Good news (sort of)

[gns3224]

Got some good news today (sort of). Just to review, I'm a 48 y/o male who contracted HSV through oral and vaginal sex with a gal I dated earlier this year. She claimed she was "clean" and that I must have gotten it from "someone else" (even though I hadn't had sex for years prior to that).

 

Well, the result of my HSV2 ELISA test came back today and it was negative (8+ months post-diagnosis).

 

In my view, this means that the symptoms I've been experiencing (mild genital pain, no genital lesions and constant facial tingling, itching, red itchy rash/bumps around my mouth, nose, eyes, forehead combined with feverish feeling which only goes away with 500mg dose of valocyclovir) are due to HSV1.

 

Not sure how to feel about this. On one hand I'm glad I don't have HSV2..while on the other, I'm pissed that I have been feeling like crap for 8+ months due to a virus which most people view as a simple nuisance. Has any one out there experienced anything similar. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in the world who is experiencing this. I'm sure my doctor thinks it's " all in my head". Any ideas would be appreciated.

[2Legit2Quit]

I had a guy friend who was 43 who has the same issue, but no rashes or cold sores and it's caused by HSV1. He had dizzieness, almost fainting, fatigue, neuropathy in the face. He previously years ago had taken some meds for his psoriasis to suppress it and it states on the warnign label, that if someone has a chronic viral infection like herpes, not to take this. Although he hasn't been on it for years, he feels it changed his immune system and now deals with this. They too thought it was all in his head, so I looked up an infectious disease doctor that had herpes as something he specializes in and had him go there and the ID said it was defintely hsv1 causing this. They put him on super high doses of valtrex. There are a couple others on here that have experienced things like you are. They alwasy think it's in our head. When i got hsv2 and developed severe neuropathy, a GP and Rheumtologist told me HSV doesn't do that, only shingles... SMH... so annoying...

[whitedaisies]

I am going through the same thing. I have oral and genital hsv1. I can totally empathize with you. I have had a myriad of symptoms and it drives me crazy knowing most people are asymptomatically or have one or two outbreaks a year.

 

Hope you will get better with time.

[WCSDancer2010]

It *seems* that some (a very small percentage) of people with Genital HSV1 have a really rough ride with it... I wish we could get a researcher to look into this.... I think that there's a small subset that either genetically or physiologically (maybe because of some kind of chemical imbalance) seem to have more trouble with HSV1 than most.

 

I can't give you a lot of advice... except to try L-Lysine and B complex and reduce stress and see if that helps to slow the symptoms ... @whitedaisies is keeping a list of folks with HSV1 genitally that are having major symptoms for a longer time than usual... with the hope that we can get someone to take it seriously, so I hope you will agree to join the list. I'm working on trying to get the researchers to at least *look* into it a bit...

 

 

[gns3224]

Thanks again@2Legit2Quit, @whitedaisies, and @WCSDancer2010..the worst part for me is not any genital symptoms (there really are none..I sometimes wonder if I even have genital HSV1..if it weren't for the mild whitlow symptoms I had earlier this year which I think I got from holding my penis while going to the bathroom like guys tend to do.) the worst part is the infernal facial itching and tingling which gets really bad in the evenings (the valocyclovir helps a lot). I've been taking a lot of zinc which seems to help. The L-Lysine really didn't help, btw. I keep thinking that I just need to wait it out and it will get better. The year mark will be next March, at which point I may need to go on acyclovir ( I don't think my GP will renew my valocyclovir prescription after a year (he thinks it has negative side effects long term.) I keep you all updated.