I'm in excruciating pain...

Posted , 13 users are following.

     I was just diagnosed with genital herpes yesterday and this is my first outbreak.  I CANNOT MOVE!  I am in so much pain that just laying here hurts.  I just started taking Valtrex yesterday and have taken 2 pills so far.  I've tried taking acetaminophen but it hasn't helped at all.  I can't sleep well.  The only position that hurts the least is on my back but other than that factor, it's uncomfortable for me.  Cleaning the outbreak is a serious problem for me.  I can barely touch it at all.  I really can't get in there enough for me to feel like it's clean enough. Even squirting water on it hurts tremendously. I'm aslo having a problem keeping it dry.  It just seems to keep getting gooey.

     Also, my boyfriend has just been diagnosed with the same thing.  We were wondering if because we have the same strain, if we'd be able to perform oral sex on each other without the risk of contracting it orally. I've read a few different things but I just can't find anything that's conclusive. Please help me!  This is all new to me.

1 like, 9 replies

9 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi get some origano oil  won't stop the swollen glands but will help a lot with the healing burns like hell for 5-10 mins  apply undiluted  with cotton bud twice a day  let it dry on sitewill dry it out within 2-3 days .if you aply at the tingling stage  it will minimise the severity of the outbreak . I've had her harpies for 11 years I've tried everything antivirals ,topical creams lysene nothing comes close to origano oil  it's the only thing I use now .also works just as we'll on mouth cold sores.good luck 
  • Posted

    Hi I'm sorry to hear u are in pain, try salt baths which may help. 

    Now, do u have type 1 or type 2. It is confusing, but both types can affect both areas. Type 1 is known as oral hsv but u can have an outbreak on the genital area typically caught by oral sex. Type 2 is known as genital hsv and is typically transferred by sex. Either is transmittable to mouth or genital area when 'active' ie while you have symptoms. 

    Type 1 is usually the less severe of the two. You can have both types, but if you have type 1 it can't mutate into type 2 and vice versa.

    I hope that helps and that u start to feel better soon!

    • Posted

      Just to give correct information HVS-1 and HVS-2 are different strains of the virus and they do not mutate. It's commonly misunderstood that HVS-1 is oral and HVS-2 is genital but that's not the case.

      HVS-1 reoccurs less often and has fewer shedding days. It can occur in the mouth and or genitals.

      HVs-2 reoccers more often and is more often genital, it rarely shows up orally but it is possible.

  • Posted

    Sorry just a quick reply here, try not to touch the affected area you can spread the virus around your body and thats the last thing you want to do right now, when I have and outbreak (rare these days, when I used to get them back to back all the time) its only my pubic hair region thats affected and I just have a shower dont touch it and dry it off witha hair dryer on least heat setting on a low dry.

    I eat a large piece of fresh pineapple everyday and it stops me having outbreaks now, I used to put a good quality tea tree oil on the sores and that helped them sting it out and dry them out.

    I would totally avoid sex and oral sex while any signs of an outbreak are happening e.g, a visible sore or a red area, a tingling itching sensation or a pain in the leg/thigh or bottom area.

  • Posted

    Hi Mia

    I was diagnosed with hsv2 end of aug start of sep and yes the first outbreak was awful. They always did seem gooey and disgusting it was so bad ! I took the aciclovir but there's not much u can do apart from wait. 

    I had to do a flight from new zealand to the UK and it was HELL. Gross but I bought some big sanitary towels and some baby wipes and this really helped. Kept anything from getting stuck too badly to the gooey sores and the baby wipes kept everything clean without killing me with pain. I was in so much pain but I went to wipe the sores probably every 1-2 hours and felt this helped. I had such bad nerve pain too, like shooting pains. Especially if I sat for too long. This went on for weeks even after the sores healed. That and the itching. Omg. At night everything drove me mad witch this itching. This also went on for ages. But that's what u get when something attacks your nerves I guess ... 

