Hi,

first of all: This is a really a good place to find informations regarding HIV & AIDS and all the people here are doing a very good job!

This is my story:

I am a 29 year old male from germany. I had a possible exposure 13 weeks ago. I had vaginal sex with a sex-worker and the condom broke. I did not noticed it immediatley, so i stayed in her for about 2 to 4 minutes I guess. Cannot say exactly. After I noticed it, I stopped immediately, got a shower and went home very shocked.

I do not know the HIV status of the girl.

On day 4. & 5. after this, I noticed some tickling in my left fingers and some myalgia at different locations and I guess I have been a little bit fatigue. At the evening on day 5. I had also pain behind my breastbone and I started to search the internet for HIV informations and I was totally hit by a bus as I found out about the ARS-symptoms. I was close to get unconscious and had to hold myself at the table.... That was a tuesday. On day 6., wednesday, I searched the net in the morning to find some more informations about ARS-symptoms and I began to explore my body. I had no fever at all - I did tests over a week or more, several times a day. But a lot of other symptoms which are also known for ARS came up: swollen lymphnodes in the groin area, swolen lymphnodes in the neck and the throat area, myalgia, a mild pharyngitis, and some nightsweats, weight loss for about 4 pounds, sometime dry cough (especially in the morning). All of the symptoms came to a peak on sunday, 10 days after possible exposure and began to fade out during the following 2 weeks.

After 4 weeks I got a cold with my nose involved - but very mild.

But also after that I felt not healthy at all. I had several pains all over my body, they came and gone suddenly: Pain behind my breastgroin, pain in the whole left side of the breast including the left shoulder & the left arm, "pulling" & mild pains in the neck and under my armpits, 1 week of heavy bowel sounds (but no nausea, vomiting or Diarrhea).

During the last 2 weeks, sometimes I only had "pulling" & mild pains in the neck but I guess my lymphnodes in the right side of the groin and on the right side of my throat are still swollen.

On monday I got a cold again and so I am staying in bed and drinking tea :-) (and writing this article).

Needless to say, that my life was a mess starting fom day 5. after possible exposure - untill now. I am very stressed and searched the internet. I was not able to find any more good informations in the german speaking part of the net, so I began to search the englisch part of it. So I came to this board and I also found www.thebody.com.

I got a very nice girlfriend for about 12 years now and we are living together in one appartment. It is so hard, I do not have any more excuses to deny any sexual activities.
I am at the end of the window period, so I know a test should be reliable. But I am so stressed, I know, the only way to get out of this is to get tested. I had a lot of time to thing about my live - I guess exactly that what everybody does in such a situation.

So I am not searching any longer for more medical-informations on the net because, it does not change the situation but it makes you scared and ill. I also thing, that some of the symptoms are caused by anxiety itselfs, but I am very worried about the swollen lymphnodes and the night sweats.

OK, so you have heard my story. Thanks for reading. As I have said I am going to prepare myself to get tested soon. But maybe you have an answer to the following I am really concerned about and maybe it helps me to lower my anxiety:

1. As I said everything started 4 days after possible exposure. I have read a lot and the most common statement is "from 2 to 4 weeks after possible exposure". On some sites you will find "from 1 to 8 weeks after possible exposure". So 4 days are a little bit early? This is one of my main hopes...

(englisch is not my native language - so sorry...)

