4 ms·

This is kind of a touchy subject for me. I don't practice unsafe sex but I had unprotected sex once with a guy I was dating who got pretty close to contracting

by spoiler 12y ago

This is kind of a touchy subject for me. I don't practice unsafe sex but I had unprotected sex once with a guy I was dating who got pretty close to contracting the virus a day before we had sex. He is a medic and he was measuring a woman's blood sugar after she fainted. It was a small office where it happened and as he was taking the stabby pen someone pushed him and he accidentally stabbed his palm (he's unsure how the pen was armed). He didn't think much of it and took some mandatory tests, but after a few weeks he found out the woman had HIV. We both got tested (he got tested more extensively and a few times because of his work), and we were both negative, thankfully. To make things worse in the early phase of the virus most people develop a fever and have flu-like symptoms (according to WebMD, lol). It was just around flu season; I contracted the flu. Those two weeks that it took the test results to come back were probably the worst of my life. I can't even describe my state of mind. I was mortified. Also, the stress made my depression worse and I was genuinely on the verge of committing suicide at least a couple of times. I think the only reason why I didn't commit suicide at the time was because I thought it would effect him (the guy I was dating) too much. After I found out I wasn't HIV positive, it took me about 2 weeks to recover from it. I tested for HIV a few more times after that, even though I didn't practice sex at all since then. I'll never underestimate the wisdom behind the simple phrase that is play safe. On the subject of unwanted intrusion: What's with all the spammy comments on that post? I always considered Disqus to have pretty good spam protection.

Grazester 12y ago
Did he have Pep treatment after this exposure? I would be surprised if as a medical worker who was exposed to the virus he didn't. You really can't trust the internet to tell you if you have HIV based on symptoms.Everything begins to look like a symptom when you are worried about any kind of sickness or ailment and it just happens at those glorious times too.
- spoiler 12y ago
  Yeah, he got PEP'd right after he was exposed to the woman's blood as a precaution. I'm not sure if that covers HIV; he was equally stressed about the whole thing as I was. He found out the woman has HIV from a colleague, but only ~10 days after being exposed.
  - Grazester 12y ago
    PEP is solely for HIV. http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/pep.html http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/pep.html Yeah I could imagine how stressful that situation was.
    - cblock811 12y ago
      I've only heard it called PrEP, not PEP. PRe-Exposure Prophylaxis. Curious if there are other communities who call it PEP though.
      - spoiler 12y ago
        PrEP stands for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, PEP is Post-Exposure Prophylaxis. Basically you need to start PEP treatment within 2 hours for it to be effective. Also, it appears he didn't start PEP treatment[1], they probably didn't deem it necessary at the time; PEP itself can have some serious side effects. [1]: I read in the article linked by @Grazester that you need to take PEP for about a month, and I wasn't aware of him drinking any special medications during that time.
        throwaway81328 12y ago
        (I'm a frequent HN user posting under a throwaway account for obvious reasons.) I was exposed to HIV last year - a guy who didn't use a condom even though I told him to, and who a friend later told me was very probably HIV+. I got on PEP, but not in 2 hours, but within about 12 hours. The earlier the better, but doctors suggest that up to 72 hours is fine. The medication given differs based on country - basically, the same set of drugs used for HIV are used, but different health systems will rotate through different drug sets. I was on Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), which is also used for PrEP. One pill a day for 28 days. I was also on Kaletra (lopinavir/ritonavir), two pills twice a day. The doctors also gave me a whole load of generic anti-diarrhea pills because that's a common side effect of the Kaletra. They also told me that they were going to soon be changing the protocol for PEP and substituting a different drug for the Kaletra, specifically to ease the side effects. The side effects for me were pretty bad: lots of tiredness, some nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and other gastro-intestinal issues. I was also trying hard to deal with the pretty ghastly feeling of being sexually assaulted. Two weeks in, they also did a test to make sure the drugs weren't causing me any liver problems, as that's a known but very rare side effect. I'm glad that it is available: every hospital in Britain is set up to hand out PEP in emergency departments, and you are handled quickly. There's also a standard 'checklist' test that doctors use to decide in the case of both sexual and occupational exposure whether to prescribe PEP. And as you said in your post, I had flu and cold like symptoms (because, duh, it was winter) and I misinterpreted them as seroconversion symptoms. In my case: I've had regular blood tests for HIV every three months since exposure according to schedule. All negative so far. :) (And the police can take no action against the guy, because the laws in this country are shit and ignoring someone's safe sex preferences isn't a criminal offence. And everyone scoffs when feminists talk about 'rape culture'. The assault/trust issue side of it has given me panic attacks but I'm coping a lot better than a lot of people.)
bane 12y ago
I just thought I'd say, advanced in treating HIV have progressed immensely. And for people who test positive, if it's early enough, HIV no longer has to be the kind of withering death sentence it once was. It's certainly no fun, but the prognosis is vastly improved. https://www.aidsmap.com/Life-on-HIV-treatment-a-personal-perspective/page/1255106/ https://www.aidsmap.com/Life-on-HIV-treatment-a-personal-per...

