I don’t know if this type of post belongs in this section of the forum, or even if it belongs at all. If it belongs in another section, feel free to move it. If it doesn’t belong on the forum, feel free to remove it.
Five weeks ago, I did something silly. I spent the night with a girl that I know but am not in a relationship with. We made out for quite some time and she gave me oral sex. I did not give her oral sex and we did not have vaginal intercourse. I did not have any sort of contact with her genitals.
She has not told me that she is HIV positive, though I do not believe that she has been tested recently. She has told me that her gums sometimes bleed. I did not personally see or taste any blood, but I wouldn’t have noticed because the lights were out and, let’s be honest, you’re not exactly focusing on taste in moments of passion.
So why on Earth would I be worried about HIV? The answer is not because of her HIV status, nor because of the activity I performed with her, but because of symptoms.
Twenty-four hours later, I developed a tight feeling in my testicles, where my vas deferens are. This feeling went away over a couple of days. A few days later, I experienced a burning feeling in my urethra, but this went away fairly quickly.
I got myself tested for a urinary tract infection, Chlamydia, and Gonorrhea. Negative.
Just after that appointment, I developed a crusty throat feeling. I’m not taking about a raging, terrible sore throat, with lymph glands ablaze and everything - just a feeling of dryness or crustiness in the back of my throat. I looked in the mirror and saw, to my surprise, that there was a small white streak on the right side of my tongue.
I went to the doctor to talk about it. The doctor did a general throat culture, which came up negative (for anything) and a quick strep, which also came up negative. I went back and asked the doctor to specifically address the white streak. She had it tested, with a cue tip, for thrush. The test came back negative, but she said that she had seen thrush so many times that she was fairly certain that it was thrush. The doctor had my white blood cell count taken, which was normal. I came up negative for Mononucleosis.
I had noticed the thrush become smaller and seem to go away, then come back before. The doctor put me on Nystatin. The Nystatin didn’t seem to do anything - the white streak would get smaller and even seem to disappear, but then it would come back, even though I hadn’t quit the medication. I told the nurse, and she said that since nothing had really changed after six days of Nystatin, I could quit the medication.
This was when I became concerned that this could be HIV. At first I believed that HIV showed no immediate symptoms - then I looked it up and found out about acute HIV. Blood pressure rises (edit: not literally).
I go back in to see the doctor. The doctor says that my symptoms probably are unrelated. She says that my thrush could be random or the result of my increased beer consumption (I have started to drink a beer daily, whereas I used to virtually never consume beer) and that my crusty throat was probably the result of postnasal drip. She gave me a salt water nasal spray, which I am just starting to use.
The next day I had an HIV antibody test, even though I knew that tests taken only a month after possible exposure are not reliable at all. For whatever it is (or is not) worth, I came up negative.
That same night I sweat the hell out of my bed, though it was a warmer than usual night and I put too many covers on, so it might not be related to any illness at all.
During this period I was quite stressed about my mouth symptoms, the possibility of HIV, and my schoolwork. I don’t know what symptoms heavy stress can and cannot cause.
I had, for a period of about three days around here, intermittent mild chest pain. I haven’t had this sort of chest pain for a couple of days, however. I also had diarrhea three times, but the diarrhea wasn’t severe, and at least one of the occurrences came after I ate food on University Way (Pagliacci’s, then Haagen Dazs). I don’t remember what I had consumed prior to the other incidences of diarrhea. My last defecation was hard, however.
Yesterday I developed some pain in my tongue where my thrush had been. It was more on the underside than on the top side (this got me worried, because I know the underside is where the mucous membrane is). Overnight that pain went away but was replaced by a slight ache on the left side of my tongue.
I saw a doctor today and explicitly asked about HIV. She said that my thrush probably isn’t caused my HIV infection. She said I should just wait until the third month after the incident and get myself tested.
So that’s that. I would welcome consoling words, but please, please do not give them if they are not grounded in reason. I want to know whether you guys think that these symptoms could be the result of an HIV infection or if there is some sort of other rational explanation. I am talking about acute HIV, not advanced AIDS, which I know I do not have.
These are some quick facts which may be useful:
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I am not experiencing heavy tiredness or malaise. A few nights I have slept 10 or 11 hours, but this is normal since I just turned twenty and I can sleep a long time if need be. I do not “feel sick” in the general sense. I have played lots of ping pong, and my style of ping pong play is intense and athletic (it makes me break a sweat).
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It does not hurt for me to urinate or masturbate.
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My diet is neither horrible nor great. Some days I eat like a track runner. Some days I eat like your typical Twinkie-munching college slob.
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The woman is not the most promiscuous woman you’ll ever meet, but I know that she is leaning to that sad. I mean nothing anti-feminist or moral by saying this - I’m just including it for the purposes of my health.
I’ll post anything else that comes to my mind and seems relevant.
Honest appraisals needed and much appreciated.