Syph Test Results... And Things Get Interesting Again...

[Rayne]

I have an appointment with my ID doctor in two weeks. I am thinking about just waiting until I see him then. If it is actually syphilis and the test unusually didn't pick it up yet, it's not going to kill me in the next couple weeks.

There you go. Just don't fuck anyone until you get cleared... unless you're into spreading syph for some reason lol. I don't think you have much to worry about, honestly, but it's always better to be sure about it. And no, it won't kill you in two weeks haha.

Just don't get yourself too scared over anything, especially since you are still fairly new to living with HIV. I'm sure it's difficult, and I'm sure it makes you a little more on edge about getting other infections now than ever before. While your chances of catching something else are elevated, given the compromised immune system, there's never need to freak out

[totalasspig]

PopTronic, sounds like your doctor is holding off until something happens. If you believe that you have been exposed and still show no symptoms, you can get the doctor to give you a shot of Benzylpenicillin, which they will give to you in the ass. If you have any trace of Syphilis and it's early, the Benzylpenicillin is sure to kill it off.

I always am very frank with my docs and they always recommend I get the shot(s). I have no problem dropping trou for that as you do not want it develop into the next stage of Syphilis.

[VersatileBreeder]

PopTronic, sounds like your doctor is holding off until something happens. If you believe that you have been exposed and still show no symptoms, you can get the doctor to give you a shot of Benzylpenicillin, which they will give to you in the ass. If you have any trace of Syphilis and it's early, the Benzylpenicillin is sure to kill it off.

I always am very frank with my docs and they always recommend I get the shot(s). I have no problem dropping trou for that as you do not want it develop into the next stage of Syphilis.

totalasspig, that's not a bad idea to be proactive and if it were just a week of pills, I would probably do it. I'm not scared of needles and I have a high threshold for pain, but I did hear that when the penicillin shot is injected, there's the possibility of that Herxheimer effect and that it's a bitch. I also heard that HIV+ are at a higher risk of having it. I'd rather not go through all that riff raft if it's not really syphilis.

Like I said, if it is syphilis, I'm not worried. I'm not gonna freak out or panic. I'm just gonna take care of it. It would be NICE if it wasn't and this sore is related to something else more minor (like an infected follicle), so that I can get a break from going through all the bullshit with the shots and all. But I'm not panicking if it is.

[Guest kazore]

I had something like that 2 years ago. I could feel something tiny under my skin at the base of the shaft. I noticed it years ago. One day it started to grow, like a small cyst. I waited a few days but it continued to grow. I went to see a doctor at walk-in clinic, she said she couldn't do anything but recommended me a dermatologist. The week end arrived and it grew again and it became painful. I was very worried. By sunday It became even bigger and very painful. I hesitated to go to the ER because my copay for ER is $300. Monday was memorial day all doctors were closed. Finally it blew during the night. When I woke up i couldn't feel any pain. I disinfected it and put a band aid. The day after on tuesday I went to the dermatologist. He barely touched it and asked for a blood test. He asked me if I was gay he wanted to make sure it wasn't a syphilis chancre. A day or two after the test came back negative, the dermatologist looked at the wound with a magnifying glass and he said "oh there's a hair inside!" That wasn't a cyst. He took it out and told me that my body was just expelling the ingrown hair by itself.

Edited June 18, 2014 by kazore

[drscorpio]

The Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction is caused by the dying syphilis bacteria releasing toxins into your blood. Unless you have an acute bacterial infection, the penicillin won't cause that reaction. So there's no reason to worry about having the reaction if you aren't infected.

That said, it is very unpleasant. I missed the first stage of syphilis last year and didn't know until I got the rash of the secondary stage. So when I got the shot, I was full of bacteria. It was incredibly painful for a few hours.