by spoiler 12y ago

Grazester 12y ago

Did he have Pep treatment after this exposure? I would be surprised if as a medical worker who was exposed to the virus he didn't. You really can't trust the internet to tell you if you have HIV based on symptoms.Everything begins to look like a symptom when you are worried about any kind of sickness or ailment and it just happens at those glorious times too.

spoiler 12y ago
Yeah, he got PEP'd right after he was exposed to the woman's blood as a precaution. I'm not sure if that covers HIV; he was equally stressed about the whole thing as I was. He found out the woman has HIV from a colleague, but only ~10 days after being exposed.
- Grazester 12y ago
  PEP is solely for HIV. http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/pep.html http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/pep.html Yeah I could imagine how stressful that situation was.
  - cblock811 12y ago
    I've only heard it called PrEP, not PEP. PRe-Exposure Prophylaxis. Curious if there are other communities who call it PEP though.
    - spoiler 12y ago
      PrEP stands for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, PEP is Post-Exposure Prophylaxis. Basically you need to start PEP treatment within 2 hours for it to be effective. Also, it appears he didn't start PEP treatment[1], they probably didn't deem it necessary at the time; PEP itself can have some serious side effects. [1]: I read in the article linked by @Grazester that you need to take PEP for about a month, and I wasn't aware of him drinking any special medications during that time.
      - throwaway81328 12y ago
        (I'm a frequent HN user posting under a throwaway account for obvious reasons.) I was exposed to HIV last year - a guy who didn't use a condom even though I told him to, and who a friend later told me was very probably HIV+. I got on PEP, but not in 2 hours, but within about 12 hours. The earlier the better, but doctors suggest that up to 72 hours is fine. The medication given differs based on country - basically, the same set of drugs used for HIV are used, but different health systems will rotate through different drug sets. I was on Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), which is also used for PrEP. One pill a day for 28 days. I was also on Kaletra (lopinavir/ritonavir), two pills twice a day. The doctors also gave me a whole load of generic anti-diarrhea pills because that's a common side effect of the Kaletra. They also told me that they were going to soon be changing the protocol for PEP and substituting a different drug for the Kaletra, specifically to ease the side effects. The side effects for me were pretty bad: lots of tiredness, some nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and other gastro-intestinal issues. I was also trying hard to deal with the pretty ghastly feeling of being sexually assaulted. Two weeks in, they also did a test to make sure the drugs weren't causing me any liver problems, as that's a known but very rare side effect. I'm glad that it is available: every hospital in Britain is set up to hand out PEP in emergency departments, and you are handled quickly. There's also a standard 'checklist' test that doctors use to decide in the case of both sexual and occupational exposure whether to prescribe PEP. And as you said in your post, I had flu and cold like symptoms (because, duh, it was winter) and I misinterpreted them as seroconversion symptoms. In my case: I've had regular blood tests for HIV every three months since exposure according to schedule. All negative so far. :) (And the police can take no action against the guy, because the laws in this country are shit and ignoring someone's safe sex preferences isn't a criminal offence. And everyone scoffs when feminists talk about 'rape culture'. The assault/trust issue side of it has given me panic attacks but I'm coping a lot better than a lot of people.)

bane 12y ago

I just thought I'd say, advanced in treating HIV have progressed immensely. And for people who test positive, if it's early enough, HIV no longer has to be the kind of withering death sentence it once was. It's certainly no fun, but the prognosis is vastly improved. https://www.aidsmap.com/Life-on-HIV-treatment-a-personal-perspective/page/1255106/ https://www.aidsmap.com/Life-on-HIV-treatment-a-personal-per...