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So I was at an asian massage parlor and I briefly fingered the masseuse(only for about 30 secs). I immediately regretted my actions and worried about herpes. I did not see any sore and only had brief superficial contact with her vagina. What worries me is about 11 days later I saw a small white patch on of my fingers that may have been involved. I nervously picked at it and the skin below was not raw underneath just looked like a crater because I picked at the skin. About 4 days later I went to a std clinic to get it evaluated and the nurse basically took a look and said she was not concerned with it and it just looked like a patch of dry skin (not painful, no clustering, no redness, not raised). She did not feel like I had anything to worry about because it was such a “low risk activity”.
I am still worried at about 10 days since my first patch, I can’t see the spot on my skin any more either.Does this worry you? Should I go to a dermatologist for another follow up? Have you ever seen or heard of whitlow from fingering?
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It absolutely does not worry me one little bit.
Acquiring herpes on your finger in this way would be extremely unusual indeed. And herpetic whitlow looks nothing like what you describe. It is normally a group of tense, tender blisters filled with watery fluid.
I think you can put this particular worry behind you.Terri
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Who knows in what stage of healing the pictures were that you saw?
I would NOT recommend testing for you at all. And if you’ve read my posts, you know I recommend testing very often. But not in this case. Of course if you put alcohol on it you are going to get abnormal patches of skin, alcohol is such a drying agent.
And yes, if you punch things, you are likely to get sore knuckles.
If I thought there was any risk at all for you, I would tell you, I promise.Terri
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I have seen probably 30 in 32 years of practice.
You’ve posted your final question on this subscription. If you have more questions, feel free to renew your subscription.
Terri
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I don’t recall every single case, of course. I believe that most of them acquired herpes in more than one location at the same time. All looked very much the same. None were subtle.
Terri
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No, it doesn’t resemble a lose piece of skin or a patch of white skin. The blisters on the hand stay around for quite a while, in my experience – maybe 3-4 days – before they pop.
Terri
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Yes, I think guilt and imagination are at play here. I know it is difficult to believe but I really really don’t think you have whitlow. It is far more symptomatic, particularly the first time, that you are supposing.
We are now out of the second round subscription. You are going to be fine.
Terri
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You’re welcome.
Terri
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I appreciate you filling me in with these details, but no, it does not change my opinion that this is very likely nothing to do with herpetic whitlow.
Terri
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You have paid for 9 posts and you have posted 15 times. We really can’t do this. Would you like to update your membership so we can continue this discussion?
Terri
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The blisters that people experience with herpetic whitlow do not behave in the way that your skin issue has behaved. The blister is very tense and it does not break easily – it is deep and would just not brush away as you describe this one as doing. If you had a hang nail, it is possible that virus could have entered your skin but I think your symptoms would have been much more noticeable!
Terri
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I believe that 12-16 weeks is more accurate. The reports from the University of Washington for western blot clearly states 16 weeks.
Again, this sounds nothing like herpetic whitlow to me.Terri
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Those are all very good signs that this was to herpes. And yes, I know that you are anguishing over this encounter but it is good to try your hardest to put this episode behind you.
Terri
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I think we should make genital finger anxiety a legitimate diagnosis as you are certainly not alone in having that concern. I’m glad you are starting to believe you are going to be fine. Keep up the good work
Terri
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Given that your massage parlor experience was incredibly low risk to start with, I think you can feel very confident about the results.
Whitlow breaks open some thick skin of the hand and there are lots of nerves in this skin and the healing takes a lot longer than genital tissues, so I think that just hurts more.
The only danger with you doing all this testing is that you could get a false positive result and it would completely freak you out. I hope you don’t.
My count of theses posts could be off, but I think you are due for a renewal of your subscription
Terri -
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1. Age, gender and physical stature play no role in seroconversion that I am aware of, at all.
2. The chance of a false positive is about 2.8 percent. The chance of a low positive that will need confirmation by a second test is about 5.5%
3. Then this is a reasonable explanation that may help to satisfy you?
4. I know it is a challenge and I can see that you are continuing to struggle with this. Yes, I seriously don’t think this is herpes.Terri
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In checking back over this interaction, you have posted 23 posts and have paid for 15, by my count. If you want to interact further, you’ll need to catch up with three more rounds of questions (60$). You can purchase 3 round of Fifth round of additional questions if you would like to structure it that way. When you have caught up, you will have more one more question to ask. This forum works because people pay their fair share for the service. Remember that even if you just post one line it counts as a post, that’s how we count.
