Advice for exercising

[mindisblown]

I was diagnosed back in November. After the initial, horrific OB my body allowed me a month off, but now just as one OB finishes, another starts.

 

The Dr prescribed 10 days of valacicilovir pills when I get an OB, and they do clear up them up, but when I finish the cycle, another OB appears. Each time I feel tired, achy, sore throat, cloudy head and completely drained of energy for the first few days - like I'm about to get the flu. I really like to exercise and stay fit. It's frustrating for me because exercising is tied to positive mental health, but whenever I get an OB and start to struggle with the mental side of things (shame/stigma etc), I'm physically unable to exercise. It's not just the first few days of aches and pains, but when the sores are open, its too uncomfortable to exercise. And... I'm worried about making the environment (down there) worse by getting hot and sweaty after a run or whatever.

 

Does anyone have any advice on what could help? I don't really want to go on suppressive treatment because my body will never learn to deal with the virus... I also think one of my triggers is my boyfriend (also H+, he gave it to me). He works away, and whenever he comes back and we sleep together, I get another OB. Of course he's had like ONE tiny sore in his life and doesn't really experience OBs, so it's me who gets the joy of dealing with them.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[HerryTheHerp]

Welcome to herpes! One day everything is wine and roses and the next it's blisters and prodomes.

 

That sounds about normal for the early days. It's a bit unpredictable and can really wreak havoc on your body some of the time. That will pass, just give your body time to adjust. As far as the flu like symptoms, those will become less frequent in the future, too. I'm 3 months in and I still get the fatigue from time to time, but not the sore throat, cloudy head and others.

 

I would not recommend suppressive just yet. Like you, I agree you want your body to learn to fight this bug. Most doctors wait 'til about the 6 month mark to pull that trigger if things aren't getting under control by then.

 

Exercise, but tone things down. Maybe instead of running you go for a short jog or long walk. Substitute exercises that are lower impact and see how that goes.

 

Also, use plenty of lube with your boyfriend, take things slow, and that should help reduce the OB's triggered by sex. That can happen and is normal, and in time that should go away as well.

[WCSDancer2010]

Just a thought about the sex thing too... you may want to read this blog by Adrial.... about Sex and Herpes. I know it can be frustrating when you get an OB after sex (and that won't continue either...I had a GREAT sex life with my ex Hubby and 2 ex BF's with minimal OB's after sex) but you can use Herpes as an excuse to spice up your sex life too :)

 

http://herpeslife.com/keeping-your-partner-herpes-free-can-be-super-sexy/#/vanilla/discussion/embed/?vanilla_discussion_id=0

 

Also, try this. When you get an OB, take the pills for 3 days to help to kick the virus before it gets out of hand... then every other day up to day 9/10. If that works, start to cut it back more - only take 2 more pills instead of 3. Then cut back to taking the initial pills to 2 days. That way, you keep the OB's from getting out of hand AND you let your body learn to deal with it.

 

Nowadays I take 1, maybe 2 pills (usually 1) as soon as I feel something that I am sure is an OB and it kicks it straight to the curb (I also attack the blister with Ammonium Alum which my may or may not be able to get ... its the same thing that they used in syptic pencils for guys when they knick themselves shaving and in the crystal underarm deoderants...it dries it right up). If you can't find the Alum, sit in a bath and dump 2 handfuls of Epsom Salts in the water between your legs and let that sit for awhile (bring a good book and music with you and give yourself time to relaaaxxxx!!!)

 

Learning to attack the virus at the FIRST symptom and aggressively treating it from inside AND out made a BIG difference for me ....

[mindisblown]

"One day everything is wine and roses and the next it's blisters and prodomes." hahaha, I laughed so hard at this! It's sooooo true.

 

Thanks for the advice guys, really appreciate it.

 

WCSDancer2010, I'll take your advice on the meds, and scale it back to every other day from today (day 4 of pills) and see how I go. Since getting diagnosed in November, I have near constant nerve pain/twinges on a daily basis (no tingling, just painful stabbing nerve twinges), some lead to OB's, some don't. If I got a definite 'sign' or prodome that would result in a bump/sore, then I could detect these suckers before I notice the dots (and I check almost daily) and could probably catch the OB's faster.

 

I can't wait until this is all under control, manageable and not impacting on my life so much.

[WCSDancer2010]

Perhaps the Herpes is trying to tell you that you need to change something else in your life. Your body WILL tell you when you need to change things...and if you don't listen to it, it will eventually break in a bigger way.

 

For example, I have a client who has been with me (I'm a Massage Therapist) for about 6 years now. When she first came to me, she had weight issues and all kinds of trigger (pain) points in her body. She would tell me how her adult daughter was living with her and driving her nuts....would bring BF's home and smoke Pot and eat her out of house and home and didn't take care of her kids and yada yada yada. I could feel all kinds of things happening in her body and I asked her from Day 1 if she thought her body was trying to tell her something. She agreed that her daughter needed to go but she didn't have the backbone to kick her out. Fast forward to last year when she is having horrible body pains that turn out to be an Auto-immune disease....she had to quit work (she had also been doing 2 jobs), and she finally kicked the daughter out (who, BTW, is doing fine on her own) and admits her life is a lot better without the daughter there BUT she is left with a debilitating illness now that will affect her the rest of her life.

 

As I get more involved in all this I hope to eventually interview people to see if I can find even more correlation to stress/lifestyle and these ongoing prodrome issues... but for now, I'd ask you to REALLY look at your life and see if there is something that you know, deep down inside, that needs to change. And then, as soon as you can, change it. I would venture to guess that the symptoms would lessen immediately. I've structured my life to be as stress free as possible and I very very rarely get an OB any more (and I used to get plenty). Yes, some of it is time and such but most of the OBs came when life was challenging me and I wasn't dealing with it well :)

 

Just a suggestion...to ALL you folks with ongoing Prodromes :)

 

Peace

[Aerial2013]

"I'd ask you to REALLY look at your life and see if there is something that you know, deep down inside, that needs to change. And then, as soon as you can, change it. I would venture to guess that the symptoms would lessen immediately."

 

This has been VERY true for me!