Worst Outbreak of My Life

It started last week. Subtle, but something was starting. Something I haven’t experienced in a very long time. An old friend was slowly returning.

When I was a teenager, I used to get cold sores constantly. Back then though, they didn’t have the antivirals we have today. Whether being on my inside of my lip, or the corners of my mouth, they were the worst. As I got older, the frequency became less and less.

The last time I had them, was when the implants were placed. And no, these aren’t minor.

It took almost a month for this one to go away, but I don’t think it ever fully went away. Unfortunately, these are quite common with people. Almost 90% of the human population has HSV1. It’s one of the most common afflictions everyone has to deal with.

Don’t believe me? If you’ve ever had the following, here’s how I know you have HSV-1:

• Chicken Pox
• Cold Sores
• Shingles

So as last week progressed, I started to feel “them” coming. When I say “them”, I felt it everywhere. The problem with HSV, is that it takes time to “erupt” and rear its ugly head, no pun intended. Those same feelings were felt throughout my entire mouth and face. Initially, I thought it was the fungal infection getting worse, as each day passed, it hurt more and more. My face was becoming more sensitive, the tingly/burning feelings were progressively spreading across my entire face.

By this weekend, that’s when I started to realize that maybe this is “my old friend” deciding to pay me a visit. Ketamine was this weekend. Which was a huge help from a pain perspective, but the effects from Ketamine wore off fast. By Sunday night, it was back to full on a numbing/tingling fire. From my last run-in with this, Dr Schleve gave me an emergency bottle of Valtrex in the event it came back like it did. But this was MUCH different, and it’s everywhere at this point. It just hasn’t erupted anywhere yet, which is typical.

On Monday, that’s when it was done spreading around in my face, chin, the entire inside of my mouth, the roof of my mouth, when I woke up that’s when I noticed it start to surface. I was downright miserable. At this point, it was painful to talk, eat, swallow. Any facial expression just made it feel worse.

Again the eruption was very subtle, but it was there. If you can’t see it, it’s below my right lip going towards my jawline. 3 lovely heads just saying “hi”. As for how this was feeling, it was everywhere. Before I left for work, I caked on the Abbreva, which is a good over the counter cold sore med. I should have just brought the tube with. But I just dealt with it. I don’t want to say it this way, but luckily a co-worker came in saying he wasn’t feeling well. So as I got to my desk and immediately put my mask on. I don’t need another round of COVID or whatever they may have potentially had.

So by 11, I decided to leave the office and finish the day at home. I really don’t like being near anyone who is coughing / not feeling well, because I know I’ll pickup whatever it is. When I got home I caked on more of the Abbreva, and stuck my head in the freezer for 3 minutes. God it felt so good. I can’t just do this for the rest of the day, so I would periodically just keep reapplying the stuff / freezer trick when I could step away. As I drove home from work, I left a message on Dr. Schleve’s nurse line saying that I needed an ASAP appointment with any provider. I tried to find my emergency bottle of Valtrex, but since the move, nothing is in its usual spot. When Anies came home, she helped me find it, and I immediately took 2g. At this point however, Valtrex won’t help. It will just dull the pain a little.

Around 3 hours later, they called back saying they didn’t have anything today, but tomorrow they wedged me in with Dr. Robinson, who saw me about 2 years ago when Dr. Schleve was out.

The next morning, it was 100x worse. You can start to really see it now, but at the same time, you can see the swelling from my upper lip to my nose and left cheek. My chin was starting to feel the same. It’s just a matter of time, until this erupts everywhere. This has got to be THE WORST OUTBREAK OF MY LIFE. It’s never been this bad. I popped another 2g of Valtrex and caked more of the Abbreva on. At this point however, it’s out of control.

As 11am came, I drove like a madman downtown. Typically I go to their Poplar location, which is 10 minutes away. At this point, I’ll go wherever I gotta go. It was a short wait, and Dr. Robinson came through the door. She took one look at it and said “You already know what this is”. I agreed. I told her the Valtrex isn’t working. For me, Valtrex only is good for prevention. I needed Famciclovir. Which is sort of a “big gun” antiviral. She took a culture of the eruption, and then we started to discuss what I needed. She did comment that this is one of the worst outbreaks she’s ever seen. I’m not surprised in the least.

I told her that the Famciclovir will be the best for me since the Valtrex wasn’t helping. So the plan was tonight, take 1.5g of Famciclovir, then for the next week, 500mg twice daily of Famciclovir, then step down to 1g Valtrex once this is under control. Then just stay on this for good. I then told her that cold laser is usually helpful in controlling / stopping the infection / progression. A few times last year, Anies office has one and it definitely helps. She had her MA go get the machine, but returned shortly after empty handed. “It’s actually out for repair”.

Lovely.

So I paid for my visit, and headed home. I called Anies to see if they could get me in end of day for a laser session. Their practice has really taken off, and getting in, isn’t like what it was a year ago. She said she would have to call me back to see what she could do.

A few hours later, she said come in 15 minutes before they close and the Hygienist that usually does it will sneak me in. I was so thankful as I needed something to “turn this off now”. At this point, my entire face is swollen. It hurts everywhere only 100x worse than it was the day before.

She spent almost 20 minutes going over the entire outer portion of my face. Focusing on “my friend” for 5 minutes, but then treating my nose, cheeks and chin. As she didn’t treatment, when you have HSV in a certain spot, it burns more. You absolutely feel it. This is due to the nerves reacting. Which by the way, once infected with HSV, that’s where it hides. In your nerves. The biggest trigger to get it to come out is stress. Yes. The past 2 weeks have been extremely stressful since Hepworth’s office is doing 0 about my sinus infection.

I have to head back on Thursday for a 2nd laser treatment. The laser treatment is the best for immediate relief, this is due to the laser destroying the virus. It’s definitely a recommendation from me, that if you ever get something to the extent of this, cold laser will immediately help. Yeah, the next 1-2 hours is much worse, but after that, things calm down. Anies picked up my meds last night, and I popped the 1.5g of Famciclovir and hoped that tomorrow would be a better day.

Woke up this morning expecting to just be miserable. Everything I did yesterday helped. Between the mega dose of Famciclovir, and the cold laser, this morning was MUCH better. The pain is way down, and the breakout is contained. You can see it’s still there, but it’s not as severe. The overall swelling is also way down. Hopefully Thursday the next laser treatment will knock this out completely, on top of the rest of the week of Famciclovir will continue to get rid of this.

Update:

Culture results came back quick, but I’m not surprised. Same results when I had the big outbreak after the last implant placement. Here’s hoping this goes away soon.

IVIg is Friday, which will help too. Jesus the past 2 weeks have been a dumpster fire. I’m just glad the fire is out. For now.