We get multiple posts day after day about these on the forums.  Honestly, we can not really help you much at all with these sorts of questions until after you've went to the clinic and were seen and had a work up started. Some bumps are completely normal. Most lumps and rashes have nothing to do with sti's.  We can not diagnose you online so you need to go and be seen and get these looked at. Once you have done that, by all means come back and post and/ or give an update for us and we'll give you our 2 cents and some support but we can not really help you much at all until after you've had the most basic of testing done.  Honestly not everything is sti related and it takes proper evaluation and testing to figure out what is going on.

Thank you for your understanding with this.

Odds are that if you are reading this, you've posted on a volunteer forum here on medhelp and received help with your problem.  So how can you give back?

President Obama has been reminding Americans to give service - in other words, volunteer your time to help others. I totally support this initiative 100% !  I think all of us can try harder to give a little of ourselves to others. It's so much more than just writing out a check to a charity - money helps them but most charities would just as well like to have your time helping them as they would your money!  Also it's not all about helping an official charity - it's about being "nice" to others and giving of your time and talents to help someone too. I think we all tend to easily get caught up in ourselves and our lives and forget to help others.  

Challenge yourself to do 52 hours of service this year. That's just 1 hour a week - break it up as you need to to fit your schedule.  Not everyone can take a day off work to help a charity and not everyone even has time to officially schedule in something but there are so many things you can still do to help others and over the course of a year, it'll add up.

Some suggestions of how to give back for the help you've been given here :

- help out an elderly neighbor. offer to mow their lawn, shovel their side walk, lug their garbage out, reprogram their vcr timer after you've lost electricity in a storm or something  - it's a good way to get to know your neighbors better and help them out with little things

- help out a neighbor with kids. offer to help with entertaining them or baby sitting them while they get to go out for once.  I know when my  babies were newborns , I lived for someone to just stop by to hold the baby so I could get a shower most days!   Also sometimes you get so wrapped up in being a parent you forget what it's like to have "adult" conversations - just sitting and talking is sometimes much needed too! If you know a craft, ask if they want to come over and you can teach then and  their kids a crafty type project

- If you are a church goer - volunteer to help other members or help at church functions.  Ask if someone on the prayer list could use a meal dropped off or their dog walked or something while they are going thru a tough time.

- call your local chapter of the american cancer society and ask if they need volunteers to help take people to their doctor's appointments. Offer to help sell daffodils at their spring fundraiser - either sit at one of their tables somewhere or take a form to work to post.

- donate blood!  You can do this every 56 days. It takes anywhere from 1-2 hours total depending on if there's a crowd or not. Visit the red cross website to find a donation location near you. ( yes you can donate blood when you have herpes  - certain std's there is a waiting time though  so check the website )

- take the time to go thru your closest and your basement and donate clothes and shoes to charity. Call your local women's shelter to see if they want baby clothing  and stuff ( cribs, car seats, play pens etc ) if you have those.

- donate food to your local food bank or call to donate your time. if your grocery store offers free turkey's or ham's if you spend X amount of money there for the holidays, donate your certificate to your local food bank too

- take the time to stop in on a forum on medhelp  - even if it's not something you think you know "enough" about to post specifics - you can always post a hang in there , been there, done that and know how stressful the waiting is type post to let the poster know that folks are reading their posts and caring about them :)  

- if you are making a batch of cookies, make it a double batch and give half to someone. if there's a close neighbor you don't really know yet, drop them off to them

- be a big brother or a big sister

- volunteer your time/talents at a local after school program for kids

- volunteer at your local soup kitchen or homeless shelter

- pick a name off the community christmas tree in your town and buy for a needy family in your community

- if you are crafty, make blankets to donate to local charities or to your local hospital - knit, crochet , sew - there are even no knit fleece blanket patterns online free  or pick up a $4 or $5 fleece blanket at the holiday sales and donate it to charity

- offer to help out at your local humane society or animal shelter - walk dogs, wash kennels, donate food and old blankets etc.  some even take old chairs and couches for the animals to lounge around on too

This is just a list of what came to my head just sitting here. So many more opportunities out there to donate some of you  to someone else even if you don't have a spare dollar to spend :)  Give back - some day you might need someone to help you.

grace

http://www.ashastd.org/pdfs/HerpesBloodTestGuide.pdf  is the link to the newest updated version of this.  

Also don't forget - www.herpesdiagnosis.com also has terrific info for more reading.

grace

First off - I am employed in the medical field but I am not here functioning in that role.   I do this all as a volunteer and I don't receive any payment for the services I provide. Think of me as just another "joe" with herpes who has taken the time to educate herself quite a bit on the virus and wants to help others.  I have been doing the online message boards now for over 10 years and I truly believe in helping others get accurate information and support.  I've walked in your shoes, I know how it is and I want to help you be educated on the disease, not fear it!  Some folks volunteer at churches, some volunteer at schools, I volunteer online so I don't have to get out of my pj's :)  It's what works for me and my schedule I keep.  

Second of all - I am not employed by any pharmaceutical company. I do not receive any compensation for recommending any medication or product. I really wish I did - I have kids who need college educations and any extra cash would be appreciated!!  Alas though the only thing I've ever gotten from the pharmaceuticals that I didn't have to pay for myself is a few free dinners from attending educational presentations from them. Momma didn't raise no fool - never turn down a free meal even if it means sitting thru a slide show :)  Yes, you can get folks to listen to lectures on incontinence in post menopausal women if you offer them a free movie and popcorn for doing so....he he he.   I've probably still given them far more than they've given me since I've been paying for herpes antivirals for over 20 years now....geesh!

So how did I get to know all that I know?  I take the time to keep updated on the journal articles about herpes as they come out. I thoroughly enjoy reading them and my background allows me to understand them so I can use that knowledge to apply to the boards.   I  attend the cdc std conferences when I can afford to do so ( I have to pay my own way to go to them ). I co-presented a poster at the last one even which was fun!   I make a real effort to stay as up to date as I can. Of course I've also had hsv2 myself for over 20 years now so that helps with the tips and tricks part of the boards for dealing with ob's, talking to partners etc. I  believe in giving the  most accurate information as I can so that erroneous info and myths about herpes do not continue to get passed around to folks.   I stumbled upon the online boards many years into my own herpes infection and realized that I really didn't know anything at all about the virus that I had lived with for so many years. It gave me reason to learn more for myself and to pass on to others.  10+ years of doing this, I've learned a lot :)

Why do I recommend most of the websites/products/books etc that I do? Well because I feel that they are the best resources out there. I don't have a ton of money to waste and I assume most others folks don't either so I try to make sure that I'm passing on free resources for education as much as I can. I also try to make sure that I only pass on accurate sources of info too. Terri Warren's free herpes handbook is awesome and she keeps it updated regularly so it remains accurate.  If you can afford her $15 book on herpes - even better, if not, plenty of ways to get the answers and support you need on the board.  Am I going to waste your time with a $40+ supplement that hasn't been proven to be effective? No I will not.   Will I tell you to take a more expensive medication when a cheaper one works just as well? Nope.  I'm a big fan of cheap as well as getting the most bang for your buck as I often say.  

I've been on medhelp for 4 years now. I am the Co-community leader for the herpes community and the std community.  I also volunteer on other boards under other names.  I also have the 2 best kids in the world and a bf who seems to think he can keep me from becoming a crazy cat lady some day :)  I also have 2 dogs which I  frequently offer to anyone who wants them depending on their behavior that day.    

grace