Hey! You are definitely not alone. When I had my first (and only so far) outbreak, they did a visual exam and did an HSV2 swab and said it’s herpes, gave me a brochure and said “it’s very common” and then sent me home shocked and confused. The HSV2 swab came back negative (which leads me to believe it’s HSV1) and when I questioned the doctor about the swab being negative, he said that he’s 99% sure it’s herpes just based on visual. I asked him later why I’ve been having daily symptoms since the outbreak and he said “some people get those symptoms right before an outbreak” which didn’t help me at all because my symptoms are constant with no outbreak. Honestly, it was way worse in the beginning. It’s been almost 6 months now since my initial outbreak and the daily symptoms have lessened a lot which is a good sign to me. I’m still in shock mentally and have still not have sex since my first outbreak bc things don’t feel totally normal yet but I have faith it will get better. From what I’ve gathered...it seems like about 50% of people get daily symptoms for a bit after their first outbreak and some do not....really wish they had more knowledge about this virus in the medical community so that it was treated with more empathy and information. Giving a patient a brochure and saying “yep it’s herpes” doesn’t really help....anyways, I hope you start feeling better soon...keep up updated!!!