Ocular Herpes - symptoms and diagnosis

[hk81]

Hi

I need advices from people who have experience with ocular herpes.

3 years ago I had a few meetings with an asshole liar that denied to have any disease.

Despite my being careful, I could not avoid to get infected because of his careless attitude.

2 days after one meeting I developed a small peripheral corneal ulcer in my left eye; my doctor didn't relate it to sexual diseases and after a few days of wrong treatment (she told me to put gentamicin cream in the eye!!), it went away. I believe that I may have touched my eyes carelessly, as it was late and it was my normal behavior from getting tired.

After another meeting with the guy (about 1 month later), I developed blisters in my genital area. It was a large outbreak, like a primary one. I couldn't see the area well, but I think there were more blisters one near the other, very painful. They caused a large single ulcer which took 3 weeks to heal. I went to a STD ambulatory but the doctor, by looking at it (the healing ulcer), said that it didn't look like herpes. I asked for swabs. To my bad surprise, she did not even make an herpes test and she told me later that it was not tested in her hospital (!!). I have never had such a painful and long outbreak again later, but only very short and mild ones.

2 months later the blister in the eye came back. I went to an optic and he prescribed me antibacterial drops and steroids.

About one year later I had a diagnosis of HSV1 in the urethra, which increased my suspects that that person had HSV. He still denied everything and when I asked him to get tested, he blocked all my contacts (I'm still considering how to report such a person).

For almost 2 years my eye didn't have any problem, even if I went into a lot of stress (relocation, new job, a person toying with my feelings and poor sleep periods with anxiety, lots of exposure to sun, ...).

I also had several vaccinations (HPV, Hepatitis, Tetanus), which I have recently finished (and they make me wonder if they made any good to my immune system).

At the beginning of this year the problems with my eye started again.
The first time I had small blisters in both eyes. In my left eye it's almost always in the same place. My right eye was never affected before.
The second time I had again blisters in the left eye, this time after not much sleep and a day on the snow. Then in the right eye.
I started visiting an ambulance for eye problems; every time I had a bad case of red eye, I went back to show it. In total I have been looked by 7 people, both when I had blisters and when I only had a bad red eye.
Some of them stained my eye with pigments and watched through the lenses. Every time they told me it was not looking like herpes; probably they expected to see the typical branching lesion caused by herpes.
Some of them said it was bacteria growing on my eye lids, some said I had dry eyes and my oil glands were obstructed. So most of the time I had indications to treat it with artificial tears or antibacterial drops and steroids (lotemax, prednisolone). One doctor once gave me acyclovir eye gel, not being sure if it really was herpes (after my indication).
During the last visit (red eye only with no visible blisters, after a week end in the sun), I asked if I could get a swab. So they took it and they tested both chlamydia and Herpes. Both were negative.

Despite their recommendation to use steroids, I applied also the acyclovir gel. I was surprised by the prescription of steroids without having properly tested for herpes. It is known that steroids reduce the immune response, that causes a proliferation of the virus and could make the infection worst.
I applied the gel only to the affected eye. The redness would decrease significantly after 1 day and after 3 days it was almost looking normal. 1 week later after the start of the redness, the symptom appeared in the untreated eye. So I started to treat that eye in the same way. Then back again to the previous eye. And this continued from the beginning of the year until now (7 months).

The redness is often accompanied with pain in the same side of my head. Often it happened after sun exposure (in summer period), biking for long, swimming training. Sometimes the affected eye has a small morning discharge near the lacrimal gland (yellow). Sometimes when I put artificial drops, I get some white patches on my eye lids, like if the tears are bringing out of my eye dead/dried skin.

Many of these things are still making me suspect of herpes.

So I would need some suggestions from people that have had the same problem. Can you relate to my symptoms? How did you get diagnosed? Is a swab a reliable test, or does it have many false negative? Did you get so many recurrences of red eye? And what did you do to stop them?

I'm really depressed for what is happening to me and all the limitations that this is imposing me to my life. And also by the fact that I can't seem to get a proper diagnosis and treatment.

Thank you for your help.

L.

[blurneworder]

On 7/21/2019 at 6:05 AM, hk81 said:

Hi

I need advices from people who have experience with ocular herpes.

3 years ago I had a few meetings with an asshole liar that denied to have any disease.

Despite my being careful, I could not avoid to get infected because of his careless attitude.

2 days after one meeting I developed a small peripheral corneal ulcer in my left eye; my doctor didn't relate it to sexual diseases and after a few days of wrong treatment (she told me to put gentamicin cream in the eye!!), it went away. I believe that I may have touched my eyes carelessly, as it was late and it was my normal behavior from getting tired.

After another meeting with the guy (about 1 month later), I developed blisters in my genital area. It was a large outbreak, like a primary one. I couldn't see the area well, but I think there were more blisters one near the other, very painful. They caused a large single ulcer which took 3 weeks to heal. I went to a STD ambulatory but the doctor, by looking at it (the healing ulcer), said that it didn't look like herpes. I asked for swabs. To my bad surprise, she did not even make an herpes test and she told me later that it was not tested in her hospital (!!). I have never had such a painful and long outbreak again later, but only very short and mild ones.

2 months later the blister in the eye came back. I went to an optic and he prescribed me antibacterial drops and steroids.

