terrified - is it herpes?

[soconfused]

So this is the story - i have been 3 different gynos in the past month- in the past 3 weeks i have been examined 4 times. I have been with the same person for a few years and as far as i know he has not been with anyone else, i really do trust that. About a month ago i thought i was coming down with a bacterial infection, which i had another time - feeling kind of swollen all over and red. I went to the gyno and she did basic std cultures as per my request (not for herpes because there were no sores) and bloodwork for anything else, except hsv, which i hadnt even considered kind of always believing that if you had herpes, you would know it from the pain and noticiable sores - Everything was normal, the doc said i was probably feeling swollen because of my period coming. Then i made the mistake of looking online at symptoms of hsv and about how you dont always have bumps or sores during an outbreak. So now feeling more irratated i went to a 2nd doctor and she said it was yeast and gave me a perscription for that. I felt better for about a week, then i began to get red and i felt tingling all over - but this could have been from moisture from the yeast - anyway - i went back to a 3rd doctor just last wednesday and she said i still had the yeast (culturing it to be sure) and said that my glands werent swollen or anything - basically nothing would point to herpes. Still scared and not feeling better i went back on friday and she did another exam - even taking out a mirror to be sure she looked at every area bothering me. She even said (this is probably too much imformation) but that i have thin vagina skin, and thats why i get easily irritated and thats why when i examine myself i can see so much. So then saturday i thought i felt some bumps that werent there before - i dont feel pain or tingling or itching or burning - but they feel wet - yet its hard to tell because i am still having some discharge from either the yeast or now possibly being so close to my period. I know that there are always bumps down there - and they could be the normal ones - but do they blend that easily? also, is it possible for them to be painless - and would my glands have been swollen friday if by saturday i noticed the bumps? I think i may just be driving myself crazy - but can anyone please explain to me what these bumps look like (size and color) and if they stand out or if they could be easily overlooked. Also, if i thought i was experiancing this so-called prodome on sunday and monday - saw the doctor wednesday and friday - could suddenly on saturday i have the bumps? anyone please some advice?! thank you

[soconfused]

just wanted to ask - does anyone know of online pictures that show the stages or more mild cases - everything online seems to be severe and that must not always be the case. Thanks again.

[sad2bhere]

Well yes you do sound terrified! So sorry you are having to go through this!

I thought the same thing about the online pics of herpes both here and at other sites. They were much more severe than anything I have seen on myself. In fact, I've had yeast infestion that looked alot uglier than herpes. Yeast = curd like thick white coating, and underneath bright, red irritated skin. The coating can come off in patches, making it look - well very patchwork and scary.

Herpes, for me anyway, the initial bumps are felt before they appear, it's like an itching that's very specific to that one bad spot I have, the place(s) I got my initial outbreak. It can be described as itching or tingling. Also sometimes I have a shooting pain that runs up inside my pelvis or groin. This sign is unmistakable for me, it really gets my attention! Whereas sometimes you can mentally dismiss a little itch. I can't 'dismiss' or ignore the shooting pain. This is a prodromal symptom that came on much later for me, I don't remember it with my initial outbreak. Or sometimes there will be aching in the lower back, or slight stinging with urination. AND..yes,...a little heavier than usual white vaginal discharge - with no odor. (nothing like the discharge with the yeast infection)

The bumps are usually the same color as the surrounding flesh - on ME, they are usually three little bumps together, that I can feel with my hand on my vulva when I go to the bathroom, or if I check myself with a hand mirror I see them. By the time I see them hopefully I have already started to take meds. If I take the meds right away, I don't even see them crust over necessarily, they burst and look like a pin prick mark, then heal over. When I was newly diagnosed, or didn't have meds to take to speed through the episode, they could definitely grow in size, to perhaps a dime, clustered and bumpy, get progressively more filled with fluid and sore, until they burst, and then the skin would look like a flat red ulcerated area, redder than the skin around it. It's also very sore when it first breaks open but as the skin toughens it feels better.

I have given you a detailed description of what an outbreak is like for ME, but it varies so much from person to person. I definitely don't think my outbreaks resemble anything like those pics you see online. In fact if I had not gone to my MD during the intial outbreak when I did, it probably would have taken much longer to diagnose.

Hope this helps-