a question for fellow men

[seeker]

ok, ladies I know your reading this and that's ok but im asking about a body part you don't have, lol. I get OB bumps right at the base of my penis but on my scrotum. ive had an OB going on for a week or so. I used peroxide and tea tree oil then went to aloe for a few days. on Friday I noticed it looked like I was sloughing off skin as it was white and kind of crusty looking. showering helped but it stayed around. now the skin is bumpy and tough in the area where the OB occurred, not supple and soft like the skin normally feels. I had been using tea tree oil almost continuously save 2 days of aloe (fresh plant not gel, I started sneezing a lot on the second day of aloe so I stopped. the white was there before aloe). I have stopped with the tea tree oil at the moment, went to an antibacterial ointment in case this is some secondary issue but wanted something that might keep the skin supple.

 

So I guess my question is, does anyone have or have had this happen? this is a first for me but ive had the worst OB for bumps ive ever had, there has been mainly 1 -4 small ones coming on and going fairly uneventfully.

 

oh im also taking antivirals, was doing episodic went to suppressive but am tapering off because I may be experiencing side pain from them, not sure yet.

[mr_hopp]

Hello, fellow man. :)

 

I get my outbreaks near the head of my penis, so just the opposite direction. ;)

 

Have you gotten the area checked for HPV? If there are bumps there, it's testable; there's just not an HPV test for men that can test for HPV if there's nothing physical present.

[Newlook2013]

I'm tempted to believe that most often, first herpes infection does not come alone but with other infections ( eg: yeast, bacteria, mullescom contagiosum etc). But with time( say 2 yrs after) the ones that can't hide are cleared leaving only the stupid coward herpes virus.

 

Apart from the occasional creeping and/tingling sensation with some rashes (and never a sore, usually lasting between 3 - 4 weeks) I get down there ( which has greately receded after first 6 months), I have had atleast some other 1, 2, and/or 3 bumps each at different places (one on my right inner wrist which I believe to be autoinoculated by scratching my balls during sleep and this looks more like mullescum to me than herpes bcos it turned unusually dark with a central core that fell off and just about healing after being there for about 4 months , the other two at the base of my penis in a similar position as urs, also being there for about 6 months, gone now but left some tiny 2 close by, not very visible unless I shave) which looks totally different from the rashes I considered as hsv1 rash.

 

Iv also had some isolated number of rashes at my back near the spine which have been taking about 3 weeks to dissapear...almost being cleared at the moment.

 

Actually, I am not really doubting my ghsv1 test confirmation but the other wiered looking bumps makes me wonder.....

I tested for all the standard std without herpes & HPV 3 months after my exposure ( in Sept 2013) and was negetive for all. Then after 5 months when an sti docter diagnosed a lesion in my tigh to be herpes, I went for both igm and igg test. The igm was negetive for both 1 and 2 but the igg came back positive for hsv1.

 

I have taken 3 full coarse of oral acyclovir after my diagnosis in February ( I honestly did not see any difference it made and don't remember any side effect) and have not taken any anivirals sine June.

I'm AB+ blood type sometimes making me think why my lesion take a while before clearing or probably why I don't seem to be completely free of any rash or bump at any point ( though I see a great reduction in number and frequency now with those at my genitals almost not reccurring )

 

hopefully I would go for another test on everything again somewhere next year.

[WCSDancer2010]

@seeker...

 

just had a thought: I wonder if it's the Tea Tree oil ... that stuff is really strong and may have irritated the area.....

 

Also, which antibacterial ointment are you using? My father had a really bad reaction to Neosporin ... he was putting it on a "bug bite" for several months ... finally went to the Dr and the Dr said it was the Neosporin ... that some people react badly to it .... as soon as he went off it, it went away :/

[seeker]

im going with the tea tree oil at the moment, I was using it liberally and it showed up on Friday, stopped over the weekend and was using aloe and it seemed to be getting better but a new bump showed up and I used the oil again and this happened 2 days later. ive got some cortisone cream with all kinds of moisturizers in it and im going to go with it for a couple days, I read that eczema or psoriasis or overly dried skin will react in about 2 days, something fungal not at all. there is something unsettling about looking at your favorite body part and finding something odd happening.

 

@ adrail, ive had other bumps looked at before, the doctor kind of explained warts to me and these look like mini pimples without the redness and go away in a few days usually. that's what ive always gotten there since first OB. ive only had a couple "official looking blisters" sometimes they itch so bad I want to cauterize the damned things but have always managed to hold back somehow ( placement maybe?)

 

@ dancer, the antibacterial was this morning only and it was what I could find that might help and cause little harm. generic triple antibiotic. it actually looked better this evening, not perfect like it was before :)

 

@ newlook, what would blood type have to do with healing times of OBs? im also AB+, third rarest type and universal recipient. hmm, herpes wouldn't stop a person from giving blood would it? I use to all the time but haven't for a while.

[Newlook2013]

I read that it has a lot to do with healing times of OBs.

