Not true 100% of the time. Through Asymptomatic Shedding which happens approximately 3 to 10 days out of the year - when not having an outbreak. It can be transmitted at that time. http://members.aol.com/herpesite/trans.html#asymp
I had chickenpox as a kid, but a very, very light case, so am in a higher than usual risk category for shingles, according to my doc. Haven’t had shingles yet, though.
I also have Epstein Barr with annoying frequency, which is another herpes virus. Had “mono” (Epstein Barr) 5 times as an adolescent.
No simplexes, though. Which is pretty amazing, since my step-mom has oral herpes, and none of us kids or my dad ever caught it. We’re very dilligent about not using mom’s towels, glasses, etc. when she’s got a sore. She color codes everything, so we learned early to never touch the blue things. She got it from her mother kissing her with a sore.
You’re scaring me, because when I had mine at my very worst, I have actually had them get up partially inside my nose before.
I had an outbreak so bad once when I was in Minnesota that I got sent home from work because my face looked that gross. I asked if I could work in the back of the store (where I usually worked most of the time anyway) so I wouldn’t have to deal with customers, I even offered to keep a kercheif or scarf over my mouth so people wouldn’t have to look, but the assistant manager just loudly declared how nasty it was (think about two dozen of them spread across the top of my lip and all the way up to my nose) and she sent me home unpaid. I was so angry because I was completely broke and alone back then, and I tried to explain to her that it was only contagious if someone was kissing me or whatever, but she treated me like a leper. She made me get a doctor’s note before I could come back to work too and I had to pay emergency clinic for that. :mad:
But yeah, I have gotten them on that little bit of cartilage in my nose before, thankfully not in a long time. Guess I’m lucky it never got more serious than that, not like I could afford to do anything about it. I always thought they were just gross but relatively harmless. 
Everybody who ever had chicken pox “still has the herpes zoster virus running around” inside their bodies.
Someone else said that if herpes type 1 - oral herpes - is not active, it can’t be transmitted. That’s not true. As with genital herpes, they can spread when there is no active outbreak.
Someone else said they “don’t have” herpes. Unless you’ve had a negative antibody test, you can’t know that for sure.
The majority of people who have herpes 1 and/or 2 don’t know they have it.
I’ve scoured their website and the shelves of two natural foods stores, and if Tom’s makes an SLS-free toothpaste, I can’t find it. Regarding SLS, Tom’s says
On advice from another SDMB thread, I switched from Tom’s Anticavity (which I dearly love, sob!) to an SLS-free brand called Biotene. Since then, I haven’t had any big canker sores. I have had some small sores which may or may not have been canker sores, but which disappeared quickly. So, I dunno, unless I have a major outbreak that proves the Biotene isn’t working, I think I’ll be switching to it for the winter time. (Don’t get canker sores in summertime.)
I’ll never forget riding in a car with a couple of buddies of mine when one of them realized that he had a cold sore. He’d never had one before, and asked me about it. Naturally, I told him that he had herpies. I really don’t recommend doing this to someone who’s driving. He nearly wrecked the car. 
I haven’t had a cold sore in ages, but had them quite often as a child. I dated a gal who was kind enough to tell me after we had sex that she had herps. Thankfully, I’ve not suffered any outbreaks in the genital region, so presumably I didn’t pick up anything.
Oh my god, I had no idea they could get up in your nose and throat and your eyes! That has got ot be horribly painful.
My mother has herpes (Type 1 I guess) and she almost always has a sore or two on the inside of her mouth. She gets them on her tongue and underneath her tongue a lot. Luckily I don’t seem to have gotten it from her. I do get “canker sores” from biting my lip or tongue pretty regularly. But I don’t get any type of mouth sores just randomly like (I assume) you do when you have herpes.
I picked up the virus very young, I assume from kissing mother dearest, who also has been known to get a cold sore once in a while. I have to second jinwicked in saying that Abreva is great stuff. Almost always when I get a sore, it’s stress-related in one way or another - especially when something big is coming up that I want to look decent for, of course :smack: I’ve found that using the Abreva liberally as soon as I start to feel an outbreak can make it a LOT quicker/easier/less painful/less obvious to deal with, and generally makes life a lot easier.
I dunno. I’ve gotten the usual std screening and I don’t get cold sores. No one has ever stopped me and said, “By the way …”
I’ve had chicken pox several times, and according to my GYN and the 10 vials of blood they drew after my first prenatal visit a couple years back, I am not immune.
Also no longer immune to Rubella.
I do know someone who had the infection spread to the eye, causing partial blindess, but no brain lesions that we know of.
I get herpes in my left eye. Yes just my left eye. I cannot describe the pain of walking out from a dark room to bright sunlight when the infection was raging. Kinda like being stabed in the eye with an icepick.
The attacks are much less often the older I get, but when I was a child I recall going from 20/40 to 20/400 in about 3 days.
