Conflicting Results

[VeryNervous172]

Please help me, I am so scared.  I noticed a lesion on my buttocks that felt like a boil and the dermatologist did a culture of the skin.  They put me on 7 days of antibiotics and gave me a cream in case it was caused by a virus.  I called the dermatologist's office for the lab results and I was told that it was normal skin flora, that the lesion was not bacterial or viral.  I asked the assistant a second time, are your sure.  She replied again that it was normal skin flora and not bacterial or viral.  Today I got a call from the same office and was told that it was herpes.  How is this possible?  How can my skin be normal, yet have herpes?  They also told me to call the office to start treatment.  But it is Friday.  Why would they start me on treatment immediately.  I am so confused and scared.

[gracefromHHP]

they evidently did 2 seperate cultures and the first time you were only told the results of the bacterial culture and not also the result of the viral culture that was done for herpes.

No this is not shingles. The lab would've reported it as herpes zoster, not as herpes simplex.

give the clinic a call monday and ask them if the lesion culture was typed to know if it's hsv1 or hsv2.  You and your current partner should also get type specific herpes igg blood tests to see who has what.

grace

[VeryNervous172]

I have an additional question, is it possible that I have shingles?

[VeryNervous172]

They didn't tell me which specific type I had.  That's one of the things that has me worried that I may have been misdiagnosed.  The assistant said on 2/18/09 that both cultures were negative, but then calls me on 2/20/09 and said that it was herpes.  Wouldn't that have been included in the results that I got on 2/18/09.  

I don't have a regular partner.  I was celibate for 5 years until January 2009.  I had one partner and we had sex on two occasions.  Once protected and once unprotected.  I never had an outbreak, lesion, burning or itching until the lesion showed up on 2/13/09.  And it showed up quickly, with no other signs or symptoms.  That is what is so confusing and scary.

Do you think I should bet a blood test to confirm the diagnosis?

[gracefromHHP]

Sounds like the bacterial skin culture is what came back as normal skin flora and that they just got the viral culture results back today.

At this point there's really not any reason to treat it - it's well on its way to healing on its own.  I encourage you to read the herpes handbook and watch the patient counseling video at www.westoverheights.com. both are free and are terrific resources to help you start learning about your genital herpes infection. if you have a regular partner, they will need to get a type specific herpes igg blood test to see what their status is too. did the clinic tell you if you have hsv1 or hsv2 genitally?

grace