Is it herpes on body

[depressed]

I have gotten cold sores since I was little. In my 20’s, I started feeling like I was fighting off OB daily. I would get a burning feeling with a prodromal red spot on my lips daily in different locations. I was so OCD about not getting a cold sore, I used zovirax cream on the red spot everyday for 10 years and it would usually prevent the sore from blistering. One day I didn’t use the cream and I accidentally fell asleep with a scarf around my lips and the scarf fell down to my neck. I woke up sweating and a little red mark on my neck. Ever since then, I have been getting random rashes on my neck and chest for the past 2 years. They usually start off with a red spot that’s itchy/painful and then turn into a little bump with a whitish head that is painful/burning. The little bump will stay for about 1 week. Sometimes a big area will get reddish and it’s itchy/painful. The tips of my fingers also get red with a burning feeling daily and sometimes I get a whitish looking spot on my fingers that is painful. I also get a burning feeling along my arms and I see tiny little bumps, almost like I have goosebumps on my arms. No joking, I get some kind of rash somewhere on my face or body on a daily basis and it has that same feeling that I used to feel before when I felt like I was fighting off a cold sore on my lips kind of like a burning feeling. The rashes don’t turn into fluid filled blisters so the doctor doesn’t have anything to culture. I no longer use the zovirax cream, separately I’ve tried Antibiotics for 3 months, Anti Fungal for 3 months, Valtrax for 3 months but the rashes still occur. I do feel like I have less rashes with the Valtrax, but they do still occur. I never had any issues with rashes on my body before the scarf incident. I am so depressed, I feel like I can’t touch anyone with my hands or hug anyone because I’m afraid I’m shedding the virus on a daily basis. I have attached some pictures of my cheek, mouth, and neck. Does this sound like the herpes virus that is now on my body (Herpectic and gladiatorum)?

[Terri Warren]

Hmmmm. These rashes don’t really look like herpes except that last one, which certainly could be herpes and wouldn’t be a total surprise, given that you have the virus in that particular nerve group. The one in the mouth could also be herpes and would not be a surprise since it also is in the same nerve group. but the neck ones don’t look like herpes to me. And the rest of the ones elsewhere on your body don’t sound like herpes either though you could certainly do swabbing with PCR to sort it out if that would be helpful to you. You could ask your provider for PCR swabs to collect at home or you could become a phone patient of ours and we can send you swabs to gather at home and you can return them to us, though that is a bit more cumbersome (people do it often though). It sounds like you just need to know if these extra-facial lesions are herpetic or not so you can begin having normal body contact with others again.

Just for the record, I do not believe at all that the scarf would give you neck herpes.

Terri

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