Cold Sores Causing Fatigue?

[anxious15]

I had an initial outbreak of HSV1 inside my mouth that was accompanied by fever, aches and multiple sores inside my mouth a year and a half ago. I had never gotten a sore on the outside of my mouth until yesterday. I started feeling achy, but no fever or anything. Later in the day I got a bump which I put some abreva on, which then turned into two tiny blisters, which have crusted over today. I have been putting abreva on religiously every few hours.
Is it possible that the aches could be caused by this non-primary outbreak? I don’t have any other symptoms of a cold or anything and I don’t have sores anywhere else, but I know usually the aches are only associated with primary outbreaks.

[auntiejessi]

It's possible. Some outbreaks leave me more tired and achy than others do, but more so if I was already stressed or tired before.

In any case, you'll know in a couple of days whether or not you have something else going on, like a cold or another illness. In time, you'll also know what's normal for you with hsv1. There are some things that are expected with herpes, oral or genital, and some things that vary from person to person.

Abreva only shortens the outbreak by about a day to day and a half. You'd be better off getting a prescription from your doctor for Valtrex or acyclovir that you can take at the very first sign of anything, and maybe prevent an outbreak, or shorten it a lot more than that.

[anxious15]

Thank you for the response! I usually have acyclovir, but I went away for a week and of course I forgot it and that’s when I get this cold sore. It seems to be pretty mild and already gone down a lot. I’ll be home in a few days so I can take some acyclovir if it’s still there! Thanks so much for the response (:

[anxious15]

I’m also starting grad school in a week and I’ve been pretty stressed about that, so I suspect that would be exacerbating any tiredness or fatigue this outbreak would be causing me.

[auntiejessi]

Ohh I get it, but honestly, for me anyway, grad school was so much easier than undergrad. I mean, I'm not an attorney or doctor or anything, so that may make it different for me. I wrote a lot more papers, and read a LOT more, but because it was mostly all stuff I was interested in, it was so much easier. Friends of mine have said the same thing.

So that was really off topic, and getting back on track lol - stress, fatigue and sleep changes are definite triggers. Grad school isn't known for sleep regularities, etc., so pay attention to this. If you start getting a lot of outbreaks, you may want to consider taking acyclovir suppressively.

Good luck!