can herpes lay dormant for 24 years?

[nottoohappy501]

I am 41 years old.  I have been with my husband for close to 12 years.  I have had limited sexual partners.  I have not felt well the past few days and thought I was getting pneumonia again so I made a doctors appointment.  I was able to breathe so I made the appointment for a few days later.  One of the days before the appointment I had a pretty high fever with chills and sweats and everything.  I noticed that my vagina was sore so I got a mirror out to take a peek.  I noticed blisters on the inside of the lips.  Nothing on the outside, no redness anywhere else, just these canker sore looking things.  No pain, just mild discomfort with very slight itching but mostly uncomfortable.  I washed the area with warm water and soap, I always wear cotton underwear, and went back to bed.  When I went to the doctors office I saw the nurse practitioner who diagnosed me with an upper repiratory infection.  I told her about having what I thought were fever blisters just inside my vagina so she took a look.  Then she asked my permission to have a doctor take a look.  He took one look and immediately told me that I had an std and that it was herpes.  Then he asked if my husband had had an affair.  I felt like crap!  First I had a temperature of 101.8F which doesn't help then he drops this bomb on me.  They prescribed acyclovir and a standing order for future breakouts, they took a swab culture and sent me to the lab for a blood test to see how long I have had this virus.  Before he left the room he said "Oh and there are tissues over there".  So not the best of bedside manners.  Is it possible for herpes to have sat around for 24 years?  I cannot recall any boyfriends with open lesions and had protected sex almost all the time.  I just have a hard time believing that after 24 years I have my first outbreak.  I know my body very well and have lost an ovary, had 2 children and many issues so the minute something is different, I am at the gyn.  I have a hard time believing that it chose now to show up and that it was undetected for so long.  I have all sorts of fears and doubts but now I have developed a brown discharge with a slight mushroom odor and it seems as though the sores are shedding or peeling because when I wipe front to back there are small brown flakes on the toilet paper.  I seriously have a hard time believing that I have herpes.  I won't know my test results for another week.  Any advise would be wonderful.  Thank you.

[gracefromHHP]

odds are that neither you nor your husband have ever been tested for herpes to know your status prior to this. It's not a part of routine testing, not even when pregnant.

At this point, wait for your testing to come back. Also talk to your husband and ask him to call his doctor to have type specific herpes igg blood testing done to see what his status is.

Either of you could've had herpes prior to this and just never knew it. You also can transmit hsv1 from the oral area to the genital area through oral sex too. At this point find out if you have herpes and if so, which type. Find out hubby's status too. Once you know all that information, we can help you a lot more. It just showing up now in a relationship doesn't mean that one of you had to have cheated recently either.

the free herpes handbook by terri warren is a terrific resource for you both also. google it and it comes right up.

If your sores aren't almost healed in the next week or your discharge gets worse, return to be seen again for further evaluation.

keep asking questions!

grace

[nottoohappy501]

I forgot to add that at no time did I have blisters that were clear or any clear fluid coming out of them.