Since you had a negative IgG test when the lesion developed, it is likely that this is a new infection, I would agree. So either your partner had this before and didn’t know it and transmitted it to you or he had it before and didn’t know it and didn’t tell you or he’s had another partner. About 80% of people that have it just be to infection or unaware of their infection so it’s certainly possible that he had it but didn’t know it. If he only had a skin rash and the skin rash was swab tested, this isn’t going to say anything about whether he has herpes or not if the swab test was negative. Do you see what I mean?
Generally, the nerve pain will improve but I think there’s no harm in taking antivirals for a while to help resolve the pain I understand that you don’t want to be on daily antivirals but you could certainly do an episodic treatment to help you feel better. I am not aware of anything else that you can do to reduce pain that occurs from HSV-2 other than taking antivirals. Others might have a different idea. The treatment that you did take of 1 mg a day for five days could be repeated as the dosing or you could take 500 mg once a day for a couple of weeks and see if it impacts the leg pain. This antiviral medicine is only activated when there is herpes virus present and active. What are the chemicals from the herpes virus is the first step in activating Valtrex. If there is no active herpesvirus present, you will simply pee out the medicine.
Terri