Sero-Conversion Symptoms

[JoshLandaleXXX]

Hi Guys,

I post this to ask opinions from those guys who have gone through HIV Sero Conversion.

This last two weeks i've been really ill. First off i had a real nasty chesty cough, then a sore throat.

On thursday i woke up with a blinding headache, aversion to light and a still neck. On Friday, after a decent nights sleep, it had deteriotated into the same, plus, cold sweats and a huge temperature of 110F. After speaking to NHS direct (a devision of the NHS here in the UK) they opted to rush me to hospital in an ambulance.

At hospital, Meningitis was ruled out, but the Doc said it was clear that i was going down with a virus. He didnt test for which virus, and just dismissed me telling me to double up my doses of Ibuprofen (for pain relief) and co-codamol (for temperature control).

That evening, i was violently ill, and have continued to have the same agonising headache and light aversion ever since.

Now, all this follows my dirty bareback holiday to antwerp, and the Sheffield BB gang bang i was the bottom at a week later.... I didnt know the HIV status of any of the 60 or so guys who fucked and bred my at the two events.

I'm guessing that the "virus" the doc says i've got is the HIV virus - however i cant get tested for it as my PCT (primary care trust) doesnt offer the 20 min antigen test. And wil have to wait 3 months before i can get a normal test due to the window period.

My question is, those of you who are openly poz on here, and who can remember your sero-conversion - did any of you have symptoms such as the ones i've described here?

Any input greatly appreciated. I'm pretty confident that i'm going through my sero-conversion... just looking for a little confirmation from fellow barebackers.

[Hotload84]

I believe I know when it happened, although I didn't get a confirmation for several months. Essentially I experienced an unusually severe cold that utterly sapped my strength. It was a particular issue because I was in Newport, Rhode Island at the time, visiting the mansions with friends, and the walking about was exceptionally challenging. By the next weekend I was more-or-less back to normal, so my experience was mild contrasted with your's, barebacksaunaslut.

[AlaskaDude]

I'm pretty confident you're going through it too. I had many of the symptoms you did.. chest congestion, high fevers, night sweats and chills, massive headaches. The worst symptom I had was joint pain for some reason. At the time I remember joking that even my hair hurt. I was either in bed or on the couch for nearly 3 weeks, eating bland foods and taking various pain and decongestant meds. It's worth noting that the meds seemed to have very little effect on what their intended use was. The headaches, joint aches and congestion seemed to be barely impacted by what I took. That was essentially my experience. Symptoms went away gradually at first, and then abruptly disappeared altogether.

[SDFuckHole]

I got shingles. I was later told by the doctor that shingles heralds the new infection.

[JoshLandaleXXX]

I'm pretty confident you're going through it too. I had many of the symptoms you did.. chest congestion, high fevers, night sweats and chills, massive headaches. The worst symptom I had was joint pain for some reason. At the time I remember joking that even my hair hurt. I was either in bed or on the couch for nearly 3 weeks, eating bland foods and taking various pain and decongestant meds. It's worth noting that the meds seemed to have very little effect on what their intended use was. The headaches, joint aches and congestion seemed to be barely impacted by what I took. That was essentially my experience. Symptoms went away gradually at first, and then abruptly disappeared altogether.

That sounds exactly like what i've got at the moment... for 5 days no my massive amounts of meds has had little or no impact on the pain... it's barely scratched the surface.

Thanks for your input lads - i'd say it was safe to say that i'm now poz... i'm going to get a rapid 20 minute antigen test tomorrow, so lets see what that returns.

[Slut4anyload]

I look forward to hearing of your results. I hope you get the result you want.

[JoshLandaleXXX]

Bah.... rapid antigen test came back negative again... :-(

[PhoenixGeoff]

Lots of guys talk about a "fuck flu" when they convert. Personally, I don't recall any sickness at all...it's one reason I have no clue who gave it to me...I could have been infected at any point over a few years.

The only things I noticed were (1) my seasonal allergies went away and (2) in the six months before I tested poz, I had two colds, both of which really knocked me on my ass for a week. At the time I got my first CD4 count, it was already fairly low (~320 or so, I remember they wanted me to start meds right away) so I figure I'd probably been carrying it around for quite a while already, so neither of those colds came from primary infection.

Really, an HIV test is the only reliable means of knowing and even then, there are false positives (unlikely but they do happen), so if you do come up poz you should get a second test to be sure.

[tin]

When I think I converted - it was the sickest I have ever been. Couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, couldn't move - extremely high fever, extreme sweats, crap coming out of both ends. Got so bad I couldn't move my head without thinking I was going to black out. Had a friend take me to ER and they said that its a "viral flu or something", hooked me up to an IV drip for a few hours to rehydrate me and sent me back home. I missed two weeks of work, and it was probably over a month until I felt 100% fine. I'd feel "OK", try and do something - and get knocked on my ass again kind of thing.

Didn't find out I was HIV+ until quite some time later, but after I found out I was poz, I went over my sexual past - I don't fool around often, and even more rare that I go BB (can count the number of times on 1 hand) there was only one time I went BB between my last neg test and that time I got sick - and the time between going BB, and getting that flu sort of falls within the time frame of exposure/seroconversion.

That said, you can also get similar symptoms from a nasty round of food poisoning - you wont know 100% until you get a test done.

[musclebear]

I had raw top sex 19 days ago and was fine. Today a lymph node on my left front neck is tender and slightly swollen. No other symptoms before this, though.

[swappinguy]

I had one poz guy fuck me over a period of time to poz me up... so I was watching for it....

I don't remember being sick or rundown.