Many Questions

[sonrisa]

Greetings,

This is my first post here, I hope I'm in the correct forum.

A bit of info regarding my case; I am a 47 yr old male and I contacted HSV 1 some 20 yrs ago. Like many of us, I was engaging in foolish, irresponsible, unprotected heterosexual activity, wasn't being monogamous for a woman that I loved and one of those partners gave me a gift for life. I don't live dangerously like that anymore and haven't for over 10 yrs now. After a relationship breakup I have even been celibate for about 4 yrs now. My outbreaks would occur on, around, or inside my right nostril and would move to a new spot on my nose with each outbreak.

I try to not eat chocolate, nuts, peanut butter, etc. I try to take my vitamins including L-Lysine. I can definately tell stress plays a part in my outbreaks and I try to get sufficient rest. I can also tell the sun plays a part and always I try to wear sunscreen on my face.

In recent years my outbreaks had seemed to be less frequent and not nearly as bad. I was feeling better about my HSV 1 future until recently... I now have HSV 1 virus on my penis. About 2 months ago the first tiny redness of a pimple like bump appeared on my penis, then went away. Each time the redness on my penis has reappeared larger than before. Two days ago the red area was as big as my thumbnail. Now today, the area has gone into scaling (shedding) and looks disgusting. After alll these years of seeming to be getting better on my nose and less frequent or visible, now obviously this is very discouraging!

This past winter season I have had 2 extremely bad flu/colds which, each time took at least one month to get over. No doubt my immune system was already weakoned. This past week I have had headaches at the base of my skull area into my temples. I can usually sense this type headache sensation is potentially the lead up to an outbreak.

By reading various post on this site, I have had many of questions answered and confirmed. I currently don't have medical insurance for a doctors visit and Valtrex. Are there any things I can do until I see a doctor? I have just started taking St. John's Wort, Echinacea, and Golden Seal in addition to vitamins and L-Lysine.

Here are a few more of my questions (the fact that I have even been celibate for several yrs makes me wonder why the spread to my penis):

1. Could the herpes virus have relocated to my penis instead of my nose? Can it move within my body-nervous system? Or, is it most likely that I may have transferred shedding scales from my nose to my penis-perhaps having touched my nose during sleep, then touching my penis when I went to the restroom?

2. I am always fearfull of sitting on public toilets. I remember my penis touching the seat of a public toilet, can herpes have been transferred this way?

It seems this past year I have been extremely tired all the time, like I just can't get enough rest and want to sleep all the time (I don't think I'm depressed, just extremely tired). Things I know I should change to help-I am a smoker, not excercising like I should and am 30-40 lbs over weight. But, I just don't have energy and motivation.

3. Can herpes make a person feel tired all the time?

4. I've seen talk of choraphor (a topical). Does this really help?

5. My vision has gotten bad (blurry) this past year too-I have to use reading glasses. Most likely this is due to my age but the blurry vision seemed to happen overnight. I have not had outbreaks near my eyes and I guess I'm always afraid of the what if's. Can herpes affect vision even though there aren't outbreaks in or around the eyes?

6. Again possibly due to age, improper eating, and rest-I seem foggy headed these past couple of years. It's like I can't remeber things, I get tongue tied in conversations and can't keep my focus. Maybe I'm searching in the dark here but, all things make me wonder. Can herpes affect the brain, memory, etc?

It's definately hard to envision a future life with a mate. I mean the nose outbreaks were one thing but now the penis is altogether freaking me out. Especially that the area is getting bigger with each day or week.

I can't go back in time and change the past. I could use some moral and medical advice to deal with the now.

Regards