TEN months and STILL having OHSV2 symptoms every day...this is ridiculous

[desertdweller]

Hi All,

First off I want to say thank you to everyone who has given me advice from my previous posts.  I'm not posting again to invalidate or disregard your advice.  It's just to provide some more information.

I'm still not sure if I'm having symptoms of OHSV2 or not,  I already have GHSV2 and performed oral on a GF with the same.  About a week later, I didn't feel well and had what I thought was a shaving nick in the right corner of my mouth.  Went to urgent care and the doctor said she didn't think it was anything.  From October until December I would feel like I was getting sick and then feel better.  Since December I've felt well but there's a spot in the right corner of my mouth that feels numb and feels funny when talking sometimes.  And I've been feeling tingling in my right cheek, chin, and the corner of my mouth.  These feelings have been pretty much constant but have been fading over time.

Fast forward to now: the feelings have diminished greatly, but are still there.  Right now I don't feel tingling at all and the numbness isn't as bad as it was.  But I sometimes feel the tingling.  It's not as strong as it was.  If I talk for long periods of time the right corner of my mouth feels a bit weird and sometimes feels like it's leaking on that side.  It never does, it just feels like it.  What's weird is that I've only had two genital outbreaks since October (I usually get them 4x a year).

I had a blood test done in late November that showed me positive for HSV2 only (negative for HIV, syphillis, gonorrhea, chlamydia).  I plan on having another blood test done since it was not even two months after the encounter, but I don't see how this can be anything other than oral HSV2.  I'm thinking my symptoms are mild because I already have genital HSV2 and have some resistance.

Questions (all assuming I have OHSV2):

How could I have a mild, painless infection but it's causing me constant symptoms?  I've been to two urgent care doctors, one primary doctor, and two dermatologists and they all say it doesn't look like OHSV2.  I haven't had any painful outbreaks.  The only thing my primary said is that I probably have nerve damage based on my symptoms.  I've had a couple of nicks, but others have dismissed those from the pictures I posted.  So why the constant prodrome?  I've dealt with GHSV2 for 25 years and I've never had constant symptoms until now...makes it very hard to deal with.

Will the symptoms continue to decrease over time to the point where I won't notice them every day?  That's the only thing giving me hope.  I definitely feel a lot better than I did 6 months ago.

I'm interested in another woman with GHSV2.  She likes to perform oral.  Is there a greater risk contracting OHSV2 from kissing than from oral sex?  I've read about people with OHSV2 on here being careful about kissing, but is that risk any different than oral?

My throat has been scratchy for the last couple of weeks.  Would this be something that would happen after 8 months with OHSV2?  I'm hoping that it's just my chronic sinusitis (three surgeries!) since it currently burns when I bend over.

Sometimes I feel warm on the right side of my head and neck going down into my shoulder.  There's a spot on the back on my head (right side) that feels a bit tender.  My lymph node on my right collarbone is bigger than the one on the left, but it doesn't hurt.  I'm really hoping this is just an infection from my sinusitis.  This has coincided with my scratchy throat.

I really hope I don't have OHSV2.  But I have something and these doctors have been worthless.  For those who still think this isn't OHSV2...is there anything other than OHSV2 that would cause these symptoms for so long?  Would EBV do this?

Should I ask my doctor for a PCR swab?  Would it show anything since I haven't had any cold sores?

Thanks so much for any advice you can give me.

Edited June 27, 2018 by desertdweller

[WilsoInAus]

I think that all that can be done is to share a few thoughts with you. The only pragmatic way to determine whether you have an oral HSV-2 infection is via a swab.

I think you already know that the chances of an oral HSV-2 infection subsequent to an established genital infection are zero to negligible. There is no observed case of this happening. The chances of you becoming infected with HSV-1 are actually about 1 in 50,000 I think in your lifetime! The immune system against HSV-2 is that good. That would mean that the pragmatic explanation of you having oral HSV-2 is that you would have needed to have been infected in both locations at a similar time. That does not seem to have been a concern of yours.

Constant symptoms are not really a feature of herpes. But there are plenty of other conditions that do cause constant symptoms. What proportion of people with oral HSV-1 experience the symptoms you describe? Virtually none; and that's pout of 4 billion carriers!

Even if you were an oral carrier. Is it plausible to think that the oral symptoms, where the HSV-2 virus is 20 to 50 times weaker than the genital area, would exceed what you experience genitally?

If your doctor is suggesting nerve damage as a cause, then that is worth running to ground. There are a number of viruses, genetic predispositions, immune related issues etc. that cause nerve damage or similar symptoms.

[desertdweller]

Hi WilsoInAus,

I was going to tell my doctor that I'm really concerned about spreading it so I want a few swabs over time to make sure.  I was thinking about ordering some swabs from this site as well.  And that is the truth.  I'm not a jerk.  I don't want to hurt anyone if it is OHSV2. 

I'm still holding out hope because of what you said.  It's never behaved down there like this.  It's typical...3-4 months of calm and then 2 weeks for OB and healing.  But the 3-4 months are completely uneventful.  I may get a twinge in my leg every now and then, but that's a far cry from a CONSTANT sensation.  The only reason I'm not going crazy is that the sensation has diminished slowly over time, so I'm hoping it disappears after a while.

As you can imagine I've searched high and low on here to find someone, anyone with symptoms similar to mine but I can't find anything.  That's another reason I'm optimistic, but I just want to know whatever the hell this is so I can take the necessary steps to deal with it.

Can you name a few viruses other than OHSV2 that would cause constant sensations?  My doctor is a typical one...meaning limited knowledge of this and dismissive of anything that goes against what he learned a long time ago.  I'll fight him next time we meet, but it's like buying a damn car...I hate dealing with it.  Maybe if I point him in a general direction he'll be more willing to investigate.

Thanks