Herpes Whitlow, genital herpes, coldsore outbreak

OK, so I've suffered from cold-sores on my lips since I was a baby with the odd OB on my cheek if I've been really run down but recently I've had the worst outbreak of my life.
I had a spot on my chin (In my beard) that somehow turned into a cold sore. Because I had been picking at this spot for some time prior to it turning into a cold sore i must have started doing it in my sleep out of habit and i awoke one morning to find blood under my nails and the onset tingling of a new cold sore spreading up my right cheek from just below my nose to just below my eye.
Zovirax stopped working for me when i was about 13 years old so i now use Blistex / Blisteze when i feel the initial tingling and it normally gets rid of sores before they even emerge......but in this case...i wasn't quite so lucky.
The cold sore emerged and covered my whole right cheek, my eyes are both red (Eyelids) and my cheek is puffed out.
To make matters worse i must have also touched my genitals as these were itching also.
I threw as much blistex on both my cheek and genitals as i could and this seemed to be keeping it at bay - until i ran out of cream - on a sunday at approximately 9pm - so there was no way for me to get more.
On monday morning my cheek had scabbed over and my penis and scrotum were on fire. My scrotum was 3 times its usual size and looked as though it was about to burst and my penis had turned into something resembling a red onion!
Anyway, long story short - Dr. put me on Diclofenac for inflammation, Aciclovir for the genital herpes and codiene for the pain, that was on monday.
Since then i have been off work due to the fact that i cant be without an icepack on my nether regions for more than a few seconds. I have been itching my genitals so much (Couldnt help it) that every single one of my fingers (Front / back / both sides / around the nail bed) is now covered with Herpetic whitlow, also both palms and the back of both hands. My penis is back down to size but the end itches and my scrotum is still huge.
I went back to the doc's and he gave me Flucloxacillin to take the swelling in my cheek down which is now working but i'm essentially now stuck with herpes all over my hands, giant scrotum that wont go down and an itchy penis.
My Questions are as follows:

1) The Aciclovir was a five day course - Does this sound about right?
2) Will my scrotum ever return to its normal size? It weighs a ton!
3) The whitlow is really annoying and painful but i have had it between the web of a finger once and it never scabbed, it just stayed as small white pimply things / vesicles - will medication such as Propyderm NF and Dynamiclear work on these as they normally need to have ruptured  / blistered for these to be used and i i dont think this will happen.
4) As i have hsv-1, i have been assured that it will not re-occur in my genitals unless it is transferred again by myself / sexual contact with a partner who is infected. My Dr insists that it wont just spontaneously appear like a coldsore of the mouth - Is this correct?


Any help with this would be great as my girlfriend's getting frisky and although i can wear a condom once this has cleared up, i am now extremely woried about the spots on my hands for foreplay etc.

[UKPete]

oh, and 1 more question - as i was taking aciclovir already, should the herpes have been able to spread to my hands?

[gracefromHHP]

I really have to wonder if herpes is the issue here in any of these locations at this point.  the swelling issues you have had genitally sound more like a bacterial infection than herpes as well as the extensiveness of your hand and face symptoms also sound like something more than herpes since you've had a well established oral infection for many years.

acyclovir doesn't stop working for the vast majority of people who use it.  

at this point if you can be seen by a dermatologist this week, that would probably be in your best interest.

you should not be having sex with your partner at this point until you are completely back to normal and also have a better idea of what is going on.

grace

[UKPete]

Hi Grace, thanks for the reply.

A swab of the penis taken on Monday tested positive for hsv1 according to the Dr. Sorry i'm in uk and he didnt give me any of the results figures that a lot of people seem to post on the site, he just said it was positive.
That said, due to the inflammation of the cheek - and now penis, i think you may be right in what you say regarding a bacterial infection as well.

With regards the aciclovir / acyclovir  - this is also contained within blistex so i have no doubt that it still works, it just seems that Zovirax no longer works for me. Dont get me wrong, there could be a few factors here, i am now 30 years old and stopped using it when i was maybe 13 / 14 yrs when i used to get coldsores every month or so.
I dont think i used much of it as it was really expensive whereas blistex is a third of the price so since i was a teen i've used blistex 4 times a day, every day and i get a coldsore maybe once or twice a year now.

I will be seeing a dermatologist on friday if my hands have not improved, however, i am pretty sure that it is herpetic whitlow, it fits perfectly and feels exactly as described. This tied in with my genital herpes and facial herpes and the amount of scratching i have done (also my genitals were quite moist due to the condensation from the ice packs - which i have now stopped using) i think points to hand herpes.

I have, over the past 2 years, had a few autoimmune problems. I have had Alopecia areata, Vitiligo and suffered anaphylaxis and an extreme allergic skin reaction from lager which i had previously drank since i was a teen - prior to this i had never had an allergy to anything in my life.
I think my crappy immune system may have something to do with how easily this has spread.

I would also be extremely grateful to anyone who can answer my above questions based on the info i have provided - the aciclovir is being taken orally.

Thanks again

[Mistakeguy789]

Given your amount of medical stuff I would really suggest you stickin with grace/petal's advice.  Grace has the medical background and really knows her things when it comes to HSV (she has both types so even better).

Unless your blistex is different in the UK (which I just spent about 20 minutes looking to see if it was) I don't think acyclovir is in it.  I looked at all the ingridents on the main blistex website and didn't see it listed.

I would say you need to be seen sooner on your hand though.  Given the fear of HSV you may want to get a culture done on that to see if it is HSV as well.  

To be honest I would really take advice from grace at this point.  Her knowledge on this subject is pretty darn deep.

[UKPete]

Again, thanks for the reply, the blistex site and box states 5% aciclovir which i believe to be the same as zovirax - i understand zovirax can be taken orally in tablet form, this is not something i have tried - please see below link for blistex site (UK site doesn't list ingredients but the box clearly states aciclovir, the below Ozzy site does though ):  

http://www.blistex.com.au/coldsores.html

As i say, this is really the only thing that helps with my coldsores. Short of trying zovirax again next time i get the dreaded 'tingling' then i'm unsure as to whether it will work now and dont want to risk wasting money - it has been over a decade since i used it but as i recall it just used to spread coldsores whereas the blistex stops them from emerging - maybe some of the other ingredients assist with that, i dont remember the zovirax burning as much as blistex.

I am at the docs again tomorrow for my hands (seeing the on call dermatologist) so will update this post when i know more but i'm 99.9% sure that it is herpetic whitlow.

I am taking note of all advice given but would still appreciate some resolution to the questions posed above, preferably from sufferers who have experienced the same things. ie will hsv1 re-emerge on genitals when it feels like it and do the above listed creams work?

Quite a lot of the scrotal swelling is going down now but because im taking something for the herpes, an anti inflammatory and penicilin its impossible to tell which is really helping (if not all) - I also have managed 2 days without the icepack now with minimal itching so my first question with regard to the 5 days worth of aciclovir can be ignored as the answer to that would be 'yes', 5 days sounds about right :-)

Apparently it is possible to completely get rid of hand herpes using propyderm nf over a few months which is something i'm willing to try when i get the results back from the dermatologist. Has anyone had experience using this at all?

[gracefromHHP]

genitally topicals don't work all that well on herpes.  some folks swear by dynamiclear for symptom relief but with your history, I'd be wary of trying it for fear of adverse reactions to the essential oils in the product.  

topical acyclovir seems to have limited effectiveness on oral herpes but is ineffective on genital herpes. we also don't recommend it on herpes whitlow at all.  

you never get rid of herpes. once it's infected a nerve ganglia, it's there for life.