    Remember to keep taking the aciclovir. This stops the virus from replicating. I had two small sores followed by two MASSIVE sores. Probably took about 3 weeks for my first outbreak to heal. And I had them for ages. It was rubbish. I had continuous outbreaks too so I went on to continuous aciclovir. Now I take two 400mg tablets a day and haven't looked back. I haven't had an outbreak since and quite often I actually forget i have herpes ( I was an emotional wreck at first, crying, life was over, blah blah but this does get better and go awaysmile it's mainly the stress of having outbreaks that's bad. There's some good advice on this forum about how to tell people if u trawl through posts)

    Anyway, the open sores were never this bad on follow up outbreaks before I started taking continuous aciclovir, much more like what u seen online (little blisters) so hopefully for u it will be the same. Supposedly you can spread it if you touch them. Use soap. The virus is hydrophillic (possibly hydrophobic, can't remember which, my science is failing me) anyway the soap breaks down the outer barrier on the virus so just use soap on the area and it should help kill anything where you may have touched. Wait till you have healed though before doing this. Just be careful for a few weeks in case u are still shedding. Also, don't overdo it as we all know how thrush can be caused by using soap so use your brain when doing this, don't go mad. Just be careful. 

    In terms of oral, I still give my boyfriend heaps. He gives loads to me. He gave me hsv 2 in the first place and doesn't have outbreaks. We started having sex in June and I didn't catch herpes till almost sep so transmission rate is quite low (he didn't know he had it and doesn't really get symptoms or anything - lucky b****** haha). Hsv2 is quite hard to catch on your face, but also, because hsv2 is suited to your nether regions and hsv1 to your face, even if u catch hsv2 on your mouth you are likely to only have like one outbreak ever as it's not its natural environment. 

    NOW I did read something - once you develop antibodies, your body should be able to fight the virus so transmission is unlikely as u already have it. I don't have any proof behind this though so don't quote me on it. Developing the antibodies in your blood can take a while (which is why sometimes blood tests come back negative) so just be careful for a little while is my advice. You can also catch herpes on any areas of soft skin (lips, nose, butt, even nipples!) so be careful. Don't have sex when either of u have symptoms. 

    I remember my other half saying his penis was sore back around the time I contracted herpes. We were having absolutely loads of sex though and I felt pretty bruised so we just thought it was that. Looking back I think he was probably having a bit of an outbreak even though there was no visible herpes virus anywhere on him. 

    In terms of numbers, there is about a 4% chance of catching herpes a year when having unprotected sex with someone. If u take a suppressive dose of aciclovir, only have sex when symptoms are not present and use condoms this drops to about a 1% chance. There's less chance of getting herpes than there is getting pregnant with most contraceptives. So use that to inform your judgment. 

    I am of the opinion that I would prefer to have a healthy sex life and rebuild everything  with my other half than worry about getting more herpes. I'm young, blonde and quite vain / insecure about my looks, was always terrified of cold sores before I got herpes. Now I know a cold sore isn't even that bad and If I do get it I will probably only ever get one cold sore on my face. We continue to have unprotected sex and lots of it. We are lucky in the fact our partners also have the virus and contracting it is not something to worry about. 

    Herpes is not a big deal now. It's only cold sores. We've got it. So what. There's no point changing the way we live to accommodate the virus. It's not some debilitating disease. It's cold sores. Something like 80% of the population has one form or another of the virus. Absolutely LOADS of people don't get symptoms which is how it is spread so easily. It is an epidemic of a rubbish disease that just doesn't really mean anything.

    Don't let it take over your life. For a few weeks I was like ew gross ew gross but now I'm over it. Don't freak out about being uber clean. Just be sensible while u adjust. Your body will fight it on its own in time. Just give it a few weeks to develop its defence mechanism. You won't have blisters all the time but when u do just don't touch everything that's all. Keep some baby wipes in and use those to clean. If u want to dry everything use a hair dryer on cool. 

    Honestly it sucks but it gets better and it ain't that bad smile

    If you have loads of outbreaks go to the doc and demand to be put on aciclovir all the time. Best thing I ever did. Life is back to normal, getting on and climbing the ladder at work, socialising with friends, love my boyfriend, great life really. Herpes didn't change anything and I won't let it.

    Good luck ! PM me if u ever want to chat ! 

    • Posted

      Hello r35506,

      I have a question. How often did your bf use condoms when you were having loads of sex? As of now, me and my gf use condoms 100% of the time and im on Acyclovir daily.

  • Posted

    Someone please help me. I can hardly breath I'm in so much pain. Life is so hard ATM with work , waking, Peorid! When will it get better ? 

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