Thrush & Numbness

Jul 29, 1999

Hi Doc

First let me apologize for the rather long letter but in the place I live, HIV advice is hard to come by. I am 40 years old and I had a possible exposure to HIV thru a barbers razor about seven months ago. Since then I have suffered a variety of unusual symptoms such as joint pains and swelling, mouth ulcers, oral warts, tingling in the arms and legs and sinus problems. I have never had fever or enlarged lymph nodes. Now the other symptoms are all gone except I have got a cheesy white discharge in the foreskin resulting in small painful cuts which is under control with regular applications of antifungal cream and a numbness in the hands when I wakeup in the morning. In addition if I keep any limb in a stationery position for a short while, it starts feeling numb. I have negative ELISA HIV 1&2 at 2,3,4,5 and 7 months, negative Hepatitis B & C, negative for diabetes and blood pressure is normal. I dont indulge in any high risk behaviour and cannot think of any rational cause for the symptoms. (1) Could it be some form of strange HIV which is not detected by the tests. (2) Can it be anything else other than HIV which can cause all the above symptoms. (3) Should I take any other tests.

Please reply as the anxiety is eating me up.

Response from Dr. Holodniy

Your symptoms are very nonspecific. Given the number of negative HIV tests, I would not get any further HIV tests.

MH