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Avatar universal

What did I have and is it gone for good?

I have a few questions here.  And I had two sets of symptoms.  On day 1, I did something stupid and had unprotected vaginal and oral with a woman.  On day 8, I began to feel a tingling and a bit of discomfort in the genital area.  On day 11, I noticed that one of my inguinal lymph nodes was swollen and off to the STD clinic I went that day.  They tested me for gonorrhea and chlamydia.  Both came back negative.  On day 11, I began to have burning while urinating and it got progressively worse over the next couple of days until it was like razor blades.  There was no discharge whatsoever.  So on day 14, I went to an urgent care where they prescribed me 2g of Azithromycin and I took it that evening, but did not run any tests at that time.  The symptoms persisted but got a little bit better.  The razor blade feeling was gone, but the pain was still pretty intense.  On day 16, I noticed very, very little clear thin discharge in the evening.  On the morning of day 17, I also noticed very, very little clear thin discharge (this is the only two times there was ever any discharge).  By day 18, the pain still seemed to be subsiding, but for the first time, there were a couple of drops of blood that came out after I urinated.  I went back to the doctor.  This time they took a urine sample and ran a WBC and nitrite count.  Both counts were normal.  They sent it to the lab just for a general bacterial culture.  This too came back negative.  They prescribed me 10 days of Cipro (500 mg twice a day).  The next day, the symptoms had gone down tremendously.  And over the next several days the symptoms continued to dissipate.  Today is day 29, I've been off the Cipro for 3 days now.  There is still the occasional itching/tingling in the head of the penis, but it seems to be going away too (I'm thinking part of this may be anxiety).  The lymph node feels like the swelling is all gone.

My other set of symptoms was that on day 15, one of my eyes begin to turn reddish.  The other one turned reddish the next day and I started noticing a lot of eye watering and in the mornings I began waking with a crust on my eyes.  This developed the day after taking the azithromycin and got progressively worse over the next few days until my trip to the doctor on day 18 where I was prescribed some eye drops.  This began to clear it up over the next 3-4 days.  In fact, I would say that the UTI and the pink eye cleared up rather symmetrically.  The eyes are fine now.

My symptoms don't seem to fit together.  I know gonorrhea and chlamydia can cause pink eye, but I tested negative for both.  I know adenovirus can cause both uti and pink eye, but I had no fever, no swollen preaurical lymph nodes, etc.  The inguinal lymph node swelling is odd for an nsu or so I've read and there were no blisters or other symptoms of herpes (like flu-like symptoms).  Also, there was almost no discharge the whole time.  Is there anything my symptoms do fit?  Would the azithromycin have taken so long to work?  Could the azithromycin have affected the nitrite and wbc test as well as the bacterial culture?  Would the Cipro have worked so quickly?  Was the pink eye just a random coincindence?  I don't really believe in coincidence.  My biggest fear is now that I'm off the antibiotics is that it is going to come back.  How long do I have to wait until I know it's not coming back?  My last dose was at 10pm 2/15.  The wait and wonder are eating me up.  

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Avatar universal
Final update:  It's gone.  Symptoms are almost 100% over now.  I guess it just took a long time for symptoms to settle down, probably prolonged due to excessive anxiety over the matter.  But I know it's gone now.  Whew!
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Avatar universal
Thanks guys.  Anxiety was what I suspected, but of course there's always the fear in my mind, what if it just hasn't gone away.  I'm trying to keep my mind active on other things and when I do the symptoms lessen for sure.  
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Avatar universal
I know anxiety and what it can do. I will not say 100% anxiety related but maybe 90% sure it is anxiety.

