Tired of bothering my Doctor

[OneDumbDude]

About two weeks ago I had a protected one night stand with a trashy, full back tattooed girl I met at a concert.  Literally minutes after the incident I realized what I dumb thing I had done and took the longest hottest shower I could stand.  Now since I used a condom I'm relatively content that my only realistic concern is skin-to-skin infections.  I went to my doctor 3 days after the incident to get some counseling on next steps and have a trained professional take a look at some redness that I noticed now that I am hyper sensitive to every bump and pimple in that part of the world.  The doctor gave me a prescription for a full course of STD blood and urine tests (including IgG HSV2) and told me that the redness looked like a fungal infection.  About 4 days after this visit (7 days after the event) I starting having a lot of nausea and noticed two small red spots about half the size of a pencil eraser, separated by several inches and 3 inches above my genitals, on my abdomen with an almost unnoticeable round topped red bump in the center.  After a few days of completely freaking out and examining these bumps continuously one of the bumps ruptured and over the next day the small hole spread out peeling off the red area to reveal redish-pink skin.  On this day I went to the doctor again and asked to have the strange stuff examined.  She took a very close look at the two spots and said that neither looked at all like Herpes.  Now at this point one occurrence was still a redish spot with a nearly invisible bump and the other was the strange ring of dead skin around a pin-point bit of pink skin.  The second bump is following exactly the same course.  Now a third one of these things has popped up slightly to the left of the second bump.  My question is: Is this just a strange presentation of herpes that my doctor has mis-diagnosed?  She seems pretty on the ball as far as doctors go.  If it's not herpes what the heck is it?  I'm doing my best to wait the full month before getting the blood test but I have almost completely convinced myself reading things on the internet that this is just an odd presentation of herpes.  How many more of these bumps can I expect?  I've been doing my best to keep everything clean and dry but obviously I'm still spreading whatever this is.  What's the best way to prevent spreading this? At what point do I ask the doctor to look again?

[gracefromHHP]

It was protected sex so the odds of this being a std at all are very small.

You saw a provider who didn't think that your fresh symptoms were herpes.

Did they think it was anything else and prescribe any treatment?  If not, go and be seen elsewhere this week for a further evaluation.  

grace

[OneDumbDude]

Do I test again?!?!?

The small red patches I mentioned had completely resolved before I could get to another doctor.  About a week after I posted this comment the redness that I was told looked like a fungal infection started to hurt like hell.  I forgot to mention in the previous post that this red area was preceded by an intense burning that went away after a few hours.  The redness is located in the crease where my leg meets my body.  Examining it with a mirror I noticed an area half way between the front and back of this redness that looked like a oddly shaped area of pink with dry torn skin around the edges.  No blisters, scabbing or sores.  I went to a dermatologist a couple days later.  He took a very brief look said once again fungal infection and prescribed a stronger anti-fungal.  I asked specifically if it looked like it could be something else and he said "no way."  After another week of putting anti-fungal cream on the area which now felt like I would describe a brush burn it was not resolving at all.  Not to mention putting this anti-fungal on burned as if I was putting it on an open wound.  Longing for some relief I started using Neosporin + pain relief and this seemed to help a lot.  The pain went away in a few days mostly (I think) because the Neosporin cut down on the friction in that area but the redness is still there.  A couple days after all of this pain finally started subsiding I noticed that an area about the size of a dime in the same crease of skin slightly closer to the front of my body starting burning and upon examination found it red with one small bump.  I mean really burning like only an ice pack would finally make the burning subside.  I went to a walk in medical clinic the next day and had this spot along with my nearly cleared up fungal infection checked out again.  This doctor (to the tune of $150) also told me that nothing he saw looked like Herpes but that it also didn't really look like fungus. His diagnosis was generalized irritation.  He said he was 99.9% sure I didn't have Herpes.  He also said that he's seen a lot of herpes outbreaks.  At my prodding he gave me a prescription for Valtrex and said not to use the script unless blisters started to appear.  I got the script filled the next day when it seemed like the area started becoming textured and waited one more day to start taking it.  I woke up the next morning with my left arm totally swollen itching and red.  (I guessing a side effect of the Valtrex).  I went in to my doctors office and a nurse practitioner looked at my arm diagnosed cellulitous and gave me a course of anti-biotics.  While I was there I asked her to take a look at my dime shaped spot and she also said there was nothing there that looked like herpes.  

Finally at 26 days post possible exposure I went in for my blood work (exactly on the date my doctor told me to) and the results for HSV-2 were 0.10 by the Herpeselect Type specific AB (<0.90 is considered negative).  The doctor didn't request any other HSV tests and didn't recommend I get any other testing.  

So my question is am I done?  I feel like 4 separate doctors have evaluated this in every stage of progression and keep telling me I'm fine.  Can a be convinced that I don't have anything or should I still get another blood test at week 6.  I kept taking the Valtrex just in case it is why I'm not currently dealing with the raw skin-on-skin pain but that will run out soon.  Can someone please recommend?

Thanks

[gracefromHHP]

Everyone you sees thinks you don't have herpes. At this point nothing to do but to repeat your hsv igg blood testing 4 months post encounter.

No reason to continue the valtrex and in fact it should've never been prescribed for you.

Since you are now taking antibiotics for a cellulitis, expect your fungal infection to linger even longer unfortunately :(  I recommend returning to the dermatologist in a week or two for further evaluation.  I also would stop putting neosporin on this in case you are having a reaction to it or to the topical anesthetic in it.

grace

[OneDumbDude]

Thank you for the information.  I stopped taking everything (except finishing the antibiotics) and things seem to be clearing up on their own.  

My plan, unless someone really thinks I should do otherwise, is to wait to take any further action until I have an issue that warrants going back to the doctor.  She didn't seem to think re-testing was necessary and at this point I would just be looking for bad news.  From everything I've read my health doesn't actually seem to be at risk and I'm not in a relationship.  If you look hard enough for problems and stress you'll find it.  It seems to make sense, assuming there aren't any new issues to continue with my life, put it out of my mind and hope for the best.

Thanks again for your response Grace I don't know why but knowing someone is listening really helps.

[gracefromHHP]

glad you are feeling better finally :)

grace