I got really sick yesterday -- mostly gastroenteritis plus unrelenting headache, likely food poisoning or stomach flu.  It was unnerving that the timing related to my hobbying could be consistent with acute HIV infection (it would be just my luck to get it from unprotected oral sex).  However, I am pretty sure I am OK.  No rash, mouth sores or enlarged lymph nodes.  Nausea/vomiting not listed as typical acute HIV symptoms.  Will have to wait 2 or 3 months to know for sure.  I wonder if anyone else here has gotten that sinking feeling when sick with the flu.

Yes, luckily month's later the test was clear.

than a simple ailment being a harbinger of a STD.

Again I stress that if your going to constantly fret the "what-ifs" and subconsciously think of the ladies as attractive disease transmitters then please SHUT-UP!, GO AWAY!, and take up philately as a hobby.

  HAEOTS.

Not fretting constantly, just worried at first when I had flu symptoms after recently starting hobby.  Read some more about it and feel reassured.  I was interested in some other thoughts and now I have yours, though would prefer it without the hostility.  Providers get tested regularly because it is the responsible thing to do, not (I suspect) because they subconsciously think of us as disease transmitters.  We owe it to our families/SO's, and the ladies we are going to visit next, to do the same.

I'm certain you have contracted the Andromeda strain which makes HIV look like a cake walk.  Time to beat the reaper.

I feel like garbage today as well.  In my case, it's because I went drinking with a buddy, and forgot to eat anything.  I woke up last night on the bathroom floor.  I'm WAAAY too old for this.

I sure feel like my ass have been kicked around the block.  Maybe not too old, but certainly out of practice...