Unkown virus

[Matt238]

Hello I had sexual relations protected with a massage girl in California. Shortly after 3 days I started experiencing symptoms, need to urinate and redness in meatus of penis along with redness and irritation in eyes. By the end of that week I had tingling all over boxer short area The following week I had trouble walking due to the pain and tingling, this eventually turned into burning in the urethra and scrotum lasting two to three additional weeks. No noticeable blisters ever formed.I also suffered nerve like pain from buttock down back of right leg.

I am now left with after 5 months from this incident pelvic pain,sciatica type pain, itching and burning on scrotum from time to time but less severe than before. I also wake with watery eyes, sinus congestion, white stuff on corners of mouth every day since exposure. I have taken multiple STD panels for every STD HIV, syphilis, goon, chylmedia, hep, and herpes at 2 weeks, 6 weeks and 3 months all neg. I even followed up with an HIV and syphilis at 4.5 months and was neg.

I did receive treatment for the possible bacterial infections STD given z pack, doxy, ofoflax, uribel and something for trich.

My neuro said it's probably a unknown virus. I have been on a few rounds of antivirals for herpes just to see if there is a reaction, the antivirals seem to help the symptoms but herpes test was neg.

I am thinking this maybe undetected herpes infection accompany with a fungal overgrowth due to excess antibiotics.

Also my CBC came back normal but WBC was in the low range.

Any idea what this is? Please help.  

[heywoodjabme]

Thanks for the responses.

I agree I'd like to understand why my B12 is low.  I'm not a vegan and eat plenty of meat etc. which should keep the levels good.  The Gastro Dr. indicated that it is generally an absorption problem in males.... but didn't seem too concerned after doing the scope as it came up clean.

I've been trying to eat a low sugar diet and avoid all the things the gastro mentioned; coffee, tea, cola... cut out all sweets and trying to minimize bread.  Mostly eating chicken, veggies, fruits and yogurt.

My back pain is better, all though flared up a bit today.  Still have itch though.  It generally is better with the Clotrimaderm cream.  I put it on in the morning (7am) and evening (10pm).  The itch generally flares up in the early evening and I may need to start putting it on at 7pm to space it out evenly.

I've noticed a bit of a red "flushing" on my neck the last few days as well.  Not really a rash, but definite redness.  Someone today asked why my neck was so red, so it just isn't in my head.

I'll be going back to my GP next week to discuss the B12 issue and see if he has any other thoughts.

I don't really have any stomach pain issues or indigestion that would indicate something like H Pylori.

Monday/Tuesday this week I felt like I was getting back to 100%, but Wednesday/Thursday saw more pain and itching.  :(

[mkh9]

See last post. I wanted to add. I didn't mean to worry you about H. pylori and stomach cancer or intestinal cancer. It is rare compared to ulcer or reflux and anemia. I should have said so early on. Ulcer is the main problem it causes. But generally a lot of people don't have symptoms for years and then they may or may not get an ulcer etc. But generally it can cause problems and disrupt the stomach acid etc.
mkh9

[mkh9]

Well, has the pain gone away? The sigmoid doesn't cover the whole intestine. But did it cover the area you had pain in?  Are you vegan? If not why would your B12 be low? That is the question. A couple of things is atrophic gastritis and pernicious anemia can cause low B12 if you are not vegan.  Also, atrophic gastritis can be caused by infection with a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori or auto immune (Hasimotos thyroiditis) also. Doctors don't seem to take H. pylori seriously even to this day. Even though there are new guidelines with the American Gastroenterology society. So in my opinion you need to get to the bottom of why your B12 is low not just sugar coat it by taking supplements or injections.  Some tests  you can do:

1. Hashimotos thyroid test
2. Complete blood count and Iron, vitamin B12 in a couple of months to follow up after the injection and a ferritin. The complete blood count will help to see if you have pernicious anemia. Also, these tests can look for iron deficiency anemia.
3.Yes I would transition to a once a week B12 pill. Sublingual (under the tongue) methylcobalmin form 5000mcg. Unless your doctor wants you to take more to start with then go down.  Methylcobalmin is absorbed better than the other types. You can get it at Costco or other stores.
If you are low in vitamin B12 your fingers will tingle or you may get other symptoms if it is worse.

The H. pylori test is a special urea breath test. You have to get that at the gasteroenterologist. Usually, you have stomach pain, or reflux, or intestinal pain. But not always. You can carry it around for a long time without symptoms and then all of a sudden you will start getting symptoms and it can lead to stomach cancer and intestinal cancers. Although it takes a long time. It can cause ulcers and bleeding which can give you anemia and low vitamin B12.

So these are some things to think about. If you are interested in the urea breath test or stool antigen test I can tell you more about them. The urea breath test is the gold standard though. It looks for current infection.
mkh9

[heywoodjabme]

I ended up having a flexible sigmoidoscopy instead of a colonoscopy.  Everything looked good with it.  The Gastro Dr. was only somewhat concerned about my B12 being low and wondering what the cause of that was.

He told me to go on a more bland diet, try to eliminate refined sugars, don't drink caffeinated or fermented beverages and start taking a probiotic.

I've been following those instructions for about 3-4 days now and things seem better.  Also still using the clotrimaderm cream for my anal itch.  I think the combination of b12 shots, probiotic and clotrimaderm are working, and suspect I have some sort of fungal infection that is at the root of all this.

I'll keep the diet up for a couple of months and see if things get back to normal.  Not sure how long I should/can use the clotrimaderm..... or if I should continue B12 shots or transition to pill form.  I'll have to consult my Dr. about those things in a couple of weeks.

[mkh9]

I doubt very much the tongue bacteria and anal are related. You could check for yeast yourself by using a tongue scraper or the back of a toothbrush that has a tongue scraper and scraping the white stuff and if it bleeds or hurts (without digging in) it could be yeast. If not and comes off easily it is usually bacteria. Yeast smells like bread while bacteria stinks. LOL. They usually don't do a culture of the tongue unless you want a yeast culture which would be a fungal culture. They wouldn't need to do a culture just a smear to tell if there is yeast. It is easy to see. Unless you want to know if you have a resistant strain. Then they would do a test or culture.

If the Clotrimazole works that is good. If it doesn't either it isn't a yeast or iti s resistant.
mkh9

[heywoodjabme]

Thanks MKH9!

Could the tongue bacteria and anal itch be linked?  Could they do a culture on my tongue bacteria to see what it is?

Not familiar with Terbinafine.... currently using Clotrimazole as prescribed by the Dr.