Reply To: Trying to move on (HSV-1)

[confusedraven]

Hello Terri,
I’m not sure who’s voicemail I was directed to. I called the main number, explained the situation (that I needed another set of swabs overnighted), and was then directed to voicemail. No reason to look into it though, the time has already passed when I would have needed them. I do appreciate your concern though.

As far as the daily swabbing… wow. I didn’t know it would be that much. Given that GHSV-1 only sheds about 5% a year, its possible that daily swabs could pick up nothing if there are no symptoms during the 3 months. I wouldn’t want to spend $7k on testing unless I knew it was going to provide a definitive answer. I guess the best thing to do is just order some swabs and wait until I experience symptoms again. I never had the opportunity to swab genitally, only orally. I just feel stuck in a holding period. I feel like I can’t rely on any of the blood tests because they have all been negative, but I’ve been diagnosed visually by different doctors when I had a cold sore. Since the test isn’t picking up HSV-1, how can I dismiss my genital symptoms, especially given the timeframe? I’ve presented the genital symptoms but no doctor I have visited has access to PCR swabs, or even knew about them. They all said the regular swab would need to collect fluid.

I did have a Western Blot done and was negative for both HSV1 and HSV2. Maybe it was done to close to exposure? It was right around the 6 month mark. Any advice for me moving forward? Do I have to schedule a phone consult in order to order more swabs?

I really appreciate your help in this matter and the time you take to answer these questions.