I will keep this as short as possible although me getting diagnosed with herpes was a looooong drawn out process. I have been infected for 7 years and just found out that herpes was the cause of all my hell two months ago. The reason I didn't know is that I didn't break out in blisters or sores, except for the very first outbreak which wasn't on my genital or mouth area so I did not connect the dots. My first outbreak started with a fever and aches and flu like feelings for a day and then a rash came that turned to the miserable itchy blisters before crusting over and healing.
Anyway, ever since then I have been plagued with this cyclical sickness. I thought that outbreaks were supposed to get easier over time and just have sores not the malaise but I get so miserable with this. I get weak, seriously fatigued, headaches, can't sleep, and feel achy. Every single time. My outbreaks can be anywhere from every three weeks to every six months. At this point in my life they are every three weeks. And yes, I've been incredibly stressed. I just don't understand why I feel sick every time. I have started to get small blisters as well, this is how I finally got the diagnosis. I am really lucky as far as the sores go, they never get too big or too itchy or too numerous. But why do I feel sick and how can I feel better and stop going through this every few weeks? OTC pain relievers do help a lot.