Can someone help me.

John, your anxiety about the potential consequences of the one-night stand (while valid) seem to be misleading your thoughts as to the cause of your ill-health.

First of all, HIV does not typically cause illness immediately. There is usually a symptom free period of several years before it finally comes up with a mutation which overcomes the immune system. Unless you already have pretty severe immune system failure due to (say), Hepatitis, then it is astronomically unlikely that full blown AIDS has pounced upon you overnight, causing symptoms that rapidly. It would be sufficiently rare to create newpaper headlines around the globe, and have you comprehensively studied by world famous medical researchers.

Secondly, AIDS would typically although not always present itself with the first symptoms being Karposi's Sarcoma (a rare form of skin cancer - black blotches) and frequent fungal and microbial infections. When I say frequent, usually they are one after the other, with little or no respite. This is very much a hallmark of AIDS; as the immune system collapses, more and more pathogens are able to overcome the damaged immune response.

So, perhaps it would pay you to consider other potential vectors of disease. For example, guardia from infected water. (I haven't the faintest idea what the risk of this would be - it might not even be possible in Mexico - I use it merely as an example of water-borne diseases.) Also, parasitic infection from food.

What you describe seems to include fever, bloating, and possible knock-on effects due to  a prior infection with EBV. Unfortunately I cannot comment on your BUN and CO2 test results as I am not a healthcare provider and don't know these tests, but I do wonder if you have been tested for Hepatitis ? The reason I ask this is your mention of pain around what may be the liver region, followed by a severe immune reaction which has persisted. Also I believe fever may be associated with the sort of infectious agents that may cause viral hepatitis.

Please note that my reasoning as regards potential alternative causes for your ill-health may be erroneous due to lack of knowledge. However I have followed the body of scientific research on AIDS literally since day one, ever since its' symptoms were first mentioned as a medical curiousity, long before it was understood, so I am confident that what I say as regards HIV is correct and up to date. Research on HIV and AIDS is still very high profile.

My (  amateur!) advice would be to go back to your Primary Care Provider, with a clearly written timeline of past medical health, plus of all the unusual things your body has been doing since Mexico. This includes any minor changes in appearance (eg fingernails, skin tone, eyes, hair) that seem to be persistent. (Keep a copy for yourself, keep updating it as necessary. Good idea in any case.)

As regards looking up information on the internet, perhaps About.com might have a forum on hepatitis that would help allay those fears. Apart from that, try all the usual Search engines - you will undoubtedly find more information than you know what to do with !

If you are concerned about your health, and seeing medical professionals who seem off-hand or unconcerned, or are not listening, I would suggest you vote with your feet. Given a half million years of evolutionary pressure (your body's warning system) versus a doctor's handful of years in training, in any case of disagreement I'd go with what my body is telling me every time.   

Hope this helps. (I won't give you a list of "don'ts", I'm sure you have learned that lesson. Here's hoping this is an ultimately harmless boost up that learning curve called Life, that we are all on !  )  

Hi John,
A belated welcome to HealingWell and the CFS forum!
Great reply snohare!
I agree that your fears about indescretions in Mexico are confusing you and maybe somewhat clouding your presentation of your case to your Drs.  Although, there is one STD that I know about that could cause symptoms like you're experiencing, and I only know it by the name "herpes".  If I'm not mistaken, there are a few different "varieties" of sexually transmitted herpes, but I couldn't name them.  Just be sure your Dr has screened you for all of them.  I think one of them does onset as early as a week after exposure, and does have symptoms very much like you're describing.

Also, as snohare mentioned, there would seem to be some chance you picked up an odd bug from something you ate or drank -- ever hear of "Montezuma's Revenge"?  I'm not sure what organisms are involved, maybe it is giardia, I don't know.  But it's quite common for people to get diarhea during or following a trip to Mexico.  It is frequently said visitors should not drink the water when visiting there, but one can still have problems from food, as water is obviously used in preparing food, cooked or not.

Otherwise, from the perspective of CFS, it often begins much like you are describing, almost always following a period of heavy stress.  Strange infectious symptoms, resembling or sometimes identical to EBV, rogue low-grade fevers and swollen glands, ulcers in mouth, sore throat, flu-like and otherwise bizarre, annoying symptoms; on top of overwhelming fatigue, all together they consititute serious illness.

It sounds to me like you became sick that same night, from something in the food or water.  And unless your Dr gave you the specific antibiotic for the infecting organism, it may still be causing you some problems, keeping you weak, perhaps compromising your immune system and allowing all your other symptoms to manifest.  Or maybe your body did heal and recover, only to be struck by either the herpes std or CFS.  I'm not a Dr, so don't have the skills and abilities to diagnose, but it does seem that's what you need to focus on at this point.  Once you have a diagnosis, you can begin to think about treatment.

If you have a Dr who is working with you, make sure you were screened for all the STDs, especially herpes.  If the Dr says you're good, then you're good!  To my knowledge, there's no controversy over, or subjective diagnostics regarding std.  Find out if your Dr has seen or heard of the diagnostic criteria for CFS.  If not, you can direct him to this info at the CDC website:  CDC Fact Sheet on CFS   If you're still feeling uncomfortable with your Dr's conclusion or final diagnosis, you might consider consulting an Infectious Disease Specialist.  They are the best diagnosticians anywhere.   Plus, if you DO have some infectious issue from Mexico or anywhere else, they can find it!

I worked for 10 or 15 years trying to figure out what was wrong with me -- seeing Dr after Dr, specialist after specialist.  I just couldn't accept that I must have CFS, just because nothing else wrong could be found.  In other words, I thought that Drs were "labelling me" with CFS because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me.  I mean, there are a lot of "syndromes" which can't be diagnosed, and I couldn't figure out what gave all these Drs the impression I had CFS and not one of those other undiagnosable illnesses and conditions.  They were saying and doing nothing to convince me they had ruled out everything else.  But the infectious disease specialist -- that's their job, that's what they do.  So after a thorough workup by an infectious disease specialist, I finally felt as though I had been tested for everything known, within reason.  So especially in your case I would suggest a consultation.

Guess that's all I can say for now.  I would also agree with snohare, that hepatitis or other liver issue could be another potential cause for your symptoms.  But it doesn't strike me as a strong possibility--not that I'm a professional or anything ;-) 

Good luck sorting everything out.  If you have any questions, please feel free to post them.  And let us know how you're doing, if you want.  Living with CFS, or any serious illness is a longtime, ongoing process, for which one might need support at any time--and that's exactly what the HealingWell forums are set up to do   .

Take care.

All best.