[VersatileBreeder]

I had something like that 2 years ago. I could feel something tiny under my skin at the base of the shaft. I noticed it years ago. One day it started to grow, like a small cyst. I waited a few days but it continued to grow. I went to see a doctor at walk-in clinic, she said she couldn't do anything but recommended me a dermatologist. The week end arrived and it grew again and it became painful. I was very worried. By sunday It became even bigger and very painful. I hesitated to go to the ER because my copay for ER is $300. Monday was memorial day all doctors were closed. Finally it blew during the night. When I woke up i couldn't feel any pain. I disinfected it and put a band aid. The day after on tuesday I went to the dermatologist. He barely touched it and asked for a blood test. He asked me if I was gay he wanted to make sure it wasn't a syphilis chancre. A day or two after the test came back negative, the dermatologist looked at the wound with a magnifying glass and he said "oh there's a hair inside!" That wasn't a cyst. He took it out and told me that my body was just expelling the ingrown hair by itself.

Yeah, kazore, the reason I mentioned it may be something in the way of an ingrown hair or something of the sort is because it was originally a big red bump with a hair growing directly out of the center of it. When I pulled the hair out (which was painful), there was a perfect hole left right where the hair was plucked and it bled a bit. Now, two weeks later, I will wake up in the morning and there will be a bit of pus coming out of it. It started looking like a syph chancre shortly after I plucked the hair, but with this recent neg test, I just don't know.

Like I said, I'm not panicking. I'm just going crazy because I want to know what this is and I can't figure it out. In a way now, I almost wish the test WAS positive for syphilis because then I would know what the problem was and how to fix it.

[VersatileBreeder]

The Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction is caused by the dying syphilis bacteria releasing toxins into your blood. Unless you have an acute bacterial infection, the penicillin won't cause that reaction. So there's no reason to worry about having the reaction if you aren't infected.

That said, it is very unpleasant. I missed the first stage of syphilis last year and didn't know until I got the rash of the secondary stage. So when I got the shot, I was full of bacteria. It was incredibly painful for a few hours.

drscorpio, I feel stupid- I DID know that the reason the Herxheimer effect took place was because of the dying spirochetes letting out toxins into the blood... I just completely forgot to piece together the fact that you'd have to actually have syphilis for that to happen if you got shot with penicillin! DUH!

I think I am going to try to reschedule my doctor appointment for early next week before I go on vacation. I am hoping I can get in to see him. I will have him take a look at this sore and despite having a negative test, maybe he will give me the penicillin shot before going on vacation just to get it out of the way. Either way though, whether I get it treated early next week or in three weeks, it shouldn't make a difference as to the stage of the disease. If my blood draw from last week couldn't produce a positive result yet and it actually is syph, then it should still be primary stage, not a blown-out secondary, so if it is, any effect of the shot I would hope would be minor.

[totalasspig]

Poptronic,

Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction are rare - I can say for all the penicillin shots in my ass over the years that I never had a reaction, even with Syphilis being in the Secondary stage. You are observed for about 15 minutes after the injection and if something happens, it's going to happen in that time period.

[drscorpio]

Not trying to be argumentative, but they don't observe you for 15 minutes because of Jarisch-Herxheimer. That's for anaphylaxis in case you have a penicillin allergy that you might not have known about. The J-H reaction for me didn't become noticeable for 4-5 hours after the injection. Also, I wasn't warned about the possibility, so I had to look it up online to learn that it was a normal thing that could happen.

[ultrafuck]

Not trying to be argumentative, but they don't observe you for 15 minutes because of Jarisch-Herxheimer. That's for anaphylaxis in case you have a penicillin allergy that you might not have known about. The J-H reaction for me didn't become noticeable for 4-5 hours after the injection. Also, I wasn't warned about the possibility, so I had to look it up online to learn that it was a normal thing that could happen.

Agree, drscorpio. I have had Syphilis three times, and had the observation for 15 minutes due to possible allergic reactions (never had any), and only the first time did I have the J-H reaction. That first time was about ten years ago. The last two times occurred one after the other, and I now know who the bastard was - he claimed he was clean of everything but HIV. He's fucking all over the place, and won't get tested and treated - fucking idiot. It may sound inane, but somehow the idea of being pozzed is acceptable to me, but Syphils makes me feel dirty. I have taken many of this guy's raw loads, but stay neg (at least, according to the last test); since the last Syphilis incident, I have stopped hooking up with him, though, and am now more careful.

