What tests to ask for?

[Katie1967]

First this place has been a god send today and has made me feel that no matter happens, I'm ok and thank you all so much for your honesty and being so generous with things so personal.

Second you all seem so knowledgeable that I hope you can help me so I get the answers I need from my Drs appt tomorrow  

I am a sufferer of cold sores, have my whole life, never really bothered me. As I move into menopause, cold sores are more frequent and I have standing script for an antiviral to spot treat and it always does the trick. I'm very good at catching it early and it rarely gets to the blister stage. I never felt stimgmatized by them but was always careful about kissing and oral sex during an outbreak.

My husband and I haven't had sex in nearly 3 years and our marriage is falling apart. I met someone, developed deep feelings and had a sexual encounter with him in January 2015. The man became quite possessive after and I tried to break it off several times. He didn't like that and ultimately he sexually assaulted me on Mothers Day weekend. I saw my dr 2 days later and she ran a full std panel and thankfully all those tests were negative including follow up AIDS test. I realize now a herpes test was not included but realistically it would have been too soon.

After the assault it triggered what could only be considered a bout of OCD and I was excessively bathing and shaving, giving my self a nice vaginal bacterial infection in the process. 3 weeks after the assault I got an irritation, chalked up to an ingrown hair and ignored it. Second one appeared about 6 weeks later but a slightly different spot, 3rd one about 3 weeks after that in another spot. None were particularly painful, and I tried to compare what they looked like to the pictures online. None lasted more than a few days and there was slight pain, mostly on urinarion, and none lasted more than a couple of days. I just wasn't ready to face that it might actually be something and didn't have them checked out. Monday morning another one appeared in a spot where there is no hair and is completely different than anything I've had before. It looks just like a whitehead I would get on my face(is that too graphic?)  Any pain is more from pressure of it swelling then the sore itself, the sore is pretty hard and it doesn't hurt to touch. It hasn't gotten larger or burst but stayed pretty much the same the last two days. No burn, no itch, no body aches, chills, swollen glands like I would get with a cold sore. My dr told me not to panic because it could likely be a small cyst. If it was just this one sore I might not be as panicked but with the other ones previously, it just needs to be addressed, ignoring it won't make it go away. They most definitely never looked like a wart but that is a question I plan on asking as well.

If you have made it this far, thank you! I've done a ton or research in the last couple of days and I'm just confused. I have suddenly started to think about every lump or bump or irritation in my whole life after reading how so many people have herpes and not know it. I hate my brain....

My main question is what kind of tests do I need to make sure they run to get the most accurate diagnosis.  From what I've read visual isn't the best indicator because people have been told it was herpes when it wasn't, and vice versa,  There is a high rate of false negatives for cultures and since I suffer from cold sores, I will test positive for hsv1 in a blood test because of it, so do I ask them to run a blood test for hsv2 as well or does that come after the culture? A lot of you have mentioned that a Drs aren't as educated as they should be so I want to be an informed patient. If everything comes back negative, how long should I wait before retesting or is that too far ahead to look...and if I do test positive is it possible to tell if I did indeed get it from this encounter or could I have had it dormant in my body and only now come out because I'm so emotionally stressed(I haven't slept more than 5 hours at a time since the assault and my normal eating habits are tending towards more comfort foods). Of course, I guess it doesn't really matter because it is what is, and no changing it. 

Lastly, as a massage therapist I really appreciate all the talk of herbs and alternative therapies and I'm making note of them all, just in case. It's also heart warming to hear a lot of success stories and I know that this assault and if I have indeed contracted gh because of it, doesn't have to define me. It's just a little difficult right now because I already feel dirty and ashamed as it is but realistically, it's a skin disorder that can be managed. I see people suffer from much worse on a daily basis.

Blessings and Peace,

Katie

 

 

[WilsoInAus]

The best testing you start with is for IgG antibodies type specific for HSV-1 and HSV-2. Ask for herpeselect and state that you will be wanting a full printout of the results with the values. Your risk of low positives for HSV-2 is higher than average given a HSV-1 infection. This is why you always test for both.