Lovely greetings from germany,

Marc

Dear German guy,
I think that you having sex with that sex worker is truly sad and shocking to hear considering you already had a wonderful girlfriend of 12 years. Shame on you! I am gay and its so hard to find any man that is not such a sociopath or is so loving and protective that I can trust him with my body if at all. You should read what happen to me, I seriously could have HIV. I am scared and regret everything i have done.
I hate to make you feel guility especially when you are sick but, you seem to already have a girlfriend of 12 years, and i just do not understand how u could do that to yourself and her. If you really loved her you would never take any risks like this, as a matter of fact you could easily have given your girlfriend a serious disease too and not have known it yourself. Why do I say this, because almost 30 percent if not more of HIV infected individuals do not even experience symptoms upon exposure to HIV. You should be glad your body is showing symptoms as it indicates that an infection did transmit and that you should cease all sexual activities at this time until you know you are ok and you do not have something serious, and if you do have something serious you can seek treatment promtly, as catching HIV early is the key before this virus destorys the immune system. This virus is so serious and ya there are drugs that inhibit the virus, but nothing or any cure has been found and as many as 60% of those infected even with drug theapy convert to full blown AIDS after 10 to 20 years.....after the immune system is so damaged that it is beyond repair leaving the body so vunerable to any tiny biohazard. What I think is so sad is there are so many people who have so many different symptoms and so many different time frames for when the antibodies show up. Read this study... http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite.jsp?doc=2098.3ccb Showing a serious of healthcare workers and some 2 out of the 50 who were hit with a needle stick ended up not showing antibodies for OVER ONE YEAR!. You mentioned you were anxious and you also mentioned you did not have a fever. Please be aware that the presents of NO fever does not mean you are not infected.
You can see several studies and statistics on seroconversion as well as on anxiety to hiv at------> http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite.jsp?doc=2098.3d45 indicating such a wide variance in the time that seroconversion started and its length. Some seroconverions last months while others are just for several days. PLEASE JUST LISTEN TO THIS PART AND THE MAIN REASON I AM WRITING THIS. GO TO www.stdtest.org and click STD BASICS then STD CHART. YOU CAN SEE YOUR RISKS THERE. You MUST remember that all those risks are not all of them that are listed there. You can get so many diseases in this world from unprotected sex and many of them display the symptoms you just mentioned in your writings. Thats why the only way to really know for sure if you have HIV-1 virus which is the life threating HIV virus is to get your self tested not just at 3 months but at 6 and even repeat it at 18 months for total complete assurance. I also want to state that your risk for HIV based on what you said is low for this disease but you could have more easily caught other diseases that are not as life threating but just as awful to have. Like Tlymphonma virus which remains in ur system and accerlates your pace to AIDS after HIV contraction if u get HIV, or Herpes which is remainsin ur system too,
and causes sores and outbreaks when under stress, or HIV-2 which is not life threating and no one tests for it either because it does not attack the immune system, or hepatitis, and even mononuclious CFS(chronic fatigue syndrome). All can be transmitted sexually and some if not most remain in the body and affect organ, immune, chemical, and biological energy processes in the body, accelerate the aging process and damage cells. I do mean to scare you, why because NO ONE DESERVES THESE DISEASES....smart or not, man or woman, poor or rich...no one deserves to get them, and many people always do because we want to be loved and we end up having to trust someone with our lives all this so we can have sex and feel loved and connected. Then we end up sharing body fluids with infected white blood cells. Its like we have no choice and its just so sad because even to this day I feel I can not trust no one....especially MEN. Its so sad that you having sex with a sexworker instead of your girlfriend, and knowing that she, as I, and you are just only human of flesh and blood, and knowing that she loves you(assuming that she does since she stayed with u so long). I would think you would want to protect her from all harms no matter what.
I HOPE YOU COME OUT NEGATIVE AND THAT ALL IS OK FOR THE LIFE THREATIN DISEASES. I CERTAINLY WOULD LIKE YOU TO KEEP ME POSTED IF U WANT. I HOPE YOU ARE SAFE, AND I HOPE YOU READ WHAT I HAVE TO SAY WITH GREAT EMOTIONS AND THOUGHT! AND THAT YOU WILL SERIOUSLY MAKE GREAT EFFORTS TO STAY MONOGOMOUS AND SAFE WITH UR GIRLFRIEND, AND IF SHE DOES NOT WORKOUT THEN THAT YOU WILL DATE SOMEONE ELSE AND TAKE GREAT CARE TO PROTECT YOURSELF WITH CONDOMS IF NOT 2 CONDOMS NEXT TIME AROUND, AND RESPECT AND PROTECT YOUR LIFE MORE THAN EVER BEFORE. BECAUSE IT IS A PRECIOUS GIFT. P.S. STAY CLEAR OF THE SEXWORKERS PLEASE!!!!!!!

