potential for oral herpes?

[nd613]

I had a sore throat which started two days ago. I often get sore throats due to my allergies/nasal spray so I didn't think anything of it - they usually go away in a day. But when it lasted into day 2 I checked it out with a light and saw little white spots on my throat. I have gotten strep and tonsillitis many times and it did not look like that. Since it's a holiday weekend, not much I could do on the doctor front so I figured I would see how it panned out. This morning I woke up and there are little red spots up near the top of my throat, my right tonsil is swollen and has little spots on it which are red with a tiny dot of white inside them. This is unlike any other non-herpes infection I've ever gotten and it seems to fit herpes symptoms as I've researched them. Also, I have felt muscle pain (as if I had a fever but I had no fever) the last day or two. My lymph nodes do not feel swollen. Taking Advil helps the muscle fatigue and the sore throat. I've read that herpes outbreaks on the throat is excruciatingly painful, and this is not. It's certainly uncomfortable but I have felt much worse with my cases of strep throat and tonsillitis. I am hoping it doesn't get worse! Also, I have no other sores anywhere on my lips, gums, cheeks or outside my mouth at all.

However, from what I have read about herpes and its incubation period, my risk of exposure seems minimal. I haven't given unprotected oral sex in over one month and the last person I kissed was about 2 weeks ago and he had no outward signs of herpes (we also had been dating two months so it seems odd to me that the last time we kissed, when we ended things, would be the day I catch it from him). My questions:

1) How likely is it that I have oral herpes if I have only these sores on the top of my throat and one tonsil?
2) Is it likely that I caught it from the aforementioned guy? We were not exclusive so I guess it's possible that he caught it from someone else within that two months, though he claimed he was not seeing anyone else.
3) If it IS herpes, how long will it last in my throat and is there a chance that during this outbreak it could spread to other parts of my mouth?
4) If it IS herpes, and I have recurrent outbreaks, will they occur in the throat again or can they occur anywhere?

Thanks for any help you can send my way. I'm a very nervous ill person and always get very anxious about what I could be sick with if I'm unsure. I will make an appointment with my doctor on Monday but that seems so far away!!

[gracefromHHP]

This could be oral herpes and it could also be many other things - still a lot of upper respiratory illnesses going around even though it's summertime. At this point we'd only be guessing and the best course of action is following up monday with your provider for an exam.

grace

[nd613]

Sorry to reply to my own post, but I just double checked my throat to make sure I gave an accurate description of the sores and realized I didn't entirely! Let me describe again:

My tonsil and throat is red (where there are sores) and there are pinkish-red bumps on my tonsils and small pink spots at the top of my throat. There is ONE sore that is red with a white spot in it. There is also one tiny white spot. There is also one larger lump at the bottom of my tonsil which I cannot see very well which is pale pink to white. Unlike step these pale pink and white parts do not look like stuff ON my tonsils rather that it is just the color of my tonsil. I also just noticed the small pink spots at the top of my throat were mildly on the other side of the top of my throat (as I mentioned, this is all on the right tonsil/side of my throat).

Thanks!!