Reply To: A confusing, depressing, and difficult five years

[takeiteasy]

Thank you, Terri.

The Kaiser lab told my doctor the HSV IgG test they do only gives negative or positive results. Anything above 1.1 is positive and anything under is negative, but numerical values cannot be provided to physicians. I don’t know what test they used. Bizarre, right?

1. Should I get another HSV IgG test at a different place, OR go straight for a western blot?

2. I took one Valtrex pill 10 days ago, and I took a 7 day course of Valtrex a little over 3 months ago. Will this impact a future IgG or WB?

3. Can this infrequent Valtrex use impact a swab?

4. My primary care doctor emailed me a few days ago (the doctor who ordered my IgG was not my primary). My GP said “I never order IgG blood tests for HSV as there can be false positives and/or this is a nonspecific finding. Only a direct swab of the area for HSV is useful”

This is the third physician who has said they refuse to order HSV blood tests due to their limitations. Of course, now that I have gotten the HSV-1 and HSV-2 positive result, I almost want to see what the actual index values are.

What are your thoughts on his comment?

5. How often do people receive false positives due to equivocal results, cross reactivity, etc. for the IgG? Out of a 1000 tests, how many are false positives?

6. For 4 years my recurrent “skin lesions” on my penis have always been on the middle or left side of my shaft. Only since I starting taking Inflectra did this new crop of blisters appear near the right side of my penis on the rim near the head. During this last outbreak, one blister appeared on my shaft on Wednesday, and 5 days later 2 more blisters popped up near the rim. This never happened before. Did I spread it by touching the area because I am immunocompromised? My G.I. says I’m only modestly immunocompromised.

7. My lesions are painless, never ulcerate, but there is a 10 day period of scabs forming and falling off beginning the day after the blister. You said herpes is usually tender. I can squeeze the lesions and feel almost nothing. Perhaps they are extremely mildly tender, but I feel like that might even be a stretch.

Can this happen with herpes or is this a dead giveaway that it’s not herpes?

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by takeiteasy.