Doglover

Antibodies are in the blood.

My blood test came back negative (PCR DNA) and now they say it may be shingles. I looked this up in my university’s medical library and it turns out that 8% of shingles can present along the lumbar dermatone (vulva and buttocks)! And mine was one-sided which is typical for shingles. Will get retested for HSV in a couple of months just to be sure.

I just got lab results back and it was a "HSV-1 DNA, QN PCR" and "HSV-2 DNA, QN PCR" test. Anyone know if this test is more reliable than IGG? The tests were negative, drawn on the day I had my first outbreak.

Yay! Good luck!

You can get a blood test but it make take several weeks for you body to build antigens, so even if you get a negative test now, you should retest in a few months. (Just from what I've read).

Powerful posts. Thank you all for sharing.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I've looked up coconut oil and St. John's wort and will check them out. Vit C, too.

It may be a wakeup call to start eating better and cut down on my 2 glasses/wine per day. I have a supportive husband who only wants me to feel better, and is not looking to lay blame anywhere. So that allows me to look forward, not back, and see how I can live my best, most healthy life. My husband and I like to ride bicycles, and have been taking annual bicycling vacations. I said to him, "how can we plan for vacations when I could have an outbreak at any time" (and not be able to sit on a bike seat!), but he is so optimistic.. he said, "no problem, you can just ride the SAG wagon" (for those that don't want to ride). So I do feel I have a supportive partner in this next phase of my life, and thanks to this forum and positive thoughts, I will do my best to use this as an opportunity for self-improvement. I am surprised at how tired I feel during this outbreak. Energy when I first get up, then I just want to go back to bed for awhile. I tried walking yesterday (day 6) and was surprised that I got tired and even a little short of breath after a mile! Guess it is too early and I need to give my body the time it needs to heal. I have a f/up appt with the MD for day 17 after my outbreak, but kind of dread it as I feel anyone outside of my marriage, including her, will be looking for whom to point fingers at (though she was very nice).

I hope you have found some peace since you wrote this post. One error in judgment makes us human, not "less than". From reading other posts I see that there is hope, and this can become another condition to live with, and manage, without it obsessing our daily thoughts.

Thank you both for your input.

My husband and I have been married 42 years and had sexual partners before then. I had one partner outside marriage , a regrettable one night stand, but that was 30+ years ago! My husband and I are very close and I really can’t imagine he ever had time for an external partner, and he says he hasn’t. We’ve been retired for a year and are always together. All I can figure out is that we brought it into our marriage (he, or I, or both), or I brought it in 30 years ago. I’ve read most people never know they have it. So why now? Can it really be dormant or go undetected that long?