Worried well with alarming symptoms, few questions

Long post, I apologize. But alot is going on with my body right now.

I am a previously healthy, 24 yo white male. I am exactly nine weeks post-exposure, so I am still in my 13-week window period. From reading Dr. Bob's past posts, I know this to be a low-risk exposure, and yes the risk is real. I believe the lenght of the post will attest to my sincerity. I have yet to test, but will do so at 13-weeks. I'm just waiting for 13-weeks becuase I don't have insurance and can't afford to take so many tests.

About 40 hours after my exposure, I slept with my wife. We used a condom, but it broke and I ejaculated inside of her. Exactly one week later she came down with what appeared to be the flu: sore throat, bilateral swollen submandible lymph nodes, a dry cough, and for one night a fever of 99.7 F. She did not complain of nausea, diarhhea, muscle or joint aches and pains, fatigue (she's a runner and actually kept running 3-5 miles a day throughout this period of sickness), and did not experience any night sweats. And no signs of a rash. One day she had to leave work becuase, in her words, she felt like she had the flu. Her symptoms lasted about a week, but then lingered for another week or so. That is, her dry cough and sore throat would be present at night but not during the day. What makes me think this was ARS, and not the normal flu, was that I did not catch it even though we were in such close proximity the whole time. Needless to say, this kicked my HIV anxiety into high gear.

About 2 weeks after my exposure, I started to feel a slight burning sensation in my groin lymph nodes. My wife likes to drape her legs over me while we sleep, but this burning sensation made it highly uncomfortable. I also had the feeling that I had been kicked in the area between my testicles and anus (the perinium). Then I started to experience a burning sensation in my armpits. This burning sensation then spread to the muscles that run down the front of either side of my neck, and my forearms. It was particularly bad at night, and would come and go throughout the day. And my neck felt like it had battery acid flowing through the veins. My face even occasionally got into the mix with a sunburn feeling--in February!! Tylenol helped the pain, but as it got closer to the time for the next dose the pain would resurface. I am very frightened becuase I've read that this type of peripheral neuropathy is very common during ARS and early HIV disease.

I am not sure if I had any swollen lymph nodes in these areas during this time. I am not a doctor so I am not sure what is abnormal and have heeded the warnings on this site not to feel for them. My wife is very thin, so the swelling of her lymph nodes was visually obvious.

At about the same time, I noticed the appearance of little pinpoint-sized bright red dots on my skin. I have about 10 on each upper arm, one on my right forearm, and four on my chest. All of them are still present to this day. They look like the picture of petechiae that is on wikipedia.

About 3 weeks after my exposure I started to feel a kind of burning and almost swelling sensation in my lower back. It was at the level of my hips, evenly spaced on both sides of my spine. It didn't really hurt, but I definitely could tell something was different down there. This same sensation then began in the area where my buttocks and upper thighs meet. This feeling persisted for about three weeks, at which time I started to experience a dull stabbing pain in the middle of my back. It was pretty intense though, enough to make me buy a heating pad and be bedridden for two days. Tylenol did nothing for the pain, so I started taking Ibuprofen and the pain. along with the burning, swelling sensation in my lower back,went away two days later, four days after it started. But on the last day of the back pain I got pretty nauseous but did not vomit, although I had to lie down and take deep breaths several times. It felt like I had a lump in my stomach and swelling in my cheeks/salivary glands (now I'm afraid that my parotid glands are swollen). I was delighted that the pain subsided, but just this weekend the pattern repeated itself, only this time the dull stabbing middle back pain began the day after the burning swelling sensation began in my lower back. I'm writing this post with a heating pad on my back and Ibuprofen in my system.

I have mild eczema on my hands. It is very symmetrical and is located on the inside of my index fingers and the top of my pinky fingers. It's been there since I was about 10. About 4 weeks after my exposure I noticed redness on my left pinky where the fingerprint is. Over the next few days the skin started to callous and look exactly like the other areas of eczema on my hands. I also developed a similar patch between the knuckles of my left index and middle fingers.