[Poz1956]

I feel the need to point out a couple of facts:

Firstly, a lot of doctors are now VERY reluctant to prescribe antibiotics just because you think you "might have something." Overuse of antibiotics is the primary cause of antibiotic resistant strains for a variety of bugs (not just STIs). Therefore many doctors refuse to give antibiotics until they KNOW you have a bacterial infection.

Secondly, some of you seem to think that HIV = a Compromised Immune System. If I recall correctly Pop started meds with a CD4 in the 700 range. That's right in the "normal" range for a Neg guy under a little stress. I'm sure his is higher now. A Neg person under stress will often have a CD4 count as low as 500. Pop's immune system is not compromised. Doctors don't consider someone's immune system compromised, until the CD4 count falls below 200. If a guy has a near normal number of CD4 cells, he has a normal functioning immune system.

The job of the CD4 cell is to find infections. They are sometimes described as "hunter" cells. When a problem is located, they send out chemical signals that attracts other kinds of white blood cells -- the "killer" cells which attack the infections.

HIV attaches to CD4 cells, and inserts itself into the "machinery" of the cell. This bug turns the "hunter" into a factory for new copies of the virus, destroying the CD4 in the process. When the exhausted CD4 is explodes, it creates inflammation. The irritation attracts new CD4 cells, and the cycle repeats.

That's how HIV cripples the immune system -- by reducing the bodies ability to Find the normal bugs we are All exposed to, every day of our lives. But if there are still enough CD4s to do that job, the immune system is functioning as intended. We don't instantly become more susceptible to all other infections, the moment we are exposed to HIV.

[scott0882]

I have tested positive for syphilis back in June 2012 and was surprised by having no physical symptoms for it. Of course I was in total shock when getting the phone call from the health department and not my doctor. Took a month meds to take it care of it after being allergic to penicillin and know that my test for it will never be non-active. Just have to make sure that the numbers don't go up.

[VersatileBreeder]

This entire syph scare (though I wouldn't say I was actually "scared") has finally come to a conclusion.

Last week, when I went for my routine blood draw, my doctor ordered a blood sample for a syphilis RPR test. He inspected the area around the sore that I had and he wasn't too sure what to make of it. He said it resembled a syph chancre, but he wasn't sure if it was. He felt around the area and noted that my lymph nodes in the groin area by my left leg were swollen. He said that's usually not how a syph infection would manifest itself, in a localized area like that. He suspected it may be folliculitis.

My doctor called me this afternoon. The syphilis test came back negative. My doctor firmly believes that if it's not syphilis, it must be folliculitis that just got ugly. That was my initial thought too but coincidentally had this syph exposure on my mind with it.

The doctor ordered me a script of doxycycline to clear it up. I'm glad the whole thing is finally over.

[anoncumdump4u]

The doctor ordered me a script of doxycycline to clear it up. I'm glad the whole thing is finally over.

Interestingly, an alternative treatment for syphilis for those people that are allergic to penicillin is doxycycline (100mg, once every 12 hours for 14 days if it's secondary syphilis, 28 days if it's latent syphilis or if timeline is unknown).

[VersatileBreeder]

Interestingly, an alternative treatment for syphilis for those people that are allergic to penicillin is doxycycline (100mg, once every 12 hours for 14 days if it's secondary syphilis, 28 days if it's latent syphilis or if timeline is unknown).

Ha, that is interesting and I didn't know that. I knew that there were alternatives to penicillin allergic patients, I just didn't know it was doxycycline.

I am going to pick up the doxycycline tonight at my nearby 24 hour CVS. I just want to knock out this infection, it's starting to get painful. Who knew a single hair follicle could cause so much shit?