Herpes vs Cellulitis

[teffla4004]

On December 25th, I had sex with an ex girlfriend of mine, unprotected. I was unaware that about a month prior, she had had a single unprotected sexual encounter with another male. Prior to that, I was her only partner, and we had both been tested and showed negative results for all STDs. We do not know the status of that other male she had sex with.

Fast forward to January 15th, late at night, I noticed an ingrown hair (pimple like) on my penis. I poked at it a little, and it eventually opened up, and the hair was "freed" basically. There was a little blood, so I applied some antibiotic ointment to it. Within hours of doing so, I began to have the following symptoms


- penis shaft, left-center side became quite swollen/puffy (very noticeable, looked almost crooked), and somewhat red (not too bad)
- slight pain when i touched the spot, or when I moved around at all and my penis rubbed against my jeans
- fever
- chills
- have not had a single erection then (it's been about 40 hours now). quite odd because I wake up every morning with an erection.

I saw a doctor today and he was certain this was Cellulitis, and he prescribed me Augmentin 875-125mg for 7 days.

I just wanted to get some other opinions. I guess the timing of all this is what has gotten me stressed out. Does this sound anything like herpes?

[Faith728]

To me it does sound like your doctor is right. I had this as a child in my ear and cheek. It does swell up pretty big. Also herpes could take years to show up. Also I found out when my daughter was pregnant that lots of woman have the strep bacteria in their vaginas. Cellulitis is caused by this so she might want to get checked... I've been told there is no cure because my daughter has to have a few bags of antibiotics hours before the birth of a child so I guess that would mean it doesn't just go away... Tho I think that the father might have it as well and since they only treat the mother, she gets it back... Who knows...

Just get yourself checked ever so often and ask the girl to get checked as well... Better to be safe then sorry...

[gracefromHHP]

only test at the 3 month mark. no reason to test so frequently and to test before you have the most accurate answers!!

[teffla4004]

Thank you Grace. My 3 week post possible exposure results came in today.

Name: HSV 2 IGG, Type Spec
Value: <0.91
Reference Range: 0.00-0.90 INDEX

I do realize that this is not 100% accurate at this point. I will get tested again at 8 weeks, then at 12 weeks.

With that said...how do antibodies and such work? If all of this swelling/symptoms HAD been a result of HSV-2 (theoretically), my body would have had antibodies and the test would have found HSV-2 if I had it, correct? Let me know if that makes sense, if not I'll clarify

[gracefromHHP]

not really. I'd get the testing to be sexually responsible but no reason to think that what is going on now is herpes related.

[teffla4004]

Thanks Grace. I have been tested for the few STDs that would be accurate at this point. Waiting on results. Will get the other tests done in a couple of months.

Do my symptoms or anything I've described sound like genital herpes?

[gracefromHHP]

antibiotics take at a minimum 48 hours to more typically 72 hours to start having blood levels enough to be effective at killing bacteria.  it's unrealistic for someone to say you'll start to feel better in 24 hours of starting them.  Some providers will say that just to start the power of positive thinking so you stop worrying about being sick.

[teffla4004]

I was not wearing my glasses when I checked clearly. I retract my previous statement. There is still a little bit of swelling (all of it at the site of where the ingrown hair was).

I was told by my doctor that I would see the swelling down in as soon as 24 hours. Why do you say otherwise (just curious)?

[gracefromHHP]

antibiotics don't start working that quickly...lol  sounds like you just needed time for this to get better.

no more topical antibiotic cream to your genital area!!

[teffla4004]

Thank you grace. It's been 24 hours (roughly) since I started taking the antibiotics, and the swelling has died down almost completely. Looks like the doctor was correct in his diagnosis.

Regardless, I realize many STDs can show no symptoms, so I will get tested as per your recommendation. Thanks!

[gracefromHHP]

topical antibiotic cream can cause some pretty bad reactions on our sensitive genital skin. we don't recommend its use there in most cases.  I've seen penises swell up 3x their normal size from topical antibiotic cream use!   Obviously I haven't seen your symptoms but certainly something worth considering. take the antibiotics you were given too of course.  

since you've had unprotected sex, you should follow up with proper testing at the proper times for all std's. you can get tested for chlamydia, gonorrhea, trich and ngu after 1 week post encounter. syphilis after 6 weeks. herpes, hiv and hepatitis after 3 months. You can pass this info along to your ex gf too so she can cover her bases too.

the lil guy needs some time to recover!!  Give it time and he'll be back to normal :)

grace

[teffla4004]

Edit: I was able to achieve an erection with some stimulation. I just had not achieved an erection without trying (while sleeping, or just during the day).

[teffla4004]

Sorry, I meant " have not had a single erection SINCE** then"