My IGM and IGG came back negative for Herpes.
Certainly possible. I think rule out everything.
I guess I just wonder why the clyndamycin helped so much in the hospital through IV....that's an antibacterial instead of an antiviral. I'm wondering if what I actually had was impetigo nonbullous....
I know the swab wasn't PCR. They said something about gram positive. I did in fact take an IGG and IGM blood test the day after. I won't know any results until Monday at the earliest.
I don't know why doctors are doing PCR blood tests rather than PCR swabs. The blood test will come back with a false negative quite often. The swab, if done early enough, is extremely sensitive and accurate. In fact, he may have done a PCR swab on you. But I wish it had been typed.
Yes, we can contract HSV anywhere. All it requires is a portal (cut, wound, tear, abrasion) or a mucous membrane (mouth, genitals) for the virus to enter.
I strongly recommend both you and your husband get tested right away with an IgG type-specific blood test, as the quickest and most available of the reliable tests, but see if you can get something other than the ELISA, which has had problems in recent years. If one of you returns a negative, you'll want to re-test in about 16 weeks, to be sure any antibodies have fully formed.
could you also have had a secondary bacterial infection that caused a cellulitis which the iv clindamycin was helpful for? yes indeed! mouth germs aren't so normal in the breast area if the skin was broken and it could've easily caused a cellulitis as well as the herpes skin infection. sometimes if it weren't for bad luck, you'd have no luck at all as the saying goes.
should you doubt your lesion culture? not at all.
should herpes pcr blood testing been done on you? no as was already mentioned. herpes is not a blood borne infection so detecting herpes dna in the blood is very time sensitive and typically only with a newly acquired infection with a very limited window of opportunity in adults so your test coming back negative is not surprising at all. your provider should better educate themselves on herpes blood testing so they can offer the best testing for their patients. If they are routinely doing herpes pcr blood testing, a patient could sue them for malpractice!
so what do you do now? well continue the antibiotics and antivirals. is it worth more herpes testing for you or hubby? well not really. pretty clear cut from the sounds of things - hsv1 skin infection on the breast that came from hubby's mouth. in the future the only real precaution you should take is if hubby has an active cold sore, he shouldn't perform oral sex on you. we don't really know how much protection a hsv1 breast infection would give you from contracting hsv1 genitally from oral sex but overall the risk is very low. no real other precautions to take. should you get a recurrence of symptoms on your breast, start acyclovir within 24-48 hours to help speed healing.
grace