without a lesion culture to confirm, no way to know if this really is whitlow or not. You can get whitlow when you've had hsv2 previously but the risk of such is very low, especially on the palms of the hands. At this point it's too late for an accurate lesion culture. So many things this could be and it is too bad the provider didn't do the culture to confirm so you had better answers. you were recently in the hospital and could've had a reaction to latex or even contracted an infection.
zovirax ointment really does nothing for genital herpes recurrences - we never recommend it for genital herpes. odds are it's the base ointment in the cream helping you more than the antiviral in it was.
You might've gotten a 2nd infection of hsv2 from your partner but no reason for it to last that long ( in studies that looked at this, even in folks who have multiple strains of hsv2, they don't have "worse" infections or more recurrences or anything of that sort ). it really sounds like you really have more than just hsv2 going on ( and I'd confirm that you have hsv2 at all to be honest though if you didn't originally, having had a hsv2+ partner and taking no precautions might've given it to you too ). herpes lesions won't take that long to heal even without treatment so following up on all of this is worthwhile. You very well might have something else dermatological going on ( perhaps even a latex allergy considering your reaction to the ekg patches ) , an allergy to adhesives or even had something else infectious going on at the same time.
abdominal pain is a side effect of the herpes antivirals. it's to be expected to be honest. For recurrences you can try 800mg acyclovir 3x/day for 2 days , make sure you take your doses with full meals and hope that the 2 day dose causes you pain for the least amount of time. if you should decide to try the antivirals suppressively, usually the abdominal pain gets better in a few weeks.
This really sounds like it's worth more follow up to get better answers. keep asking questions!
grace
Hi Grace,
Thanks so much for your timely reply, I really appreciate it!
I wished I had pushed harder for a test but the doctor didn't seem like he really wanted to be any more involved than just writing a prescription. I am thinking about putting in a call to my GP in the morning and see if I can get in to see him. I just hate to keep paying co-pays when I just got through paying for all the testing for my gallbladder. Not to mention the costs of visits for specialists. And I visited two surgeons before I picked one to perform my surgery. And now I have to pay my portion for the surgery.
Before I received your reply I had started to think that possibly what is going on is some sort of infection. And your post helped me to confirm that possibility. I have three places on my chest that are itchy and one place is getting sore. I seem to remember shortly after the surgery that there were places on my chest that were irritated and itchy and I pretty much guessed that I had a reaction to the EKG patches. And my surgeon confirmed that last Thursday when I went to see her. The interesting thing is that when I came home from the hospital I put on a v neck pajama top. It just so happens that the v neck exposed the irritation on my chest. And I remember laying my hand on my chest as I rested and slept after the surgery. I remember that I didn't want my hand resting on my tummy because it was very tender. Here is the kicker of all of this......where I rest my hand is right where the irritation is on my chest, and the place where i have the blisters on my hand is where my hand would have laid on my bare chest. So I am wondering if in fact what might have happened is that I scratched at the irritation on my chest and it got some sort of staph infection and I spread it to my hand.
My hand is still very sore and painful and red. No signs of eruption of the blisters and the blisters have somewhat flattened out. Now I know for a fact that herpes can be very painful but I am not sure the pain and soreness that I am feeling is herpes. I find it so hard to believe that I would have contracted or self inoculated myself with herpes.
Thanks for the info about the side affects of the herpes antivirals. I don't believe I have ever been told that it takes a few weeks for the abdominal pain to get better. I will certainly keep that in mind. I know I have tried taking the meds in past and it didn't seem like they actually worked well enough to stomach the pain.
On another note, I have to tell you that I have tried several things on my tailbone area where my herpes likes to ob now and most never really worked very well. The Zovirax cream was so amazing. I had about an inch long row of blisters on each crack of my buttocks, which is the worst blistering I have ever had. Most of the time my ob is like tiny slits that turn into tiny blisters. I had endured this blistering for two days and it was very itchy and stingy and sore. Within an hour of applying the Zovirax cream it had calmed down 50%! And I continued applying it every few hours and the next day it was almost completely gone. In fact I was able to have my gallbladder surgery sooner than I thought I would because my ob cleared up much faster than normal. I'll tell ya.....it feels like when it comes to herpes, my experience has not been in what you would call the normal range.
Any more ideas? Comments??
Thanks again
those freakin' copays can kill you! They are fine if you only see a doctor once a year for a check up but if you actually have to use your insurance, before you know it, you are paying out far too much money towards your appointments....sigh. Ok, off my soap box....lol.
next time you start to get a recurrence of your herpes, start oral antivirals at the very first sign of a possible recurrence. You often can head off a full blown ob by doing that. We've found over the years that hitting it hard and fast gets you the best results.
definitely ask for latex testing too.
grace