Hello everyone,
I have just been a bystander on these discussion boards the last two days since I'd been diagnosed.
Luckily, the emotional part has been at bay due to my extremely caring boyfriend. Since I first had symptoms I'd been sharing every aspect of them with him (I talk a lot and feel you need to be comfortable sharing info about your body with whomever you share your body with). Actualy, I thought I had saddle sores from my spin class and was sharing that info with my friends and family. I am keeping it at the saddle sores story with them obviously.
We are not sure if my bf has it yet, as I had no idea I had it and just had first outbreak starting last week. Actually a week ago today. We've been together 6 months. And although 6 months sounds like nothing, I'm 31 and he's 44 and we know this is it. We're going to live this life to the fullest together.
I've broken my nose, had surgery, broken my arm, had H1N1 and many other strange, painful experiences, but this takes the cake. I am on valtrex now and that jelly you can put on the sores that seems to work for 15 minutes, but you can use it only every 4 hours. I've tried blow dryer, baths, aloe, etc. Taking advil and tylenol on a regular basis. Thought about taking nyquil to knock myself out to just sleep without horrid interruptions.
As soon as I think I'm feeling better, I get knocked down with some new mountain of pain. No one talks much online about the varying pain, the stabbing feelings, the prickly needles, the baths you take every hour, practically passing out on the toilet, walking from room to room hunched over. Only wearing a robe for the past two days.
Missing work! I can't believe I've been out of work 2 days. I have a very professional job and I just think, wow, my awesome colleagues would probably puke if they knew why I was at home and that I have to pee in a bathtub in order to prevent screaming out in agony. My colleagues keep texting me "are you okay?" because I normally am not sick. Plus from the outside, I look fine. I mean I thought I could go back to work tomorrow and I acted pretty chipper when my boyfriend got home from work. I even prepared my breakfast smoothie beforehand to drink tomorrow on the way to work. And I was looking at new running shoes to treat myself to for when I can actually run again. I was even walking upright and sitting regular on the couch.
But then I got this weird, cold, intense ache sensation. A NEW pain! Its like every 8 hours I experience a new pain or itch or tingle that is unbearable. I was balled over on the couch, breathing heavy and dizzy. Unreal.
Am I just nuts? Do people actually miss work like this? And walk around in robe like a monster? Even my dog seems to realize something is very wrong.
Okay. I'm done venting. Just not sure why every darn thing says "you can treat herpes" but never talks about how to get through the HELL of the first outbreak. I don't care about that stuff right now. I need to survive missing work, life, fun, etc before I can comprehend the rest of this virus. If the second outbreak is anything like this, I will seriously need to be knocked out to survive it.
Thanks for listening.