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Sun 16 Nov, 2008 04:21 am
i woke up with a ginormous blister on my mouth. if there was some excitement preceding it, a brief romance or whatnot, i wouldn't say a peep. but there was nothing, just the cold sore. all glasses i use come out of the dishwasher, i don't really know of any direct cause of the regular kind that could have caused this.
but... i did take a spill on my bike the day before. it was rainy, the wheel got stuck in tram tracks and off i flew, skinning my knee and elbow pretty impressively. considering that the said cold sore appeared the next morning i tend to think they must be related, but how? i didn't skin my face, and there wasn't much infection as i had long pants and long sleeves on, not really getting the road dirt on any of the wounds.
a friend fell off a motorbike in Cambodia and contracted a nasty staph infection.... but that was actually an open sore in direct contact with cambodian dirt, and this is not cambodia anyway. any theories? i never had a cold sore in my life, and i can't focus on much else, as it sits right there on my lips or hot and swollen. grrrrrrrrrr. not fair.
@dagmaraka,
dag, that's herpes above the waiste and it's curable with camphor. It's a form of the chicken pox virus, so not to worry, gal.
Yep. Very, very treatable. You may be correct that an outbreak can be related a bit to stress (e. g. the fall).
@jespah,
Quote:Yep. Very, very treatable. You may be correct that an outbreak can be related a bit to stress (e. g. the fall).
How do you treat them? I've had cold-sores for years and nothing makes them go away once they start. I've tried Zinc and ointments at the very first sign of a cold-sore, but they don't work.
@dagmaraka,
Did you have any shellfish prior to?
@alex240101,
shellfish?
i've had a salad with prawns, but no. wait, that was when i already had the cold sore.
so one can get a herpes just like that? no smooching and all that? just by falling off a bike? where's the fun in that?!
@dagmaraka,
I remember it as Herpes I versus Herpes II, but by now the distinction could be more elaborate. Check out the Mayo Clinic website or other such med info website.
Dag, as I understand it, the virus that causes cold sores around the mouth are in your system all the time and are triggered by something like stress. I have to be careful in spring and fall when the seasons change and avoid too much sun or cold windy days. I always wear a sunscreen lip balm. Now I take Lysine supplements (when I remember). They have really been helpful.
@dagmaraka,
Most of us have low-grade viruses floating around, just hanging in, waiting for something like the stress of a fall to activate them.
For some folks, a cold sore is the first sign of a cold that will be coming.
Herpesvirus like to sit latent and then pop up again (the fancy term is "recrudesce") after stressful episodes. It's probably been sitting in your trigeminal nerves just waiting for the right moment to strike...
@patiodog,
hehehe
a cluster on the life of the dormant virus
(what does that mean?)
@dagmaraka,
Remember your cute roommate who might have used your toothbrush?
@dagmaraka,
I get them occasionally myself and they are painful and embarrassing. Thank God my boxers cover them from view.
@CalamityJane,
CalamityJane wrote:
Remember your cute roommate who might have used your toothbrush?
he did, at least twice, sumbitch. at least he finally paid me today all the money he owed me for utilities for 3 months (counting to ten...no wonder i have stress-related cold sores).
hmmmmm.......perhaps i should use HIS toothbrush now...that'll learn him to use my things.
@dagmaraka,
I once used a particularly pain in the ass roommate's toothbrush to scrub MY ass on the day he moved out....secret payback stuff...
@Bi-Polar Bear,
not sure if i'd do that to my ass....truth is, i probably wouldn't be able to use his toothbrush for anything.... it's a toothbrush...i ...can't do it!
@dagmaraka,
women are funny like that...they'll swap spit and 69 all night with the right guy....but if he asks to use your toothbrush.....well that's just gross.
Having a relative plagued with frequent cold sores, I read up.
You could have picked up the virus anywhere from anybody or anything years ago. Most of us probably have it sitting dormant in our bodies, just waiting. Then something causes the virus to start replicating for awhile and it travels to some place on the body--the mouth is a favorite and recurring cold sores usually choose the same place on the body.
They don't know what triggers the virus to get stirred up now and then, but some suspicions are a fever, cold, or flu; sunlight, a bump, bruise, scrape, cut (that bike accident could have done it), or a weakened immune system.
One doctor recommended that the cold sore be kept soft with vaseline or some such so that it doesn't crack and bleed and become really painful, but otherwise you wait until it runs its course. Somebody suggested camphor, however, and I honestly do think that does shorten the duration. We used Camphophinique that you can get at most drugstores.
How long ago did your roomie use your toothbrush? I'd bet that's the most likely culprit. While most of the world has the virus waiting to strike, you have never had a lip sore and you've been pretty damned stressed out in the past.
@littlek,
Dag, go have the local clinic test it for you. Maybe it's something else. Can't think of what....
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