About one year later I had a diagnosis of HSV1 in the urethra, which increased my suspects that that person had HSV. He still denied everything and when I asked him to get tested, he blocked all my contacts (I'm still considering how to report such a person).

For almost 2 years my eye didn't have any problem, even if I went into a lot of stress (relocation, new job, a person toying with my feelings and poor sleep periods with anxiety, lots of exposure to sun, ...).

I also had several vaccinations (HPV, Hepatitis, Tetanus), which I have recently finished (and they make me wonder if they made any good to my immune system).

At the beginning of this year the problems with my eye started again.
The first time I had small blisters in both eyes. In my left eye it's almost always in the same place. My right eye was never affected before.
The second time I had again blisters in the left eye, this time after not much sleep and a day on the snow. Then in the right eye.
I started visiting an ambulance for eye problems; every time I had a bad case of red eye, I went back to show it. In total I have been looked by 7 people, both when I had blisters and when I only had a bad red eye.
Some of them stained my eye with pigments and watched through the lenses. Every time they told me it was not looking like herpes; probably they expected to see the typical branching lesion caused by herpes.
Some of them said it was bacteria growing on my eye lids, some said I had dry eyes and my oil glands were obstructed. So most of the time I had indications to treat it with artificial tears or antibacterial drops and steroids (lotemax, prednisolone). One doctor once gave me acyclovir eye gel, not being sure if it really was herpes (after my indication).
During the last visit (red eye only with no visible blisters, after a week end in the sun), I asked if I could get a swab. So they took it and they tested both chlamydia and Herpes. Both were negative.

Despite their recommendation to use steroids, I applied also the acyclovir gel. I was surprised by the prescription of steroids without having properly tested for herpes. It is known that steroids reduce the immune response, that causes a proliferation of the virus and could make the infection worst.
I applied the gel only to the affected eye. The redness would decrease significantly after 1 day and after 3 days it was almost looking normal. 1 week later after the start of the redness, the symptom appeared in the untreated eye. So I started to treat that eye in the same way. Then back again to the previous eye. And this continued from the beginning of the year until now (7 months).

The redness is often accompanied with pain in the same side of my head. Often it happened after sun exposure (in summer period), biking for long, swimming training. Sometimes the affected eye has a small morning discharge near the lacrimal gland (yellow). Sometimes when I put artificial drops, I get some white patches on my eye lids, like if the tears are bringing out of my eye dead/dried skin.

Many of these things are still making me suspect of herpes.

So I would need some suggestions from people that have had the same problem. Can you relate to my symptoms? How did you get diagnosed? Is a swab a reliable test, or does it have many false negative? Did you get so many recurrences of red eye? And what did you do to stop them?

I'm really depressed for what is happening to me and all the limitations that this is imposing me to my life. And also by the fact that I can't seem to get a proper diagnosis and treatment.

Thank you for your help.

L.

How did you get the diagnosis of HSV in your urethra? What were the symptoms? How did the doctors check the area?

Do you test positive through blood or swab?

[hk81]

Hi. My first symptoms recognizable as a HSV infection were a group of painful blisters on my butt. I got touched there, as well on my penis, without me wanting that Blisters didn't develop on the glans.

The blisters got unrecognized by an incapable doctor in a clinic for sexual diseases, which took a swab without even warning me that the test for HSV was not available at that clinic.

Around 1 or 2 months later my glans started to get dry with patches of red skin. The skin was badly dry that it looked like a dried mushroom and it was peeling off.

I started going to dermatologists and urologists and I heard things like: it's normal / it's balanitis / it's yeast / you jerk off too much. A circus of idiots.

Believing in them, I started thinking that it was just a transition and it would have changed.

But it was not getting much better. The skin was always dry and it didn't have the elasticity typical of the glans. Especially, after erection, the skin was like if it was breaking up in many small pieces, but without peeling. It was red especially on the meatus with skin with a different consistency. On the sides of the glans I could see many tiny veins under the skin, as if there was an inflammation/infection.

Inside of the urethra, on the 2 sides, 2 white flat patches of skin, which firstly made me think of HPV. In the middle a red inflamed patch and occasionally some red dots also on the sides.

Sometimes I have a mild pain, like a mild burning sensation, deep inside the urethra.

1 year after the infection, I got swabs for HSV, HPV, yeast, gonorrea, clamydia, ... No blood exams.

Only HSV1 came back positive.

The condition never changed.

Since I never had visible blisters on the glans, I started thinking that herpes was not being much of a problem for me and those symptoms were probably given by something else that did not get diagnosed.

I tried different things:
Aldara (which gave me an awful immune response and development of sort of blisters on my glans, skin breaking and bleeding, completely inflamed glans)
Coconut oil (which manages to keep the irritation less visible, but the skin gets dry again as soon as I stop using it)
Tea tree oil (similar, but irritates more the skin)
1 consecutive month of valtrex (not much effect on those symptoms)
1 month of 3mg daily lysine (I'm doing it right now, but I can't see much changes)

Now I'm starting to believe that those symptoms may be a reaction of my immune system to the infection or maybe it's caused by a damage of nerves / oil glands due to herpes.

I don't have any certainty, beside the only positive diagnosis that I have had. So I have also been looking what other people write about their symptoms to see if someone else who had a diagnosis of genital herpes had a constant dry skin.