Hi Betty,
I’m so sorry to be delayed in answering your question. I am in Turkey where I’m speaking at a medical meeting and the internet is not so great and our time is opposite but I will answer now and please accept my apologies.
Have you had any sexual contacts since we last did the western blot that could account for a new herpes infection?
I’m thinking that the test that you had that told you that you were fighting a new infection was an IgM test, is that correct? That test has so many false positives, I would say from what we say, at least half of the positives on that test never confirm with an IgG test which is the test that one would want to use diagnosing herpes.
I think you know that canker sores are not herpes, right? But lots of doctors don’t seem to know that, which is a shame.
The confusing thing here for you seems to be that when you take the Valtrex, you feel more normal than when you don’t so that’s leading you to think that you are getting better because Valtrex helps herpes. Does that sound right? But unless you have new infection, I really don’t believe that you have herpes.
Yes, there is a way to swab when you have no specific sore. If you have an area that feels like it could be an outbreak, you can swab and see if there is virus there, yes. The clinic can send you the swabs and you can return them to us after you have gathered them and we will send them to the lab and report the results to you. If this is something you want to do, we can arrange that for you.
Do let me know any additional test results that you have. And again, my apologies for the latest of my reply. I’m very sorry.
Terri