Do you have herpes?

by jessicadoyle on October 15, 2007 · 8 comments

I do. Herpes Simplex 1 to be exact. The kind that form on one’s lips. The lips on your face, not the genital ones.

I was blessed at an early age to catch the herpes virus. Sure enough every school year during class photographs a monstrous sore appeared just off center to the right on my bottom lip. Over the years it appeared namely in the same spot for 7 to 10 days.

During stressful times I could be found sporting two cold sores; one of which located itself conveniently in the corner of my mouth and the other off-center on the bottom lip. Smiling or laughing became impossible without blood letting from either sore.

Crack. Drip. Blood.

Self portrait

Since moving back to Saint John, I have had a grand total of 20-25 odd cold sores arriving in all shapes, sizes, visiting for one, two and even three weeks! This is annoying. Last week I looked in the mirror after showering and smiled upon seeing the most recent virus attacks had healed leaving no visible scars. Later that evening I felt that all familiar tingle. I grimaced. I’ve had enough already. GO AWAY! I currently count four cold sores today, all dry and itchy. Over the years I’ve used prescription drugs, peroxide, ozanol, corticosteroid creme, blistex and now burt’s bees with no real speed up on the duration of their pesky visitation.

7-10 days.

loonie

There was one time four years ago when I erupted in sores this badly. It was upon arriving in Vancouver. I had a humongous loonie sized sore located left on my bottom lip. I painted the painting accompanying this post during that time. Six months it took for them to heal completely. Since then I’ve had minor outbreaks no different than during my school years until the beginning of this June 2007.

I am practicing super duper self cleaning regiments as my fingers and hands are broken out in eczema to prevent self-reinfection.

So, I write this post
saying good bye to Herpes
in hopes that letting out
my anger
will.banish.them.into.oblivion!

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  • Brian

    I will cross my fingers for you and hope that they go away soon. I have had them before too, though not as bad as they seem to have affected you.

  • http://www.thescottenglishshow.com/show/ Scott English

    Just say NO to Herpes!

  • http://jessicadoyle.ca jessicadoyle

    Brian – They are slowly disapearing or should I say drying out.

    Scott – HAHA! Thanks. :) I guess the just say NO mantra works on anything.

  • Jean-Jérôme

    I have read your article and I understand what you have been through. I have been infected with HSV-1 labialis for only one year and a half, but it has bugged me greatly in the previous months. I feared too for self-reinfection (particularly in the eyes, my worst fear). I am someone used to fight and not give up easily. I have serched for solutions for months, contacting researchers in Canada, USA, United Kingdom, Italia and even Bulgaria. Basically, there are many ways to approach the problem. You can make the system recognize the virus, you can boost your immune system, you can stop cellular replication and you can threat it topically on contact.

    Making our immune system recognize the virus by a vaccine composed of modified proteins of the virus is a promising way ahead in the coming years. Two vaccines are under or are going to be soon under clinical phase 1 for HSV-2, althought researchers responsible of them told me they think and have good reasons to think it is going to work for both virus types. Those vaccines are AG-707 from Antigenics in the USA : http://www.antigenics.com/products/id/ag707/
    and the other vaccine if ImmunoVex from Biovex in England : http://www.biovex.com/immunovex.html

    I have great hopes for these vaccines in some years as a HSV-1 carrier, once clinical phases will be completed.

    Boosting your immune system is part of healthy diet, exercise, stressless life, and all the alternatives medecines (good or not good, sometime partially).

    Stoping cellular replication is part of acyclovir (Valtrex) and etc. official medecines which all MD doctors prescribe all too much. When I learnt of my condition, I tried these medecines and I couldn’t bear the side effects. Also, let’s not talk about long term effects. I think the only time you have to rely on them is with an eye infection. From what I gattered about people sharing their experience about this infection zone, this is a nightmare. You bet I stopped completely putting contact lenses in my eyes after knowing that!!!

    While continuing monitoring for progress in the vaccine field of research, I found a good topical solution for me, Dynamiclear. Expensive (100 $ for a bottle of 12 ml), but very useful. You apply this on opened sores and it burns it and forms a scab in a matter of hours. It could help reduce reccurences with time. Before going to say it is indeed helping for that too, I will have to prove it to myself by the time passing on.

    Well, for concluding this long comment, I just wanted to share my knowledge after your message that touched me. I have a little girl, 6 months old, and I do all I can to put her away from that virus. My final word is knowloedge is our best weapon.

    Jean-Jérôme
    University graduated manager
    Quebec, Canada

  • http://jessicadoyle.ca jessicadoyle

    Hi Jean – Wow what a story you have shared with me. i’m currently on the mend from herpes. Knock on wood! My lips are healing nicely. I eventually began dousing the affected ares with peroxide to kill and dry everything out. It worked!
    :)

  • Pingback: Cold SORE - aTTacking « Jessica Doyle - emotion creator

  • http://www.howardyoung.info Howard Young

    I would say that everyone one this planet has been to exposed and contracted Herpes, that is, Herpes Zoster. It’s commonly known as Chicken Pox and typically will get it as a child and later on in life (if you’re unlucky) as Shingles.

  • http://jessicadoyle.ca jessicadoyle

    Hi Howard. Shingles certainly is nasty. I’ve know a few people who’ve had it. Although I’m not sure if the two viruses are related in regards to chicken pox causing cold sores?

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