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Hi Terri, thanks for your response. I understand that this is my final set of questions.
This recurrence has persisted for some 8+ days and is not showing many signs of abating.
The outbreak began with a large sore (several ulcer type lesions close together that formed a single large scab). This was healing ok until 5-6 days after it appeared when I knocked the scab accidentally causing a lot of pain and leading to it falling off.
The very next morning, I had a whole lot of (20 or so) small blisters appear around the scab. It seems that the trauma of knocking the scab provoked a ‘second wave’ of the outbreak, so to speak.
1. This recurrence has been worse than my initial outbreak which consisted of 2-3 small ulcer type lesions. I note what you said in your previous answer about this still being early days (3 months in from first outbreak) but I’m nonetheless concerned about its severity. Is this normal to have such a serious recurrence? Is it possible to provoke or worsen an outbreak through trauma such as knocking the scab?
2. The first sore of the recurrence was similar to my initial outbreak, appearing as an ulcer. The ‘second wave’ of the recurrence, however, appeared as lots of small clusters of fluid filled blisters. I have had ulcer type lesions swabbed by PCR both times and returned positive for HSV-1. I note that blisters are more consistent with HSV-2. Can recurrences manifest differently (ie ulcer or fluid filled blisters) or is it possible that I have HSV-2 as well as HSV-1? Perhaps the HSV-2 did not appear on the PCR swab as those lesions weren’t present at the time the sample was taken?
3. My doctor prescribed 500mg of Valtrex 2x / day for three days which I started on day 3 or so. I understand this is the recommended dose for recurrences but it doesn’t seem to have made a difference in my case. Should I continue taking Valtrex again given this has been quite a long recurrence or would it make no difference now that I’m some 8-9 days in.