When you are caught up, I will respond to the post above.
Terri
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That’s not it. You can ask as many questions are you want to in a single post, but some of your posts were a single line and that probably isn’t a good use of your money. .
1. herpes sores wouldn’t continue to peel outward normally, correct?
No they would not peel outward – they really don’t peel.
2. Pain associated with herpes shouldn’t stop when the sore shows up, Right? My pain in my finger pretty much subsided when it did and the pain was at my knuckles and my fingertip. The finger tip pain was close to the spot but closer to center of my finger’s cuticle which was likely being irritated by my poking and fudging with my finger as well as from the alcohol. Again the actual sore was painless. I only say sore because I don’t know what else to call it, it was just a spot with the top layer of skin Peeled off but not raw.
I would say that a herpes sore on the hand would almost always be painful. While lesions on the penis don’t always hurt, I have not seen someone with herpetic whitlow where the lesions were not at least tender, if not downright painful. So many more layers of skin get disrupted by hand lesions than by genital lesions and I believe that’s why
3. The hangnail I was speaking of earlier if infected probably wouldn’t have healed up fine intially? (I am concerned because the second patch that rubbed off led directly over where my hang nail was but this showed up about 6 or so days after the intial patch with at least 9-10 days of alcohol irritating it and probably 14 or so days after the hangnail initially healed.)
An infected hangnail could help up without problems, is that what you are asking me?
4.This whole issue was located on a writer’s bump I have on my finger which is another reason why I think it was trauma rather than herpes magically staying on a localized portion of my finger that always protrudes a bit making it even more noticable. Not to mention the exact spot I was staring at for about 10 days obsessively.
Yes, that sounds sound like herpes to me at all
5.I will try and make this my last post and attempt to not be so depressed and maybe have fun with friend again. If anything should come up in my future testing I may be back to clarify it. I am at about 9 weeks now. I will try and take the 12 as confirmation of your’s and my nurse’s diagnosis that that this doesn’t look or sound herpes. Maybe I’ll go back at 16 weeks but that will be for 100 % certainty.
You absolutely can write back any time you wish. I think you’re doing pretty darn well, given your fear. And yes, spend some time with friends again, get out and do things. It might help to allow a very specific time in each day for worrying. Like 15 minutes somewhere in your day. If you find yourself worrying out side of that time frame, try to bring your mind around to a different place by saying to yourself that your worrying time is coming, save the worry for then. Then in your worrying time, just worry away but stop when the time is up and tell yourself you can revisit it the next day if need be, but that’s all for now.
Terri
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1.Again I forgot to add this but the lack of swelling and scabing of my finger also brings me hope.
And I think that should definitely bring you hope, yes!
2. As for my question 3 I meant to say that the hangnail healed up before any of my finger issues occurred. Then after about 6 days or more after my first patch and about 9-10 days of alcohol the second dry patch showed up leading from close to my original spot to over the location of the hang nail. I was thinking it would be weird for my potentially infected hang nail to heal up before any symptoms then show up as one of the latest symptoms.
And I agree with you on that.
3.Also, your response to my 4th question; was it suppose to say “yes, that doesn’t sound like herpes at all”
Correcct.
4.one more piece that makes me think this might all be in my head. about 3.5 to 4 weeks after potential infection I decided to sub lotion into both my hands to try and deal with the chaffing. I started to feel throbbing in 3 of my fingers on my other hand. I feared I auto inoccuated my other hand. Then I got a dry patch in my pointer finger which scared me more, could have been due to the cold weather but it just added to my fear. it ended up peeling along the the outside of it till my second knuckle. This finger was always susceptible to dryness but it still made me fear herpes.
Honestly, herpes does not look like dryness on the finger – it looks like blisters, certainly not dryness.
Terri
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1. Yes, I would say that’s about right.
2. Yes
3. Correct, yes
4. You are welcome. I think things are really looking good for you in terms of herpes testing!Terri
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