Concerned parent

[deliza13]

I am hoping you can help me with this until I am able to get my daughter her pediatrician on Monday.  I have been diagnosed with genital herpes via swap testing (I do not know 1 or 2, I assume 2 because I have frequent but mild outbreaks).  I also have a five year old daughter who is my life.  We take baths together in the evening as we always have since birth, and I have shared towels with her as well.  Last night she came to me saying she saw blood when she wiped after going pee pee.  I immediately inspected her and found slight blood that looked as though it was coming from a tiny abrasion of some sort...it looked like very tiny blood vessels on her left labia. I used a q-tip and applied a little vasaline and prayed it would be better in the morning.  Today she woke up and said she had no pain, but that it hurts a little to pee pee.  There was a tiny bit (and I am talking VERY tiny amount) of blood on toilet paper after she wiped.  I looked her over again and saw nothing really except a pin point sized blood mark under the skin in addition to the red blood vessel like marks I saw the night before.  

Long story short I am utterly TERRIFIED I have given my daughter genital herpes.   I can't think of anything else this could be other than possible scratches from her own nails, which could be likely as she likes to run around naked (has since whe was a baby) when we are in the comfort of our own home.  I have tried telling myself that is all this is, but when I look at it I don't see any definitive scratch.    I am going out of my mind...please help.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

The lesion you describe does not sound at all like a HSV lesion.  I suspect it is due to something else.   EWH

[deliza13]

I hope you don't mind me bugging you one last time... daughter no longer burns upon urniation but she does have one little pinpoint mark (a little larger than pinpoint) that seems to have blood under the skin which is what I think caused the slight bleeding the first night.  No bleeding has occured since. I can't tell if it's a scratch or possible ulcer like you descibe.  Would this mark warrent a trip to the doctor given I have genital herpes?  I am so worried I have given it to her.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to the Forum. Herpes is not transmitted by bathing in the same bath tub or by sharing towels.  The lesion you describe does not sound at all like HSV and could be due to some other sort of trauma or other irritation.  The lesions of herpes appear as small "water blisters" which may then burst to become shallow ulcers, not as dilated blood vessels.  Sometimes with irritation, blood vessels dilate and become more obvious than they are normally and that may be what you are seeing.  As far as the burning on urination is concerned, she may have a urinary tract infection and it may be best to get this evaluated sooner than waiting until Monday.  I would call the Pediatrician's office and ask whomever is on call if you can be evaluated earlier.  In the meantime, I would also not apply Vaseline or otherwise manipulate the area as this may chance its appearance making it difficult to sort out. In addition, sometimes application of Vaseline actually slows healing.   I hope these comments are helpful to you.  EWH