About a year ago, I noticed a small blister forming on the mouth of my woman. When I told her about it, she flipped out, running to the bathroom to take a look.
“A fucking cold sore!”
“A cold sore? What’s that?”
“I get cold sores. My mother passed them on to me as a child. When she would breakout she would purposely kiss me and do her best to pass them on, making sure to share her misery and to pass it down in generation.”
“You’re kidding? Well so now what?”
We head to the store and get something called ‘Abreva’. Abreva reminds me of this stuff I had used as a child to burn a wart off my finger, except this time the glob of white gluey shit is stuck on the poor person’s face. My poor woman. For two weeks she didn’t even get out of bed. Finally, she healed and we went on about our lives. It was a hard time for both of us, to be honest – her hiding her face and me unable to really do anything to help her.
A month or so later I was in the shower and I noticed this painful itching on my lip. It reminded me of how it feels to knick oneself when shaving and so I ignored it. A few hours later I felt like I had something comparable to acne forming in the same place and so I, of course, starting manipulating my lip and doing what I could to sort of ‘move things along.’
“Don’t do that!”
“Why not? I’m not going to walk around with this thing on my lip.”
“It’s not acne. It’s a cold sore, I just know it.”
“Nahhhh….”
Sure enough, the next day a blister erupts on my face. Not just a little one, either, but a HUGE blister which divides into another HUGE blister. So for the next two weeks I walk around with this big fucking sore on my face.
So now I understand. When I see the bewildered look on the face of some poor soul, accompanied by a shining cluster of herpes on their face, I feel their pain. I’d gone twenty-nine years without catching this disease, a disease of which apparently almost 85% of the population carries (and 50% of whom never show symptoms.) While no one is really sure as to why a herpes outbreak can occur, some have been associated with stress, surgery, and even menstruation (hey, at least I’m safe there.)
A few months after my own blisters had healed, my woman is freaking out about the same tingling sensation in her jaw muscles (apparently the virus lives in there somewhere.) Dealing with an outbreak is such a fucking miserable time and experience for us both, especially being prone to depression, that something has got to be done other than just waiting it out. Rather than slap that same old worthless Abreva shit on her lip, I head to the store to see what else is there. Not much, in fact, almost nothing. I head to another store, and then another. Finally, at ole Freddy Meyers, I find a box of ‘Releev’ that claims to treat cold sores in one day. It’s about $25 for this little tube and so I buy it (hell, if it was $100 I probably would’ve bought the damn thing.)
At home she starts applying this Releev. Releev is a product of ViraMedx and basically contains a solution of %.13 Benzalkonium Chloride (an Organic Chloride Salt) and water. It definitely has mixed reviews and is somewhat expensive, but so far, at least in our case, this shit works and works well. My woman has zero blisters and hasn’t since we found it, and neither have I.
Why the fuck am I going on about my herpes? Because with my Interferon and Ribavirin treatment came an outbreak (or an attempted outbreak.) The little fucking bastards tried to get me again and I used the fucking hell out of this Releev stuff and got rid of them. I can’t even begin to tell you how nice it is not to have to deal with two weeks of blisters on my face. When I read through the reviews online, it looks like this shit helps out anyone if they can get it on their face before the blister forms. So far, in our case, this has proved to be true.
So I’m basically being a Releev advocate here. If there’s one thing that’s common among Junkies, it’s social disease. (Hey, we can’t help it, it comes along with the trade.)
That’s it. That’s all. I’m just so happy about not having herpes on my face that I thought I’d share my little disease experience with everyone….
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Herpes simplex one! I have that as well. My first outbreat was when I was 16 years old. It was an onslaught. I must have had nearly 15 to 20 discrete soars in my mouth at one time. It was so bad, that I had to go to the hospital. I had a 104 fever, couldn’t eat, couldn’t talk–in other words, for seven or so days, I was fucking miserable and bed ridden. They gave me an anesthetic mouth rinse, but that hardly made anything better. I’ll NEVER forget it. Now, I rarely ever get an outbreak and if I do, it’s only on the sides of my mouth (which is painful enough). Interestingly, whenever I overdo it on Hydros or whatever pill has a lot of Tylenol in it, I seem to be more suseptible to outbreaks. Well, Hang in there!
