About 2 months ago, I went to visit my physician regarding a problem I had with a ring of redness around my lips - more prominent on my bottom lip - it was a lighter, tender pink shade and kind of looked like I had been drinking lots of red kool-aid. I also had constant dry, cracked and bleeding lips, and tried everything from drinking plenty of water and making sure I wasn't licking them. I didn't have any other visual symptoms, but I did have a combination of a burning/numbness feeling on my lips.
The doctors did some bloodwork to check my vitamin levels which all came back fine and instructed me to try an OTC cream like Abreva, as they thought it might be a cold sore (which I never had in the past either). Two weeks later, I scheduled a follow up appointment, as the redness and severe chapping was still there.
The second time, they prescribed an Acylovir tablet and Zovirax cream for oral herpes. All this seemed to do was irritate my entire mouth. My lips swelled up and felt like they were shot up with novicaine. After the 10 day period of using the medication, I noticed the chapness went away, but the bright red ring around my lips is still there. Some days it's more prominent than others and my lips tend to dry out now and then, but I'm trying to avoid putting any sort of ointment/chapstick on them in the event that something coming in contact with the lips is irritating them further.
I've included a recent photo (not the best quality) that shows my bottom lip and my lip line is no longer definitive. I have set up an appointment with a dermatologist a few weeks from now, but I'm still trying to get some clarity on what might be causing this. I've had people suggest everything from a fungal/bacterial infection, cold sores/oral herpes, allergies, vitamin deficiencies, etc. Nothing in my daily activities has really changed for the past several years, so I'm concerned about the sudden onset, and how this problem has persisted for almost 2 months now.
Has anyone else experienced something like this?