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Avatar universal

Whats your thoughts/opinions?

Symptoms:
-Small eraser size slightly ithy spot on palm, next day i noticed my feet had red marks on them as well as both    hands, (appeared to be blothy red marks on palms)  Dr. thought hand,foot and mouth (currently 28).

-the next few days rash got worse, turned into blisters on hands and feet,  nothing on groin area, small red marks on buttocks, and small red dots on back and under arms and side arms.
- was tested for limes, syphilis, and did a cbc,,  all negative, and normal ; the er doc gave me 2.4 million units of penniciln in my rear anyways.
-dermatoligst said/thinks its viral, doesnt really know though he said
-in the past 2 to 3 months : 1 encounter with csw (protected sex) and 1 encounter with csw unprotected oral on me

Question
-if this is syphilis how long does it take for the rashes on me to go away with treatment.  
-whats the normal test in er's for syphilis,  i just had blood work done and not sure which type of syphilis test it was?  i've read on the net of false negatives if it is in secondary stage. (the pictues of syphilis sure do look like what i have) but i dont feel sick and i've never had some odd bump down there)  i'm a little woried becasue the unprotected oral on me was about 5 weeks ago.  is the test accurate that close?
6 Responses
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239123 tn?1267647614
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Treatment effectively aborts syphilis before any symptoms start.  That is what would be recommended if you were infected.  But you are not, and I'm not going to get further into
hypothetical actions in event of an impossible outcome -- and syphilis is impossible here.

If your username means what I assume it does (I could sign as "pilotwa"), you are trained to think coolly and objectively in situations requiring definitive decisions, informed by judgment and skill, despite extraneous, potentially distracting information all around.  Apply that capacity here.  It is time to accept the reassurances you have had -- both from me and your doctor -- and move on.

That's all for this thread.
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Avatar universal
one final medical question,  the person i am with,, how does it work, lets just say they have it now,  do they have to wait until they are in the secondary stage to get treatment, or for treatment to be effective, or can they 'hedge their bets' and get the medicine now, and then not ever get to the secondary stage???

thanks a bunch
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Avatar universal
doc you said it best !     " guilt over your sexual indiscretion   "
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239123 tn?1267647614
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Syphilis only causes rash in the secondary stage; I already said above that hte test is 'accurate enough' to detect it.  No scientifcally reliable source says that secondary syphilis can appear as early as 2 weeks after catching the infection.  You found a bad source or misunderstood what you read.

Please stop worrying about this. Your apparent anxiety or guilt over your sexual indiscretion seems to be affecting your ability to accept the evidence.  Given the information you provided, it is impossible that your rash is due to syphilis.  Believe it.  My reasons are above and I won't have anything more to say about it.
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Avatar universal
thanks i appreciate your input.  So if the rash was in secondary stage the test would be accurate enough to test correct?  I read on this site that secondary can be from 2 weeks though from contamination?
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239123 tn?1267647614
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to the STD forum. The bottom line is that you definitely do not have syphilis.

Lots of skin rashes can mimic syphilis, including rashes that involve the palms and soles.  Syphilis skin lesions usually do not turn into blisters; skin rash in syphilis occurs only in the secondary stage of the disease, which cannot start until at least 3-4 months after exposure; the blood test is always strongly positive in secondary syphilis; and syphilis rash clears up within a few days of penicillin treatment.  For all these reasons, it is not possible that the rash is due to syphilis acquired from the oral sex event.

Your comment about false positive test results doesn't fit with this situation. You might be thinking of false negative results, but that almost never happens with modern syphilis tests.

It sounds like your doctor might have been worried about the possibility of syphilis, otherwise he would not have treated you with penicillin.  But I wonder whether you might have talked him into it.  Had you made that request to me, I would have refused.

In summary, you do not have syphilis and your rash has nothing to do with your oral sex encounter 5 weeks ago.  There is no risk to your wife or other sex partners.  As for the actual cause of the rash, I have no opinion about non-STD problems. Continue to work with your dermatologist on it.  Maybe a biopsy would help find the cause.

Good luck--  HHH, MD  
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