Feel a bit strange being herpes positive.....but I am.

[eac86]

Firstly let me start by saying thanks for everyone's honesty in their posting, my doctor has been near on useless at helping me with what might lie ahead and your site has given me (although sometimes graphic :-)) info!!

 

So I was diagnosed about 6 weeks ago after waking up one morning wondering WTF is going on down there, I have a partner and figured we'd been a bit rough the night before but It wasn't to turn out like that. By day 4 I was in so much pain, I couldn't sit, stand, go to the toilet and I had a fever and flu- like symptoms like I had never experienced before. I eventually got myself onto google and everything pointed to Hsv-2, but I persevered kept bathing every few hours and pretty much refused to believe that was the case. Eventually by day 9 I went to the doctor, now having open raw sores pretty much all over which had in-turn developed a bacterial infection - where she took various swabs to be tested but told me she was pretty certain this is what I had. To be honest by that point I didn't care what I had as long as she did something to help me. So a few days and some medication (aciclovir and an anti-biotic to clear the infection - which then gave me a yeast infection, urgh!!!) the inevitable results came. I had come to terms with it by then and had done so much research that I had discovered the stigma attached to the virus couldn't be more wrong. Here was me thinking I was going to feel like a leper for the rest of my life when really it could be a lot worse. I hope I can help someone the way the forums helped me so here's how I got through it, bepanthen which is a nappy rash cream in the uk had an amazing cooling and soothing effect, a cool washcloth on the area, tea tree oil also helped clear up and heal the broken skin, keeping it as clean as possible and using the cool setting of a hair drier to keep it dry helped to heal the skin, drinking lots of water to dilute urine so it didn't sting as much and leaning in certain ways whilst on the toilet so it didn't hit certain areas!!

 

I had the difficult conversation with my partner (we have a casual relationship, which I don't mean we're sleeping about but we both have pretty full on jobs and whilst a relationship is great, it's not for us at this time so there is no pressure to talk every day etc, we see each other when we can). It turns out we both have it and we will likely never know who gave it to who, or how long it's been there. I live an extremely healthy lifestyle due to another health issue but have slipped recently which may well have brought on the initial outbreak.

 

So 6 weeks on and I have a new small blister but no other symptoms thankfully and will collect medication tomorrow to clean it up hopefully. Can anyone share with me how they breakout and hopefully I'll be able to avoid them as much as possible. I have also not had sex since, due to the mess my skin has been in the thought scares me - how long have other people taken before you feel ready? We did make an attempt but I think I was so apprehensive that I couldn't relax and it just didn't work!

[JC81]

I can't answer all your questions because I was diagnosed with HSV-2 on November 12th, but I had the sore maybe a week prior to being tested. It took a while for my sore to form and then the day before testing, I believed the liquid bubble did pop, so I was able to still get the culture done.

I believe I broke out because I've been a complete stress ball from work and I had a UTI prior to the out break. The medication didn't work at first, so I was in EXTREME pain and my UTI got worse with symptoms of a temp. etc. I had to get on different medication and that was when the sore developed. I just feel the UTI and the pain I went through created this outbreak. That was extreme stress on my body. Never been so stressed out in my life.

I haven't had any sores since I was tested. I was thinking I could get another one because I start my period tomorrow or Thursday and so far, I have no symptoms of a sore. I sometimes do feel the sensation of where the sore was still.

But to your question about sex...because my partner probably has the virus and/or he is very aware of the virus and is educated about the virus, he doesn't care if he gets it. Therefore, we had sex about three days after the sore went away. BUT I was told to wait 7 days later if the partner doesn't have the virus.

I was fine even having sex with the sore, but we were very very gentle. I didn't know it was a herpe sore at first. I was just very open about the situation and he's been cool with it.

Did you not want to have sex because you are still sore?

 

[eac86]

Thanks for your response, yes because I had a bacterial infection as well the skin was so raw and it's still going through a process of healing which I was worried would tear etc with any amount of force!!