With all the recent posts floating around, about how and where HIV is spread, I was wondering where people gained the knowledge they have on the subject.

I had an ancounter over a year ago. A one time thing. I worried for MONTHS! I was all over the internet, local library, ANYWHERE I could go looking for ways to catch it, risks, symptoms, you name it. Fear had taken over, so I was tested. I tested at 80 days post exposure. -NEGATIVE-! Relief!! Then, I read 90 days, not 12 weeks (wich is 84 days) and became fearful AGAIN! Were the 10 days important? Are they? Somehow, I have found peace of mind, and wanted to pass on what I had learned to other "worriers". So, I started posting, only recently. But I am NO expert,I poured ALOT of time into finding information, and pass it on, but I think ANYONE with any doubt can benefit from a test, for there mental health, as well as physical. I still sometimes question my 80 day test, so fear is not an easy thing to overcome.

So, maybe if everyone was aware of who was around, and where their knowledge was from, would others be able to decide what opinions were founded in some basis of fact, because from reading some of the posts, there is some mis-information floating around, but Im not one to name names!!

Thanks!

I think that is an excellent idea. I've posted my experience with HIV on numerous topics, so one more won't hurt. Of course, I'm sure people are tired of seeing my name right about now.

Here goes...my experiences with HIV started in 95 when my best friend found out she was positive. I was so unfamiliar with how to get it I became paranoid. We shared razors, clothes, and ate/drank after each other. I had to begin educating myself before I could be the friend she needed me to be. I was later raped in 97 right before joining the military. I knew the guy well and knew he was with MANY women. This frightened me. After entering the military I started having severe night sweats, diarrhea, bruising every where and I stayed sick. I felt I had to be positive. Come to find out it was the stress of boot camp causing me these horrible side effects. I later became very close to someone who was +. I wanted to share a life with this man. We became intimate (always protected) and enjoyed being with one another. Later he decided he didn't want to risk giving me anything, so he pulled out of the relationship. We still talk occassionally, but he's not doing so well anymore. I also worked in ICU in the military. I've seen people die from AIDS. Some with family and friends and some all alone with no one to understand or support them. I, at one time wanted to become a physician dealing with HIV/AIDS, but I didn't want to deal with the other infections and diseases that go along with Internal Medicine. Now I just try to offer my support and advice, which are mostly opinions unless I actually find something official that supports what I pass on to others. I think all of us are on this site for a reason and that's to help others. We shouldn't be here telling people they don't know what they are talking about or bashing people for their opinions or lack of knowledge.

I'm sorry this is so long, but I hope others will join this post with some positive feedback. Unneccessary comments are not needed or welcomed!!!

Here I go guys:

My experience, could be considered by some as being insignificant, however, what I went through I definitely do not wish it to anybody. It all happenned about 7 months ago, on a trip to Mexico. While there, I foolishly had sex not once but three times with prostitutes. 3 different women. This in a period of 2/3 weeks.

There was deep kissing on one ocassion with some biting (I remember that now and I say "eeeewwww!") in my lip. I also received unprotected oral once. A week to 2 later...came the symptoms. The first thing I noticed was that I could not sleep and I felt I had a fever. Then came the watery stools, sometimes of a greenish dark color (ewwwwwwwwww!!).

Then, when I returned to the US, it hit me hard! Night sweats, eye floaters, chest rash, weight loss, fever, numbness of extremities, what appeared to be thrush (which wasnt), extreme tiredness, weakness, and without mention, extreme anxiety and depression.

Tested first ELISA at 9 weeks. Negative. Dr.found I had some parasites (that could explain the loose stools) but that was all. He put me on some heave antidepressant regime.

3 months were HELL for me. Always thinking I was going to die, crying each and every day, not becase of fear, but because I felt I had lost so much with doing what I did, so more or less it was guilt. Come month 3.5. Tested ELISA: Negative. Doctor never believed I had anything although she saw everything that happenned to me and how much weight I lost.

Months 5-6 were easier on me, got lots of support from my family, even my girlfriend I had cheated on, gave me and still gives me ultimate support, truth is, we get along possibly better than before.

Month 6.5 = Last ELISA for me, Negative, through home access. Since month 5 I started coming to this board, to try and help others with all of the stuff I learned during my ordeal. Sites like Thebody, aidsmeds, cdc, aegis, niaids were of EXTREME help for me in finding out that I had not much to worry about. That is why it gets me to this day when people worried like I was come in here looking for reliable information and instead get confused by the conflicting information some people post.

I hope my experience can be of help to somebody out there.

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Best wishes.