I had my first encounter with vampires. After the encounter I took a potion to cure sickness but how do you know if you really need to? tks

The town far south west has some temple where you can cure anything but your screen goes a bit red sometimes if you still have vampire before turning. Vampire effects don't seem very good though, not worth it.

You go to your magic menu and look under "active effects." If you have Sanguinare Vampiris it will tell you so.

tks very much

I know it's not much of a deal but please use full words instead of the shortened words you would use in text messaging, thanks.

Assuming you can feed regularly (sneak up on sleeping people) and don't mind spending most of your outdoor exploration at night (which is hardly unexpected as a vampire) the benefits of vampirism are pretty decent: immunity ot poison and disease, 25% frost resistance, 25% buff to illusion spells, 25% harder to detect while sneaking, a toggle night-vision ability, once a day raise dead power and a life-drain spell with the only stat downside being 25% weakness to fire is a pretty good deal in my book. Sunlight doesn't kill you, although it makes travel and fighting during the day annoying, as your stats don't regen in sunlight (although it doesn't effect fast travel).