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. 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.
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omg Doctor google no no no .you will find lots of help and support here