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Very interesting,I wonder what the Australian equivalent is,will ask the chemist,just in case.So,the treatment brings back “memories” huh?,anything lurking below the surface.
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I had them as a child and sometimes now. My funny story involves Valtrex the herpes med. I had no idea it was a herpes med. I went to the doc and he gave it me. So I am standing at the pharmacy going on and on about how disgusting and painful this is and they are adverting eyes from me and I am thinking holy shit I may have to get some sort of veil or go into hiding. So I get my RX and get in the car. I start reading FOR TREATMENT OF GENTIAL HERPES is the first line. I laughed so hard I had to pull out the Abreva. It interfered with my methadone and threw me into detox, that was not so funny. Anyway, they suck!
KEL
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Well I usually only have problems with cold sores in the winter… I use the abreva but I think the next time I get one I will try the expensive stuff.
I wanted to tell you thank you so much for the work you did on my site. I bet I was getting to you like a damn cold sore LOL.. but on the real, I know you are busy but you did a great job for me and I so apppreciate it! ME
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Hey Bi11i,
just checking in to see how you’re feeling…
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Billi,
Just wanted to let you know that I am an avid reader of JL. I have been a heroin addict for almost 15 years. Currently on methadone and doing great. There a alot of intelligent people who post here. I think it is great to have a place where people can come and express theirselves honestly and without shame. You really do a great job of keeping it all together. By the way, what happened to Mexican Mud’s blog? I noticed she wasn’t listed anymore. Anyhow, keep up the great work. People like us need a place to go to for comfort and to share thoughts and ideas. I LOVE reading JL!
Peace…Susan
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To everyone:
I have this cold sore in my bottom lip and its so swollen that it looks like someone punched me!
I am going to try the Releev medication, hope it works!
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I’m not a junky but I share the same affliction you are all talking about at the moment. I currently have a coldsore… not the worst out break I’ve had but it’s definitely at the worst time. I have a date tonight. pretty much our first actual date. I noticed tingling on tuesday and it’s pretty much finished now its at the healing stage which I think looks the worst. well I’ve pretty much decided to stay home tonight. I’m not being dishonest I will tell her I get cold sores but a first date isnt exactly the right time to tell her. I think so at least. I feel like shit right now and I felt like venting. I’m sure there are worse things in the world but I can’t really appriciate that fact while a contagious disease is growing on my face. I’ve had them all my life and I have no idea how to deal with. I use zovirax which works very well. the best I’ve seen. but it still lasts 5 days at the very least with treatment. I’m sure I’d give my entire life savings for a permanent cure. my entire life would be different if I never had to worry about cold sores. it’s a shallow thought, I know. i guess I’m shallow in that sense. sorry for the pity party but i had to vent a little. but ya if any of you haven’t tried zovirax you should. you’ll need a drug plan though as it is very expansive. valtrex pills are good too.
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Interest in this since I get cold sores once every year. Bought Releev at Walgreens and will see how it goes. Abreva was just OK. Probably no better than Blistex. Don’t seem to worry too much about having major bubble lip. People don’t seem to really care and I know I don’t care what people think of me. With that said, I still buy 18 dollar treatments so I obviously don’t want to show this nasty thing off too long. They kinda hurt too. Just don’t get too freaked on having one. We’re all just human beings here and shit happens.
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god it helps to read about other people dealing with the goddamn fever blister. my first one showed up on my chin 2 weeks before i got married…that was nearly 22 years ago. that was the worst outbreak i’ve had until now (didn’t think it could get worse). Now i’m getting divorced and i just recovered from an even worse outbreak as i attempt to start dating again!!! i’ve been hiding out at home as much as possible…the acyclovir ointment did NOTHING this time even though i started using it as soon as that “special” spot showed redness one morning. Even though the thing is mostly healed, i just got home from the drugstore with a bottle of releev on the advice of a friend. not messing around with this herpes crap anymore.
Thanks so much for this site, and allowing us to vent our frustration at this modern day equivalent of leprosy (at least socially, it feels like leprosy. apologies to anyone who’s afflicted with that much worse disease). There’s power in numbers, people. Let’s abolish the stigma!
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