went away within the first week.
well, after accepting my new virus status. I still wanted to know what type I had. I waited 3 months and ordered online herpes select test from Healthcheckusa. It seemed no good to ask the doctor again. (I will be changing doctors now) and I like to know things.

My test results were negative for both. HSV2 IgG<0.91
                                                              HSV1 IgG<0.91  not even in the equivocal range!
I called and talked to the help person(I'm not sure if she was a nurse or doctor) and told her I had definite symptoms and really just wanted to be type tested. She thought that maybe I had a possible Epstein Barr infection since my illness symptoms were so severe. I had a shingles infection many years ago that about did me in as well. The patch around my ribs stayed there for almost 12 months with illness for 4 months.

I also seem to be battling an auto immune type illness for the last several years. I Always have an elevated sed rate, hematuria and elevated white cell count. Constant.  Doctor is unclear on which illness I have. but 4 months ago(before the herpes outbreak) I was ill again and it gave me dizzy spells and vision changes. I got for the first time appeared to be a lupus rash on my face that lasted only a week. Still unsure.

My questions(after all that) are about antibodies.

Is it possible that I still have herpes but just haven't developed detectible antibodies for either virus yet?
My gut feeling is I have it but it just hasn't shown itself yet. The timing directly after sex leaves me little hope of it being anything but.

Can having other herpes type infections in the past(shingles) cause me to develop antibodies to HSV more slowly?
Can a shingles infection reactivate genitally? Can an auto immune disease cause genital ulcers?
Is there any other infection bacterial or virus other than HSV1 or 2 that could have caused such severe outbreak?
Sorry. I'm just unsure about so much.
Oh, I have not had another outbreak as of yet.

I plan on retesting in another month. If it comes back negative again then am I to assume I was misdiagnosed?

Thank You for anyone that posts a reply. I truly will be grateful for an informative reply.

[judy_in_disguise]

Thank You again.  I will:)

[gracefromHHP]

call your local health department to see what your local low cost options are for getting the testing done cheaper :)  you can't get a herpes WB through the health department but you can cover all other std's through them.

[judy_in_disguise]

Thanks so much for your reply Grace.
Wow I didn't know that one out of every 10 hsv1 tests were missed. Scary.
But my hopes aren't exactly high anyway.

My doctor did not check for other stds. He's an older fellow and was pretty certain of his diagnosis. I was in such a depressed state that it didn't occur to me at the time to have that done or even ask.
I need to have that done.
I am on a limited income and purchased the test with what I really couldn't afford..and now will have to add another 110.in another month. I didn't order a full panel std. but I will now ask my pcp to do that.
Thanks for your response.

[gracefromHHP]

as I'm sure you've read if you've been following the boards, even the best blood tests still miss 1 out of every 10 hsv1 infections. At this point, I'd wait another month or so, get a herpes WB and go from there. Meanwhile should you have a return of genital symptoms, be seen promptly for a lesion culture and typing.  It's really unfortunate that the provider you saw dropped the ball and did no testing of your symptoms. did they by chance test you for vaginal infections at the same time? if it was an unprotected encounter, did you get a full std panel test through healthcheck?

grace