Yeah it is tough not to think about something. It takes times to stop thinking about it and if you can keep your mind busy with other things that really helps out.
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Avatar universal
At this point I would think your anxiety is getting the best of you.you could be psyching yourself out at this point..I know its hard but try really hard to put it out of your mind....
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Avatar universal
The funny thing is that I often think, if I could just stop thinking about it, it would go away.  But that's easier said than done.  I really do think that it would have progressed some in the past week if the infection was still there.  The first time there was dysuria and burning of the penis.  This time, there is neither really.  No dysuria at all and while there is an occasional burning sensation, it's very mild and can easily be ignored and goes away if I think about other things.
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Avatar universal
I would probably chalk it up to anxiety.
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Update:  It has now been 13 days since my last antibiotic.  Symptoms resolved for the most part, but I still have a little irritation (like a slight pin prick) occasionally inside the tip of the penis.  Also, occasionally there is some itching when urinating.  These symptoms come and go, sometimes getting better and sometimes getting worse.  To some degree it seems to come and go with my level of anxiety, but then there's the chicken or the egg problem.  This has been going on for over a week now.  No dysuria and still no discharge.  And no other symptoms.  Should I be concerned that the infection is still there, but not really progressing or should I write this off as anxiety and move on with my life?
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Avatar universal
I wish I could spend the next 7-10 days in a medically induced coma and wake up in a week or so to see if it's gone or not.  
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Avatar universal
Last day of antibiotics.  For the most part, I seem to be asymptomatic, with the occasional twinge.  Trying not to worry that it's going to come back now that the antibiotics will be over after tonights dose.  I've drank lots of water, avoided alcohol, couldn't avoid caffeine completely (mixing coffee with Cipro is not for the faint of heart for sure - that stuff will cause serious anxiety/nervousness).  Still wondering whether I had adenovirus (I still don't think the pink eye was a coincidence - I've never had pink eye before in my life, although I do rub my eyes a lot because of allergies - so maybe I transmitted an NGU there in spite of the fact that there was no discharge) followed by STD anxiety which caused my symptoms to return, or a Mycoplasma Genitalium infection which either came back or was followed by STD anxiety.  So Adenovirus with hypochondria (a condition I do suffer from) or m. genitalium with or without hypochondria.   I would say it's possible I imagined it all (with no discharge or elevated WBCs in urine) but the confirmed swollen lymph node, red blood in the urine and marked dysuria (and let's not forget the pink eye) would seem to indicate that at least originally something was there.  Now it's a wait and see game.  I hate this part.  
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Avatar universal
I always avoid alcohol while taking antibiotics.  If it comes back again, I'm going to shell out the hefty cash for a urologist and get a prostate exam as well.  I didn't even realize prostatitis could cause similar symptoms to urethritis.  Thanks for mentioning that Grace.  My lack of discharge and pyuria (although certainly not definitive) may actually point in that direction.  
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101028 tn?1419603004
finish your antibiotics course, drink plenty of water, avoid caffeine, spicy foods and alcohol for a few weeks and let everything heal :)
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Avatar universal
Is it possible that the infection is gone but my immune response is still causing iritation to the urethra?  One thing is that the swollen inguinal lymph node has not returned (I thought I felt it swollen on monday, but now I think it was just the way I was standing and the amount of pressure I was using because when I felt it later and since then, I can't feel it anymore).  Could this all be in my head?  Obviously, I had something originally, but could my anxiety about it coming back have actually made mild symptoms return?  Again, no severe dysuria this time, but I don't know if that's because I started the antibiotics early enough to head it off or if I'm imagining it all.  I really wish two things:  that there were available affordable testing for mycoplasma genitalium so I could know once and for all.  And that doctors would quit saying stuff like "well that's good that you don't have chlamydia or gonorrhea" because no it isn't.  If I had one of those two, I would know what I had and it would be gone now.  
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Avatar universal
Oh and on the urine test, while the WBC was normal, there was a small amount of red blood cells in the urine.
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Oh and a swab for trich.  Also negative, although I know this test isn't that reliable in men.  
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Avatar universal
What do you mean about my fears of antibiotics being unfounded?  There was one more urine test for WBC, nitrites and bacterial culture.  All came up negative.  No prostate exam.  
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101028 tn?1419603004
you can talk to yourself all you want here ;)

I think your fears are unfounded when it comes to antibiotics in this instance. did either of these providers check your prostate? did they do any more urine testing?
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Avatar universal
By the way, the above comments were to anyone, not just to Grace or myself.  
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I should also mention that I tried to convince the last doctor to put me on moxi instead of cipro, but she said she didn't think that was needed and insisted on the cipro instead.
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Well, unfortunately about 7 days after taking my last dose of Cipro, I started noticing a burning feeling inside my urethra, although there was no burning during urination.  I went back to the doctor who prescribed me 10 days of doxycycline and 7 days of metranidazole.  After day 2, symptoms actually started to get worse, so I went to a new doctor and described the whole ordeal.  She prescribed a variation on the original antibiotic regimen, she prescribed the 5-day z-pack and 14 days of Cipro and told me to stop the doxycycline but continue with the metranidazole.  I am currently on day 4 of that treatment.  Symptoms have improved some but certainly not gone away.  I've been reading up on m. genitalium and I'm almost convinced that I've got some super resistant strain of that.  And I'm also afraid that the repeated use of Cipro will make this strain of infection resistant to Moxifloxacin, the last line of treatment for m. genitalium.  I'm seriously afraid that I will be taking pyridium the rest of my life to control the pain, will never be able to have sex again for fear of passing it on, and will just have to hope that I don't have any serious health complications from it.
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101028 tn?1419603004
I wouldn't bother with any further testing at this time.  if symptoms reoccur in the next 2 weeks, be seen again , repeat basic urine testing and also have your prostate manually examined.  

if the pain was only with urination and not a constant feeling, it wasn't herpes related.

your eye symptoms aren't related to the genital symptoms.

grace
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Avatar universal
Does anyone know where I can get specific answers to these questions from a doctor?  I have to save my money in case I need to go back to the urgent care for more treatment.  Unfortunately, the STD clinic here will only test and treat you for certain things (chlamydia and gonorrhea) and not things like mycoplasma, ureaplasma, etc.  So that STD clinic is worthless to me.  The urgent care people aren't very good at returning phone calls or helping people who aren't in there paying.  Seems like most doctors these days.  Plus I've seen two docs at the urgent care and they've said different things.  One said she would expect to see more discharge from an nsu, and the other said a small amount of discharge is normal.  One mentioned herpes as a possibility, the other said herpes is very unlikely.  GAAAA!  Never, ever again, if I get out of this situation.  I hate putting myself in the hands of the medical profession.  
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Avatar universal
Thanks.  I actually thought I was posting a question to a doctor, but I see I got the wrong forum and the right forum costs money.  Ah well.
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3230354 tn?1381305686
Wow a lot of questions there my friend. It's clear that something was going on in the genital area. I believe the eye infection is a coincidence. Coincidences can and do happen. This does sound like NGU could have been going on but I think whatever the issue was its now been successfully treated. Don't let your anxiety get the best of you now. If real symptoms return ie burning urination or discharge I'd return to the doctor.
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