Technically, AB blood types( + and -) has no antibodies( where we hav both B and T cells to fight infections I guess) in their plasma since the effect of their A antibodies neutralises the effect of their B antibodies. So in a sense, though they are not immunocompramised, AB people do not aggressively fight off infections unless of course they are properly primed.

O blood types has the strongest antibodies as they hav both antibodies of A and B.

 

Also, yes I read that herpes virus does not stay in the blood but in our cells/nerves/tissue, so it should not be transmitted through transfusion.( but an hsv negative person would get the antibodies for herpes by receiving blood from an hsv+ person, nevertheless, that may not offer a complete protection from future exposure, since a lot of other factors like specific strain of virus, the virus possible clever mutations etc would come in)

 

 

[WCSDancer2010]

but an hsv negative person would get the antibodies for herpes by receiving blood from an hsv+ person

 

Yes they would BUT it would only last a few weeks ... once the body realized that the virus isn't present, it wouldn't create the antibodies anyway .... so you can't count on that for "protection" ;)

[Newlook2013]

thanks Dancer....

[seeker]

so wait, as an AB+ person I have a lower immune response? that's odd cause when a nurse friend of mine heard my "score" she said either ive had this a lot longer than a year or have a massive immune system to get to 6.4 in less than a year. I don't really get sick a lot. no more than others. frak, id thought it was cool to be in a class by ourselves.

[seeker]

@ dancer, ok this is something ive been curious about since learning my status. so, if a cure were ever to be found, a person would eventually test with an igg test as negative cause the antibodies would be gone? I thought our bodies keep a "blueprint" around for similar diseases? ie. we catch one strain of flu and our bodies use those antibodies as a starting point for the next strain of flu.

 

I was wondering about it in the whole how the hell would they even accidentally find a cure thing, what with OBs being random and such.

[Newlook2013]

Ok, a delicate correction in my earlier

statement, " I read that it has a lot to

do with healing times of OBs."

I should rather have put it, "I

presume that it has a lot to do with

healing times of OBs"

But the point on blood types and

antigens/immune responds to

infections are real scientific findings.

I personally find that a bit abstract as

I really don't get sick too( well, I

usually make lifestyle changes

immediately I find somthn wrong with

my health even before I got herpes-

though herpes has added a lot more

and a great value to that )

On the whole, I think that finding

holds true esp when we don't

maintain a healthy lifestyle (and/or

diet for our body) for

sometime..there, our blood (AB) type

though in a class of its own could be

doing just what has been theorized.

[Newlook2013]

"@ dancer, ok this is something ive

been curious about since learning my

status. so, if a cure were ever to be

found, a person would eventually test

with an igg test as negative cause

the antibodies would be gone? I

thought our bodies keep a "blueprint"

around for similar diseases?"

 

would depend on the type of "cure". if its a tamed live virus or DNA type( which are both not expected to clear everything and would also remain in the body while continuing to stimulate immunity as hypothesized ), then we would still show the " blueprint". however, anything that can enter them camp and kick em all in e ass, then itself enter that hot boiling soup as in the terminator 2, could just result in a clean sheet with time.

[WCSDancer2010]

@Newlook got it right ..

 

If there is something in the system that keeps some kind of "reminder" of the virus, you will still show antibodies....

 

If it nukes all the little bastards, eventually you will produce fewer antibodies as the body eliminates all the signs of the virus.

[seeker]

so how would they know they have a cure? we test by antibodies now and OBs can be few and far between. this is how the scam artists market their " cures" sell enough product and hope people who were headed to fewer OBs already, feel like the product did it.

[WCSDancer2010]

^^^^^^^^^^Winnah Winnah Chicken Dinnah ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

At some point another part of the "campaign" will be to get those snake oil scams shut down....

 

Now, if they say they help to shorten the OB time, that's different ... I know for a fact that my Alum cuts my OB time down to a couple days (+ healing time) ... dries the little SOB's right up ... and I am sure there are other substances that will kill the external virus OB's and help to shorten the OB time, but the claims for a "cure" need to be squashed ....

 

As for the "cure" via Western Medicine ... well, they have to prove that there is no living virus left in the body ... so there would be numerous trials that would be checking for shedding (they CAN detect minute numbers of the virus with swabs... it's how they finally figured out the asymptomatic shedding rates, but I assume it takes a LOT of man-hours to scan for the lower amounts of the virus in a non-lesion swab) as well as blood tests for anitbodies ... so they *could* prove that the virus was no longer in the system ... that's why these trials take 5-10 years to complete :/

[seeker]

actually dancer I just posted about a trial that was put on hold and they had the participants swabbing daily I think and sending the swabs in for polymer reaction to test for shedding.

[WCSDancer2010]

Yes - in order for *any* trial to be proved to reduce/stop shedding they have to do the daily swabs ... too bad they can't make the swab procedures for every day use more affordable so everyone could be tested that way, eh?

[seeker]

@ dancer no doubt. I was wondering about peroxide as a poor persons indicator but it foams over too many biological agents.

[WCSDancer2010]

yeah - peroxide wouldn't work for that ... it will foam over pretty much any open wound/sore :(