HSV2 and Nerve Pain

[Blueskies66]

This is not a question and no reply is needed.  This is an update to a thread that I posted on March 30, 2009 that was a long thread and looked over by Anna Wald.  I wanted to provide an update for people that are searching for their own answers regarding chronic post herpetic neuralgia pain immediately following an HSV2 infection.   After a battery of tests and no answers but (you are healthy we can't find anything wrong with you) to continual phn symptoms in my pelvic area an article was published in Science Translational Medicine Nov 18, 2009.  Researcher Bill Halford through clinical data with patients swabbing 4 times a day, concluded that nerve cells shed tiny amounts virus almost constantly inside the genital skin and act as "viral factories".    The title of the article is Herpes Never Sleeps.  Through a new model and approach they now believe that herpes does not shut off between outbreaks but continually replicate making the antiviral drugs less effective.  

For me this explains the steady outbreaks despite taking the valtrex everyday and the constant post herpetic neuralgia symptoms.  I have now had HSV2 just over 3 yrs and FINALLY I am seeing some improvement with this chronic and very painful debilitating condition.    Hopefully this current research will continue to move in a direction that can provide answers for those of us suffering.   This experience has been profoundly physically painful.   NO PERSON should have to endure this type of suffering and pain!  

My hope is the THOUSANDS of DOLLARS needlessly spent on "other tests" can be avoided which further places a burden on the patient and our healthcare system.   Doctors need to provide "better answers" for this type of pain and why it occurs.  

RBM


This discussion is related to HSV2 and Nerve Pain.

[sheila_123]

Hi Blueskies66 & mona0704, I have been reading your posts and could not agree with you more:( Everything you have said has been parallel to my experiences so far. Please please tell me there is hope and that we will be ok. I miss being "me" - a perfectly healthy, fun-loving, person with a great passion for life and a bright future to being depressed, miserable, & above all w/chronic burning pain that keeps me in bed all day. The last 6 months of my life has involved going from Dr to Dr without any success. I'd love to know how you guys are doing and what has or hasn't worked for you? Thanks for sharing your stories. This is not in our head. It's real and we need to work together, because no one deserves to suffer this much. HSV2 is nothing to be overlooked - it's obviously debilitating for so many of us. I look forward to hearing good news from you.

[mona0704]

I have it too..chronic..very few hours in the day where I'm not in pain and especially before my period it's vicious..it's more of a flare up of labia and nerves on pelvic floor..it sucks! I have also seen "specialists" and they lie, because they don't know what it's like because they  have never gone through it.

I think the virus is making the nerves misfire and it sometimes comes as abdominal pain, sometimes a UTI like pain, sometimes just burns inside and radiates and gets hotter and hotter until you want to scream and then subsides again..I got off Valtrex after 2 years, it was making me sweat and give me cold chills at night and every night was like this with the exception of a few nights here and there..It also made me gain water weight, made me tired and made me lose my sex drive even more than the herpes.

I found a bit of relief with histamines but with a lot side effects like drowsiness which sucks that I can't take. I have been using a hardcore back massager and putting it on the spot between the vagina and the anus for about an hour and pushing the vagina muscles in and out almost like having a bowel movement while pressing HARD on the massager ..when it hits the nerve that is misfiring you will KNOW! It's agony and you'll want to throw up from the shooting pain, but keep doing it for about half an hour and you'll have great relief for a few hours at least! :)

[joojee2010]

You are not alone, I bet this is a common problem that Dr's like to throw under the rug.... rrrrrr.....

[joojee2010]

How are you doing today?