SINCERELY YOURS,
JIMMYDEANTOO

RIGHT ON JIMMY!!!!!!!!
i hate to say it, but jimmy is right. so many people come on this board and are afraid that they may have been exposed from a one night stand, or a hooker. i thought i was exposed because my ex-boyfriend cheated on me more than once when we were together (3 years) and i was too dumb to know. so that whole time i was technically sleeping with all of those girls he was sleeping with YUCK!!!!! imagine my horror when i find this out and i have already moved on with my life and i have a husband and brand new baby. i got some seroius health problems from my pregnancy, and of course by looking around on the net, i found ARS sympotoms, and other stuff to scare me out of my mind. i got tested and it is negative thank god, but for about 3 months i was mentally a wreck because of those thoughts. i am still dealing with some anxiety issues because i made myself so sick.

However, i do have to say that anyone should be able to come here and tell the truth. maybe this is a way for people to confess, or just get it all out in the open. whatever the reason, anyone should feel like they can. Jimmy, i commend you for standing up for us faithful people, i really do, but you have to let people feel safe here.

Marc,

Noone can tell you if you have HIV based one symptoms. And I know your not looking for medical info. But, STRESS and WORRY CAN make people recognize things they may not have been looking for before. If you are suddenlly concerend about having a cold, youll notice every tickle you have, where as if your NOT worried, you wouldnt notice.

MOST ARS symptoms occur 2 to 4 weeks after exposure. But, MANY people dont expierenc ANY at all.

Since your OUT of the window period, you NEED to be tested. And no matter who you do it with, when, where, or why, its YOUR buisness. But, PLEASE, make it your buisness to WRAP IT UP!!!

and the condom broke. I did not noticed it immediatley, so i stayed in her for about 2 to 4 minutes I guess. Cannot say exactly. After I noticed it, I stopped immediately, got a shower and went home very shocked.

Hi,

just a short update of my situation.

First: JimmyDeanToo & nyxin, sure you totally right. I know that. I allready recognized this situation as a stop-sign in my life. So all I am going to pray for is a second chance, to do all the things I was able to think about during the last 3 months...

Ok, here we go.

I just did the Hometest I got from the netherlands. I bought them 6 weeks ago, but then I thought it might not be a good idea to see a positive result at home and don't have somebody to talk to or who can help.
Yesterday I went to the local aids help- and information-center. That was the first time I spoke to a "real" person, so I told my whole story and also started to cry for the first time for minutes. After that I felt much better. So I went to the testing-lab but the doc I wants to speak to before the test was not there. So I went home.

At home again, I began to think about the whole situation. I want to bring this to an end. 3 months are enough, I want to get back my life again, or even a positive result, but I want to end this trembling uncertainty. So the hometests came back to my mind...

So I got the hometest this day, opened it and startet to read the instructions. I was struggling with myself again for about 15 minutes but I did it. All the steps. I thought I don't have to do the last step (pull away the filter and read the result) if I am really to scared, but I did: 1 Line - 1 LINE !!!! 1 vertical Line means NEGATIVE!!!! Oh my god, you can't imagine my feelings...
I went to the window to take a closer look at the testing-surface. 1 Line, 1 vertical line. Not 2 line, no second horizontal line!

I am going to get tested next week at the lab with a standard ELISA, but this is....awesome, wonderfull...unbelievable!

I just want to keep you up to date.

Lovely Greetings from grey & cold germany,

Marc

Hi mark1974,,,I have a problem would like to ask??? how do you know that the condum broke?? does it have holes in it, or after ejaculation you didnt see the semen inside the condum??