I told my doctor I thought I might have early symptoms of HIV. When I went to the doctor she took my Blood Count. The blood count was normal. Possible exposure was about a month ago so I can't get the 3 month test yet.
Is taking a blood count any kind of indicator whether you have HIV or not.

Another question, is congestion in the chest a early hiv symptom?

...not sure what you mean by 'blood count'...
was this a test for anything specific?

For you to draw any conclusions from a test, it has to be the right type of test, i.e. an antibody test (ELISA test) or a p24 antigen test (for viral load). Is this what you mean?

An antibody test can take up to three months to be completely accurate, though would probably still be something like 60% accurate at one month. On the other hand, a p24 antigen test can pick up signs of a problem much sooner, though the accurate testing window for this is much smaller, hence the greater reliance on ELISA.

Usually the early reactionary symptoms to infection (ARS symptoms) are cited as "rashes, night sweats, aches and pains, flu-like symptoms" (with the exception of streaming sinuses or running nose, which are not ARS symptoms.)

However, these types of symptoms are also more often associated with STRESS. Hence the reason that many people on this board are panicking all the time about being infected, when in reality most of them are simply stressed out.

Congestion in the chest is not something I have heard about in relation to early HIV infection.

...not sure what you mean by 'blood count'...
was this a test for anything specific?



Thanks for replying. I have no idea what the blood count was for. I know its not the test you use for checking for HIV but I was wondering if having a blood count was a good thing or if it was irrelevant. I got tested for Mono, Hepititas, Herpes and Strep. Everything was Negative :confused: (Havent got the herpes test back yet). Then the doctor says everything is fine, what I have is probably caused by a virus, I'm thinking to myself oh thats
#*#$@ great, exactly what I want to hear. :eek:

It's a good sign that all those other STDs are showing up negative at this stage, since often HIV doesn't come along all on its own. But the only thing that can tell you for sure if you have HIV or not is if you have an HIV test. None of the other tests will pick it up.

Since your system will most likely be at a low ebb due to stress you are going to be more open to illnesses for a while.

If you had Herpes you would have almost definitely experienced cold sores or genital sores within 2 weeks of exposure. Also bear in mind, Herpes is much easier to transmit than HIV, and FAR more people have Herpes than HIV. You may have herpes yourself anyway, and it might be nothing to do with your encounter.

Another STD that often comes along with HIV is Chlamydia, have you had a test for this?

.I tested positive for Chlaymadia :confused:

Stick a fork in me im done.

I've had soar throat, back pain and nasuea for about a week.

Please don't self-diagnose! The odds are in your favour, and the more you worry about it, the worse any supposed symptoms will appear to be to you. Sore throat, back pain and nausea are typical (as in, absolutely and utterly typical) symptoms of stress. Much of your state of health at this time is going to be affected by stress, so you must try to calm down and stop worrying so much! Of course, I totally appreciate this is difficult to do, but many people here (myself included) can fully empathise, having gone, or going, through the same experiences. It's horrible, but you will get through it.

The only reason I mentioned chlamydia was because it's such an easily transmissable infection, that if you didn't have it, your chances of having anything much harder to acquire (like HIV) would be even more remote than they already probably are!

Try to put this out of your mind for a while and go about your daily routine as normal. You'd be surprised how many apparent symptoms clear up from simply not giving your anxiety a chance to take over. Much easier said than done, I know, but you've got to try.

Can I ask, what were the circumstances of your 'risky' exposure? Might help others here (especially those more knowledgeable than me) to give you some further info.

My STD SAGA

May 13/14
During sexual intercourse with a female my condom breaks. Im pretty sure it broke when I attempted to have anal sex. After a minute of trying to get it in I gave up and returned to vaginal sex.

May 14/15
Next day there is a pimple like bump on my shaft. It doesnt hurt at all but it looks just like a pimple with a white head and everything. Before it goes away another red bump appears on the other side. The first bump goes away but the second lingers and the second one hurts. This second one had no white head but this one burned. The pain was persistant for a couple of days I was convinced I had Herpes.

May 20
During this period when I thought i had herpes I was examining and touching myself A LOT, trying to see what was going on and trying to play doctor. I wear contact lenses and I tried to be real carefull about washing my hands but around may 20 my eye became EXTREMLEY ITCHY and red in a specific area near the little ball on the inside part of the eye. I am convinced I have Herpes Zoster in the eye. I go to the eye doctor tell him about the herpes and he gives me some Optivar and my eye gets cleared up in two days. This was the end of the herpes ordeal.

May 29th
I go to free clinic for STD check. Doctor looks at my penis and says she found no evidence of anything going on. I explained to her that there were bumps but there gone. Did a STD check for everything except HPV and Herpes because they cant do blood tests at the free clinic for those two because they are too expensive. No swelling of lymph nodes in groin according to free clinic doctor.

June 6th Not sure how important this is just thought I would throw it out there. Played sand volleyball all day and when I took my contact out a bunch of sand got in my eye. Sand was in my eye for till middle of june 7th, i don't think this has anything to do with it but what the hell.


The test results come back sometime between 29th and I test negative for everything except for CHLYMADIA. I don't know if I had it for awhile or got it from the last sexual activity on May 13 I should have asked.

