Cold Sore or what. Any treatment¿?

[alaskajack]

Cold Sore or what. Any treatment??

I am in Mexico for 6 weeks and after a bout of flu which I am still recovering from(coughing) i developed a small white pimple on the edge of my upper lip. The whole side of my lip is sore and the pain even runs up into my eye.

After about 4 days the sore is now open and ugly and about 4 mm in diameter.

Is this a type of herpes and regardless of what it is is there a remedy to speed healing?

I have experienced this type of thing some years ago and it was referred to as a cold sore.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

jack

[Christie]

Did you see a doctor and they diagnosed it as a cold sore? (referring to the one you've had before) If in fact it is a cold sore than that is HSV-1 which is oral herpes...the common term for this is cold sores. I know that antivirals like Valtrex and Famvir can help in relieving and speed up the heeling of these. Those are only available by prescription though. I would avoid all contact with the sore if possible. www.herpes.com is a good site to look up some information...they have a page for treatment options. Hope this helps.

[alaskajack]

Thanks Christie,

One of the advantages of being in Mexico is that you don?t need a prescription for anything except narcotics. This cuts the doctors out of a lot of business as the pharmacists are very willing to prescribe based on your description of the symptoms.

In my case the pharmacist gave me a tube of Aciclovir for a total cost of $1.75. In the US it would have been $160 doctor visit plus another couple of hundred for lab tests. Then I would have had to buy the drugs. But, I would have a professional opinion of whether or not I in fact did have herpes simplex.

I am a bit leary of using it until I do a bit more research as you suggeted as I did find a reference from someone who used Aciclovir and ended up with a much worse situation.

I will research and try the antivirals you suggested. Ten years ago you got one of these and eventually it went away. We have come to depend on modern medicine to tell us everything about us and what to do if it is potentially a problem. A couple of generations ago you just eventually died and that was the end of it. As I am living today and not then I will take advanage of most modern medicine even if it is expensive.

THANX

jack