johnnydoe

Hi,

thanks for any help!

I'm a sexually inexperienced guy who went to a massage parlor in late December 2003. There I had a body to body massage with a final handjob. I am not circumcised, there was no condom.

I had read before that handjobs are considered no risk with respect to HIV but afterwards I wasn't quite able to handle it. I started to develop all kinds of symptoms, well before, and well after the usual ARS window.

I developed a slight fever a few hours after the hand-job and since then I never really felt healthy again.
The initial slight fever went away after a couple of days, then I had a slight pins and needles feeling for two days and since then (recurring, though not all the time) I've had strange sensations under my armpits, sometimes in the hollow of my knees, in the lower abdomen - where lymph glands supposedly are. Yet there was no general swelling. There was one selling in the right arm pit in week 5 that lasted for a couple of days and another in week 9 that lasted a week. Doctor said it wasn't a lymph node but a pimple under the skin, not to worry.
I did not check my temperature with a thermometer as I figured I did not have fever when feeling alright and having a cool forehead. Yet I am not entirely sure about this anymore as I had a serious infection for a week in week 10 and had a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius whith a perfectly cool forehead (although a generally ill feeling). I did have chills in the last three months, particularly over the last two weeks, partly in concurrence with slightly raised temperature (for a couple of hours or so).
I did not have a real rash, but I believe my skin was far more reactive to acne and there were two episodes of several read spots on two 10*10 cm areas.
The weirdest thing is a cough that was really bad during the infection in week ten but has really never stopped entirely since the beginning of January.
In addition, I'm having the feeling of a partiularly sensible tip of the tounge and palate, including some microlesions and at least three canker sores, one of which felt like a bump on the palate (the kind of trauma caused when hitting the palate unintendedly with a pen one is chewing on.

All this is really weird. With respect to HIV, all the people I asked told me there was no risk involved. Moreover, the symptoms I've been experiencing are not classic ARS symptoms with regard to either combination or time-frame.

There is a chance this is all a consequence of a reduced immune reaction due to fear of HIV, or my mind may be making this up. in fact, I am still inclined to believe this. But I don't know - the temporal coincidence and the symptoms are simply there. Is there any STD you know of (apart from HIV) that could produce symptoms as the ones I described above???

Thank you so much for your help!!

JD