June 7th
Im about to go running but decide to run an errand. I back out of the driveway and all of the sudden I feel like ive ridden a roller coaster 20 times in a row. I feel dizzy and nausis (spelling?). I go to the net look up soar throat and dizzyness what do i see HIV! (not saying stress has caused my symptoms for sure but I almost wish I never would have looked up HIV symptoms). That night I throw up the tuna sandwhich I ate, I think because I was dizzy, I never really had flu-like vomiting.

June 8th the next day I feel like garbage same stuff, throat and dizzyness. I start to feel a bit better then later that night my back just starts aching and my bowel movements are GREEN? They are soft but not anything close to liquid or classic dirrahea were you are peeing out your but. (when you say dirreaha thats what I think of).

June 9th I start to feel a little better but most of the same a little dizzy, tired soar throat. My neck lymphnodes supposedly are not swollen according to people I have check them. (My mom/my friend)

June 10th I go back to free clinic to start me on Doxyclycline for CHLYMAIDA. I complain of the dizzy, nausis, soar throat she says its not from CHLYMADIA but from somthing else.

June 12th go to a real doctor tell her my symptoms and she feels and looks in my throat doesn't find anything. Checks my groin lymph nodes says there not swollen. We do mono test, strep test, blood count. She says "your fine what causing those symptoms is probably some virus :confused: )

Forgot to mention did blood test for herpes at real doctors havent got results back yet.

Your contact lens thing was probably just that - a contact lens thing. You can't spread herpes from your genitals to your eyes if there is no herpes in the genital area in the first place. Did you get an outbreak anywhere more obvious? If not, this is probably not Herpes. Think unpleasant, nasty, itchy, scabby blisters.

The bumps on your shaft, I've had the same thing before myself, a couple of years ago. It wasn't very nice to look at so I got rid of it (popped it - yes I know, YUCK), which hurt! Anyway, it turned out to be nothing, just a spot. Spots in the genital region are bound to be more sensitive, whether that pain is dull or sharp. Yours doesn't sound anything like Herpes to me. But, even if this was Herpes, bear in mind that 75% of people have the Herpes virus, and future outbreaks are almost invariably less severe than the initial outbreak, so nothing to worry about here either way!

I've even had a fully scabbed-over situation on my penis and surrounding area before, which I caught from a girl at university in 1998. Now that was REALLY weird. Turned out to be something totally harmless though, not even Herpes. Looking back, I never even panicked in the slightest. I never even bothered to check it out. I think the reason for that is I wasn't reading so much on the internet to feed my fears. If I had been reading internet garble, I would probably have assumed I had some terrible diseases. (I've had sexual health tests since which prove that isn't the case)

The test results come back sometime between 29th and I test negative for everything except for CHLYMADIA. I don't know if I had it for awhile or got it from the last sexual activity on May 13 I should have asked.

It's doubtful that a clinic can tell you *when* you acquired the chlamydia as far as I know. Chlamydia usually doesn't go unnoticed though, since it can be pretty nasty (weeping and painful). Yours on the other hand sounded like it wasn't either of these things, so I guess it is possible you had it prior to your risky exposure.

June 7th
Im about to go running but decide to run an errand. I back out of the driveway and all of the sudden I feel like ive ridden a roller coaster 20 times in a row. I feel dizzy and nausis (spelling?). I go to the net look up soar throat and dizzyness what do i see HIV! (not saying stress has caused my symptoms for sure but I almost wish I never would have looked up HIV symptoms). That night I throw up the tuna sandwhich I ate, I think because I was dizzy, I never really had flu-like vomiting.

Wow, I sure know that feeling! I'm guessing your symptoms might also have included:

- Raging heartbeat
- Difficulty breathing, feeling as though you can't get enough air
- Sudden swooping dizziness, lightheadedness or nausea
- Trembling, sweating, shaking
- Choking, chest pains
- Hot flashes, or sudden chills
- Tingling in fingers or toes ('pins and needles')

(all these symptoms are typical of the sort of panic attack you had)

You will be fine.

Sudden swooping dizziness, lightheadedness or nausea + soar throat were my symtoms but I feel a lot better now still a bit achey though.
Just called the "risky exposure" she says that she got tested and that all her tests were negative.

1. As soon as i heard that everything but my soar throat dissapeard
2. She could be lying, wouldn't she have CHLYAMADIA, after all I have it and I think I might have got it from her. Even if I had it before her, you'd think she'd have it now, or maybe she didn't want to admit it.
3. Maybe her Hiv test wasn't positive because she hasn't waited long enough. I know I didn't give it to her because I tested negative on may29 which would rule out HIV from every partner I've ever had except for her.

Allthough I feel a lot better now that she said she tested okay, Im not out of the woods yet. The three month test is 97 percent accurate right? August 6th cant get her soon enough!

3 months is closer to 99.999% accurate

Hello moose,
I just wanted to tell you, I've had a sorethroat that lasted a bit over a month, I believe it was related to stress, I had some sort of UTI and I freaked out, and well, there you go, I had a sore throat, daily morning headaches because of the lack of sleep and some other symptoms, every single bump on my body looked like AIDS to me during that period.

Anyhow, I managed to get over the whole issue, done few tests, everything was ok, I started feeling better, the daily headaches disappeared immediately, the sore throat got worse somehow then disappeared totally, also, when I started taking antibiotics(doxycycline, cephalexyn, linococin) I felt dizzy, lightheaded and almost dead, I am guessing it's normal to have those feelings when taking such meds.

Anyway goodluck.