ryan123
03-10-13, 21:32
Hello people, after browsing this site for almost 9 months, I want to give back to the community that has helped me in this long and dark journey. Here's my story - around January had a condom slip encounter with an unknown status woman(wont bore you with details). Couple of days later started getting red spots on the penis, swollen lymph, rashes and what not. I did the genuine mistake of contacting Dr. Google. And you guessed it, the symptoms matched with HIV. I started freaking out. It slowly started consuming my entire day, the worries, the stress, the anxiety. I would spend the entire day googling symptoms. I finally built up the courage to get an in home OraQuick test. Took one at 4 weeks. NEGATIVE. Didn't completely trust the result(again so many websites taking about the "window period"). Googled OraQuick's accuracy. Went to the doctor, the doctor told me to stop googling and believe my results. I couldn't get the feeling out of my head. The days progressed and I took the test again at 7, 10 and 20 weeks. All negative. I wasn't assured of the results and several experts advised me to stop worrying. But I couldn't get myself to stop thinking about it. I started drinking a lot just to cope with the fear. A month ago I started getting headaches from thinking too much. I went to a different doctor and he told me the same thing. But this time I wanted a blood test (ELISA). He did a complete test along with the HIV test. The test came back today and it was NEGATIVE:yesyes:. But he did notice my liver enzymes were high. Told me to cut back on the drinking and lose some weight.
I feel like a fool for what I made myself go though these 9 months. I would advise people to avoid Dr. Google and believe in your test results. I'm glad I summed up the courage to go do the blood test. Thanks to that, I know that my liver needs some rest. I've learned a lot during these 9 months. I made a promise to myself that I will not be going back to where I came from and I will help people with similar problems like mine. Please don't let this worry take over you. Get tested and please remember that help is available. Remember Google is not a MD.
I feel like a fool for what I made myself go though these 9 months. I would advise people to avoid Dr. Google and believe in your test results. I'm glad I summed up the courage to go do the blood test. Thanks to that, I know that my liver needs some rest. I've learned a lot during these 9 months. I made a promise to myself that I will not be going back to where I came from and I will help people with similar problems like mine. Please don't let this worry take over you. Get tested and please remember that help is available. Remember Google is not a MD.