A week after my skin started acting up, my left pinky and ring finger began to tingle and go numb. I've experienced waking up to numb hands, but these days it's only my pinky and ring finger that fall asleep. The feeling comes and goes and has been absent more recently, but my fingers and part of my palm will still go numb occasionally, sometimes they will feel cold, but not be so to the touch. And sometimes I notice my forearms is numb. It is especially bothersome when I'm typing or leaning on my elbow. I've made a conscious effort to keep my left arm straight during sleep and not to rest on my elbow when I'm using the computer, and these measures have seemed to help. The position of my arm, especially my elbow, helps out. But I've read that mononeuropathies such as this can present at anytime during HIV disease. And it is the ulnar nerve that controls the ring and pinky finger. Cubital tunnel syndrome, which this sounds like, is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome's complement.

Within the last week I have developed an apthous ulcer on my lower lip. It started out like a cut, but it's definitely an ulcer--and I've bit into the damn thing three separate times while eating! I've had some days of loose stool, but only one evening of its being diarrhea, this is, truly and explosively liquid shits--and lots of it.

And just last night, after brushing my teeth, I noticed bleeding from the gums of one of my bottom front teeth. But no dry mouth (well, only in the mornings) or dry tongue, no white or hairy tongue, and no thrush.

The only glands I've truly felt are those that are located directly under my earlobe, and I'm pretty sure I've felt them previously, before this whole shit experience began. Some days they will be hard as rocks, other days not there at all. Sometimes one will be larger than the other, and at other they will be the same size.

And finally I've experienced a marked increase in the number of floaters I've been seeing. Sometimes they are black spots, other times they are tranparent spots, and some are even transparent strings that float across my vision.

The strange thing is, for all these symptoms that I have experienced I have not had a single day of fever in 9 weeks (I've checked every day). My throat hasn't been soar, and I haven't had a cough. I haven't had the chills. I never had a rash like the sunburn they describe as the typical rash for ARS--just what I'm convinced are petechiae on parts of my body. My muscles and joints don't ache. I haven't lost any weight other than that which I can attribute to a decreased appetite and increased running and lifting weights(gotta do something to relax). Basically, I never had a flu- or mono-like illness--only the other kinds of symptoms which seem more HIV-specific. My wife had the flu-like illness, but has since been completely asymptomatic. Together, it seems we have experienced the universe of ARS symptoms. Even in this she is my complement--truly my better half!

Today, I still have the pinpoint-sized red dots on my skin, I'm experiencing numbness in my left pinky and ring fingers, and having back pain. It is the persistance of these symptoms that is alarming, as well as their timing after my exposure. What also frightens me is that my wife experienced a flu of sorts 6 days after exposure. and I didn't catch it. They say ARS symptoms don't present within a matter of days, it takes weeks, i.e. more than 1). I feel so sorry my wife, for whom I am infinitely more concerned that myself!! She is such a sweet and loving person, and I love her to the depths of my being. She is my world. The thought of her being sick because of me is making me want to kill myself. The only thing that is stopping me is that, if we are truly sick, then I have a duty to take care of her as long as I am physically able. I just read this post and say, "i'm glad I'm not that guy." But I am. I feel that I am doomed.

In light of the foregoing, my questions are as follows:

1. Is it possible to infect another person 40 hours after your initial exposure?

2. Is it possible for ARS symptoms to appear exactly one week after exposure?

3. Are the above-described burning sensations consistent with ARS peripheral neuropathy?

4. Can petechiae present as a symptom of ARS?

5. Do petechiae persist for weeks or do they heal shortly after appearance?

6. Can HIV itself cause eczema, or can it exacerbate pre-existing eczema?

7. Is it possible to experience a noticeable increase in eye floaters this soon after exposure?

8. Is it possible to experience early symptoms of HIV disaese this soon after possible infection without ever having a fever? If yes, how likely is it?

I apologize for the abundance of questions, but I am so afraid of what my body is experiencing. Then I experienced symptoms some of which are consistent with both ARS and early symptomatic HIV disease.

If anyone has any insight, or if anyone is exoeriencing or has experienced the same constellation of symptoms, I'd be delighted to hear from you.

Post Extras: Remind Me!