Does anyone here have experience dealing with VDRL and TPHA blood tests—basically for syphilis? Both of my results came back non-reactive, but I’m still dealing with some symptoms that won't go away, and it's starting to bug me.
Is there another way to confirm if it's actually something, or should I just head back to the clinic for more blood work?
I have to come clean about everything I know regarding this disease, because my long silence and my refusal to face the truth have likely led to catastrophic consequences for far too many people.
I was infected back in 1985, having absolutely no idea what was happening. Because of how conservative my household was, I didn't say a word to my mother. That same year, I saw something in an eighth-grade textbook about it, then looked it up in a general encyclopedia. It was pure disbelief and despair—how could you even trust anyone? You couldn't. You just stayed quiet and waited for a chance to act. I waited until the following year when I caught an article in the evening news, in the health section, about a doctor’s discovery. He had found it strange that syphilis tests weren't coming back positive for patients with AIDS. His breakthrough was realizing that after three months from infection, blood tests were no longer reliable. At the time, I realized this applied to everyone, not just those with AIDS, though I see online now that some people interpret it differently (like saying it only affects "people with weakened immune systems"). Soon enough, a false negative confirmed my fears during my mother's test; looking at certain medical terms and lab results, I realized she was infected too. But still, I couldn't bring myself to speak up. She never asked me anything. Back in high school, and especially after being exposed again at the local community pool in St. Louis, my girlfriends would catch that look in my eyes whenever the topic came up. They would try to discretely suggest I go to the doctor. I knew they meant well, but I "knew" deep down that the tests wouldn't show anything. Years passed. I tried to be careful not to infect anyone, which was stupid... because, of course, there are people who don't realize they are spreading it since the symptoms aren't obvious to someone who doesn't "know." However, my college friends definitely caught it from me—it was unmistakable. I'm talking about non-sexual transmission through contaminated items, which is a very real way to spread it regardless of what doctors tell you. I see it in the people around me—the dark circles under their eyes, the hair loss... I can sense through the subtext that some people have been tested. I even heard a friend's boyfriend joke openly that the tests are still the same and show nothing, yet I continue to keep this monstrous secret. What hurts the most, and what weighs most heavily on my shattered conscience, is seeing that even a young kid in my neighborhood is a friend who has been infected. Later, I started seeing those same dark circles under the eyes of other kids in St. Louis. Today, when it feels like hardly any child is spared, and in countries where the infection reached before it did here, I simply have to admit to this disgusting crime against someone else's health. Against someone's life. Because reading articles about how scientists think there's no cure for teenage headaches while actually KNOWING the truth... it truly feels like Frankenstein's monster.
This is the only place I'll post, and if the moderators decide to delete this, please copy it for some "more serious" news outlets. I know there are others sensing this catastrophe, but syphilis is so stigmatized that no one wants to be the one to break the news. I have to do this to find some peace with myself. Because—I DID NOT GO TO THE DOCTOR when I should have. And all this time, I have been CERTAIN of what is happening. Now, when doctors tell me that's not "it," I honestly don't know if they are all just messing with me. I am certain that once this letter goes public, people who know me will come forward, recognizing the symptoms or confirming their old suspicions. I've removed my name, Jose Miller3. Thank you, Alexander Collins4, for pointing that out; I didn't notice earlier that I had left my full name in.
P.S. It is hard to ask for forgiveness through this medium ("if you see someone every day, you must show symptoms") regardless of everything (un)done. It is incredibly difficult to hear the cynicism from people who claimed to be my friends. It is hard to face the sheer horror of what I have caused... It was always easier to slide back into the lie. Until now.
So you basically looked at some kids in a small town in Ohio having dark circles under their eyes and decided—on the spot—that they must all have syphilis?! Even though the medical tests came back negative, you’re just out here insisting they’ve got it "regardless of what the doctors say."
That is... quite the theory. No offense intended, but it sounds a little unhinged.
I really hope this whole thread is just some kind of bad joke.
bucket said:Nowadays, it’s like you can’t even walk down the street without seeing a kid who’s been affected by it—and I'm talking about places where this outbreak hit way before it even reached us here in the States...
I’m asking the moderator to please scrub the full name from the previous post (the one by bucket, specifically the second post where she lists some girl's first and last name)....... I have a gut feeling someone is trying to target her for "harassment" this way.... It's sick!
