How long for HSV2 outbreak symptoms to clear?

[knowthyself]

I have had ulcers near my vulva for almost a month now. This is my first outbreak of HSV but I am sure it is not supposed to take THIS long to heal? Luckily they aren't itchy but they are also not going away and I am not comfortable having sex with my partner until they are gone completely.
I went to the Drs about 5 days after symptoms appeared (thinking I just had thrush. Little did I know!!!) qand was given a 10 day course of Valvaciclovir. It didn't seem to do anything really. I took the medicine diligently (twice a day as per instructions) until finished.
Please help. I feel so lost out here!

[gracefromHHP]

Actually no, in australia and the other parts of the world they do call it thrush whether it's oral or genital petal :)  

knowthyself - at this point definitely treat the yeast infection. If it doesn't clear up within a week of using it just externally, give your doctor a call back and ask for something internal to use.  Did your doctor actually test you for yeast or just do a looksee and say it's thrush?  You also need to follow up on the herpes part too with testing. If you have a regular partner I recommend you both get type specific herpes igg blood tests as soon as you can, post the results here and I can help you figure out better where to go from here from a herpes standpoint.

grace

[petal130]

Quite honestly you may want to find another doctor. Thrush is an oral yeast infection, not genital.

If she meant a yeast infection, that could be the case. I'm not familiar with canestan cream (are you in the U.S.?). I'm assuming it's an anti-fungal. But if it only treats the vulva area, you may not be getting a full treatment. With a yeast infection, you want a suppository or cream with an applicator to inject into your vagina. I use Diflucan (a pill form) for when I get yeast infections.

[knowthyself]

I have been back to the doctors for yet another very brief visual diagnosis. She now tells me I have a severe case of thrush. I am now wondering if she actually misdiagnosed me in the first place as HSV2 doesn't fit in so many ways! Do you think this is a possibility?

I HAD been using Canestan cream in the first place but she told me not to bother and take Valvaciclovir instead. So this time she has sent me away with external canestan which doesn't seem like it will fix the problem as the discharge is coming from inside the vagina. It does sting when I put the canestan cream on though so I thought I should keep using it. I thought perhaps there was some infection that I cannot see.
Does this make any sense?

I am still unsure as to what other things I should be asking my doctor to check for (I also think it is ridiculous that she hasn't offered to test me for anything!)

Thank you for advice!!

[knowthyself]

Thank you so much for your help and advice whatsok & petal. You're right in that I've only had a visual diagnosis by my Doctor (a VERY cursoy one at that!). I do have another appointment booked but not til next week (its always so hard to get in to see a female doctor!)

I wonder if you could please give me some advice as to what "other things" I may be facing here? I am open to suggestion but just like to be well informed so I can ask all the right questions at the Docs.

Thank you again!

[petal130]

knowthyself, were you just visually diagnosed then? Or was testing done?

As whatsok said, sometimes something else can be going on in addition to herpes. I know with my first outbreak I thought it wouldn't end, and here I had a yeast infection at what was the tail end of my herpes outbreak.

Follow up with your doctor (and be sure you've been properly tested for herpes - a visual diagnosis doesn't cut it!)

[whatsok]

I wrote:
          "Even if you tested positive for herpes, you may still have other things going on. " and left out the rest - so please make sure your dr. checks you for other things.

[whatsok]

Have you let your dr. know the meds didn't help and you are still experiencing this? Maybe you need to keep taking the meds. Even if you tested positive for herpes, you may still have other things going on.

Also the primary outbreak is different for everyone, so it may just be taking your body a lot longer to build the antibodies. Make sure you are eating right, getting enough rest and doing everything to keep your immune system strong and healthy. Hope this helps and best of luck in getting through this first outbreak soon.