Herpes or something else?????

[veryconcerned77]

Dear Dr.,

I have recently developed what started as pimple like bumps with fluid about 5 days ago, now all but one (the largest and most painful), have turned into small red spots and most except that one looks like it is disappearing.  The painful one has a red area around it and after the fluid seems to have gone away is more like an open blister or like a big ant bite that was scratched until it turned into an open blister.

I should also note that all these bumps are on my inner thigh area.  Now for what I felt led up to them....Last week I had to go out of town for the day to attend a graduation and for some reason I had an unusually high amount of vaginal discharge that day.  Due to the situation I was unable to go home for a dry pair of underwear and the area stayed very moist all day.  The next day I noticed the area where my pantyline was and around the area that was irritated was developing some bumps.  By the time they were big enough to examine, they looked like pimples.  I started applying hydrocortisone, but that didn't help, and my vaginal discharge was resolving, there was no pain with urination, no itching, but they became a little painful.  

I tried to make an appt with my OB-GYN, but I had to wait for like 5 days.  As it turned out, I already had a dermatologist appt for an accutane checkup/bloodwork.  I decided to talk to her about it, and she ordered bloodwork and took swabs, but seemed pretty sure it was herpes, even though all that I read, doesn't really match with a typical herpes outbreak other than the location.  

Now I should mention that I've been married for 9 years and with the same man for 14 years,  and he's the only person I've ever had unprotected sex with, though not in the past 6 years.  I have also only had one other sexual partner in my life, but we used protection.  I know he's had more partners before we married than me, but he's never had any genital outbreak like this.  Another thing I should mention is that two days before I traveled and had the discharge, I shaved my inner thigh area to take care of the few hairs that might poke out of my swimsuit since we have been taking our boat out at a local lake, then my husband and I also had vaginal and oral sex, and we've all been recovering from a bit of allergies and congestion.

I should also mention that in the past (no time recently), he has had a (cold sore) on his lip, but I did not know until I started researching that this was also herpes and may be transmitted to the genital area through oral sex.

So the dermatologist yesterday said it would take a while to get result back, and she gave me a prescription for valtrex to treat it as if it was herpes, but the past two days I've been applying Bactroban 2% that I had for something else, and it seems to be helping.  Since then the fluid seems to have dissapated and the smaller spots are starting to disappear.  So now I'm reluctant to fill the valtrex and I'm hoping it might have been a bacteria from all the discharge that infected the area.  Also, after the first spots, I later got another on my buttcheek and aonther right where my swimsuit elastic is.

Please help????

[petal130]

"Pretty sure" and "seems" are not the same as bonafide 100% positive for herpes. Wait and find out (and be sure proper testing was done) before slapping a herpes label on yourself.

[veryconcerned77]

Just an update...seems I do have a newly acquired case of genital HSV (still waiting to find out which), but pretty sure it's HSV 1, since the ONLY place I would have gotten it is from my husband, who has suffered from occasional "cold sores."

Although he did not have one at the time we engaged in oral sex, he must have passed it on anyway.  Truthfully, I was so uneducated about Herpes until now.  I had no idea that cold sores were a form of Herpes and contagious to the genital area.  

Oh well, it was a little depressing at first, and we've talked about the possibility that he could now get it genitally, but he's okay with it, and he had no idea what he had was Herpes either.  I guess there's really not enough education about it out there.

Thanks for the information and support.

[gracefromHHP]

Really nothing else we can add here. You saw a provider who gave their opinion and prescribed treatment. Waiting for the results of your blood test and your lesion culture is the best you can do at this point. You never, ever, ever have to treat herpes lesions ifyou don't want to so no harm by not treating them if this is herpes.

If you need help with your blood test results, post them here - ie hsv1 igg 4.4 and hsv2 igg .45 is all you need to post for me.

grace