Hello,

My story goes pretty much the same as many others. I went on vacation and had vaginal sex with a woman whom I later found out to be very promiscuous (in fact, i later found out she was a prostitute). It was a one time deal and will never see this person ever again thus I can't ask what her hiv status is. Anyway, the sex was protected however the condom slipped off during intercourse. I don't know how long it was off for but it was for no longer than a few minutes. I don't think it matters how long the condom was off for. The fact of the matter is the condom came off and I am totally freaked out that I may have contracted HIV.

This was only the second person that I have ever had sex with. I was drunk and wasn't thinking normally - What an idiot i am. So, as the story continues, about 2 days after intercourse my penis began hurting and i had pain while urinating. Initially, I began to fear something like chlymidia or gonnerea. It hurt like heck for about 1 week after I returned from vacation. After that first week, I went to get tested at the local STD clinic. They took a urine sample and analyzed the urine. Everything came back negative. they said there was a lot of calcium in my urine which led them to believe that the calcium buildup in my urethra was causing the pain. Go figure - what a coincidence. So I'm happy that was clean. But then I start thinking about HIV and I make the decision to investigate symptoms on the internet - big mistake. I mean it is good to be educated but I instantly began to see that I had a few of the symptoms. as I have read on this board, you can't rely on symptoms. The only sure way is the blood test. I have had these things come up sporadically on my body that look like a pimple with a hair coming out of it. I don't know if I ever had these before but now that i am looking at my body so closely, I am seeing all sorts of things that worry me.

I had some muscle pain in my two inner thighs and in my left arm in addition to other symptoms. I never had the "flu/fever/mono" type symptom though.

Anyway, now I have been sick for three days with a sore throat/cough/chest congestion (no fever). That doesn't reaaly worry me as my roommate was sick last week with the same thing as well as 2 of my co-workers. I went to the doctor's yesterday and he said i just had a bug. Since I was there, I asked him about my hiv worries and explained to him my situation. He seems to think I have a better chance at hitting the lottery. When I told him that I have gained about 20 pounds over the past 5-6 weeks, he seemed to think that it was very, very, very unlikely that i had contracted the virus. Anyway, I am now at day 52 after my possible exposure and have trouble keeping my sanity waiting for day 90.

My main question is how accurate will a test at say 60 days be? I am thinking that I can't make it to 90 days without having a nervous breakdown.

Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I don't know what I would do without this site. Just bieng able to read about others has helped me calm down a bit.

Thanks for any words or Thoughts,

Scared

:wave: Hey. ok, deep breath (those always help me). First of all. 60 days would be a good indicator of how your final "diagnosis" will be. The average person develops antibodies by 28 days. Secondly, not only do symptoms not equal infection...but yours arent indicative of hiv in the slightest really. So funny that people don't realize how much stress will do to their bodies. You could go into in depth theories ( I know I did ). Men have a much harder time getting the virus from a woman, because their mucus membrane is a lot smaller than ours. You could even consider how while half of the hiv-infected population is slowly becoming female, 83% of those infections are in black or hispanic women, mainly black. You could also think about how the avg is 1/500 per unprotected sexual act. Bottom line, it's something you're stressed about. Stress will kill ya faster;) I've found, that most people who freak out about hiv are just fine. It's ok to be cautious. Just...don't make a big deal out of nothing. I'm sure you're fine :wave: Also. if you have the money, you could get a PCR viral load and most likely rule out HIV in general, however those tests tend to be costly. Stay off the net. Don't look up symptoms, you'll see stuff that isnt there. good luck! ( not that you'll really need it )

Thanks Hailey. I appreciate your words and comfort. All my friends think I am nuts. I feel crazy too. I have been totally obsessing about this since "that night". Like many others, I too feel like I am doomed. All that I really have to keep up any bit of will to carry on my daily activities are my daily visits to the board and reassuring posts that I read on here. I don't know what I would do without this board.

Anyway, I am now at day 60 and have 30 more days to go.

Thanks again, you have no idea what it means to me to have somewhere like this board to go and, even more, to have people who care enough out there to respond and calm people like myself.

Scared

I also just bought the home access test. I am pretty much just too anxious to wait so I am thinking of doing this test to hold me over until day 90 when I will go get elisa done at doctors. God willing this 60 day test will be negative.

Anyway, my question is relating to this bout with the cold I am just getting over. Again, I apologize if this question is stupid but I truly don't know the answer to this question. During this cold, I had a cold sore break out on my lip. As far as I understand, cold sores come from a Herpes virus that like a majority of the population has. I have gotten cold sores before my risky act so that doesn't have too totally freaked out. Concerned - yes; freaked out - no. Anyway, my question is can the cold sore/Herpes (or the fact that I still have a cold) cause my home access test to show a false positive? This is a serious question in my mind and I swear I am not joking around. I have read other posts that seem very out there and responders have thought that the posts was a bad joke. I am bieng totally serious and again apologize if anybody gets angered by my question. The reason why I ask is I don't think I could process that in my life right now and want to know if I should wait a week or 10 days and nip this cold in the bud before I take this Home Access test.

Thank you for any thoughts or advice that you have.

Scared