And since no one has mentioned it, the way you get herpes in the eye is to go looking for love in all the wrong places 
Well, that’s one way ;). The other is to lick your own eyeball … or someone else’s, or the transference equivalent (see the “can a woman get pregnant using a discarded condom” thread).
But always wash your contacts in the proper saliene solution. Or wear disposies.
Even if you’ve been screened for STDs, you wouldn’t have routinely been screened for HSVII.
Any of you who have recurring outbreaks, either orally or genitally, should speak to your doctor about getting a prescription for an antiviral (acyclovir, zovirax, etc.). If you start taking meds as soon as you feel the first symptoms (usually itching or tingling), you can make the outbreak much milder. If you have frequent outbreaks, you can take the meds routinely and prevent most of them from occuring.
I get about two cold sores a year; I guess it would be about every six months. It’s almost become a semiannual tradition. :rolleyes: Almost always in the middle of my upper lip. I go after those bastards like crazy. Once I feel one coming in, I try to ice it down, use rubbing alcohol, and Carmex that thing back to the firey pits of hell from whence it came. I always get a chuckle, albeit a bit self conscious, whenever the part of This Is Spinal Tap plays where the two guys have cold sores. Presumably they got theirs from a woman with loose morals, and I’ve always had mind for as long as I can remember.
Well, when I saw this thread yesterday, I thought, “Who’s gonna be nuts enough to respond with a, ‘Me, too!’” But then I thought that, although having long been an advocate of keeping anything you couldn’t stand your boss seeing off of a public message board, I really don’t think this will likely derail any future presidential campaigns (if it does, some journalists will have completely missed the good stuff), and, as long as we have the knowledgeable in this arena JillGat checking in, perhaps I should take advantage of the moment and experience my (I’d hope) one and only TMI moment on the Dope.
Many years ago (~16), I experienced a blister on the primary sexual characteristic of a male, one of which I possess (Geez - I’m bein’ so polite). I immediately sought an examination with the clinic I then patronized. The examining physician was puzzled and called in his cohorts, all of whom examined the presence at hand and declared it uncharacteristic of any STD they’d seen. Nevertheless, they swabbed it and told me lab culture results would be available in 2-6 weeks.
I called faithfully, every week, for two months, and was told that there were no results. So, I breathed a sigh of relief and quit calling. Four months later, the examining physician called to tell me that the culture had come up positive for Herpes. He added the comment, “Don’t worry about it - everybody has it.”
My own (now) physician, with whom I’ve been for about 11 years, has all my previous records, and has expressed the opinion that he doubts the validity of those test results. And, I’ve never, in 16 years, experienced any other expression.
At the time I was in a relationship that had been going, monogamously, for a few years. I explained the situation to my GF and she elected to keep it going. Boy, that was a fun conversation. We stayed together for many more years after that.
Since we split, amicably I’ll add, I have felt compelled to divulge this diagnosis to potential sexual partners (more fun conversations) even though I have some reason to disbelieve it.
So, unlike other threads wherein the poster seeks free medical advice, I’ve run this by several physicians. My own long term doc doesn’t endorse the diagnosis. I don’t like having to have the, “There’s something I need to tell you…” conversation, and I’m half-assed convinced that the condition doesn’t exist.
I’d just be curious to get your thoughts on the situation, Jill.
I’ve got it. I actually posted an account of my first outbreak here because I had no idea what the hell was happening. I’m still puzzled as to how I got it. I hadn’t had any contact with anyone who had a cold sore (my boyfriend doesn’t get them, I hadn’t seen him in a few weeks when I had my first outbreak, and I wasn’t kissing anyone else) and I don’t recall sharing any utensils or anything with someone who might have them. I don’t remember getting them when I was a kid and the doctor I saw thought it was my first infection based on my symptoms.
I’ve only had one other outbreak. Probably because my body is still getting used to fighting it, my lip swells up tremendously.
I’ve used anti-virals both time in addition to liberal amounts of Abreva.
My mom is just recovering from her first attack of shingles. It was diagnosed rather late, mainly because we figured the pain was from a pulled back muscle or something. She suffered a lot for that error of judgement.
I didn’t know one could get shingles repeatedly… my mother won’t like that bit of news!
Good point, Jill. I forgot that I’d found out a few years back that Herpes isn’t in the “usual” list of suspects they check for on a ‘standard’ STD screen. But I’ve never had an outbreak and at this point, am not concerned.
Still can’t figure out why I’ve had Chicken pox twice and am not yet immune. Bleah.
I’ve had chicken pox twice and shingles once and mono three times. Never had a cold sore, though.
My dad got them a lot when I was a kid, but he hasn’t had one for years. Now that I think about it, he got them when he was unemployed or working for the IRS, so I’m guessing they were majorly stress related.
Acilovir is available in Germany in any pharmacy as a non-prescription creme. I discovered it a few years ago, and man, the stuff is awesome. I always had breakouts with high sun exposure (skiing, mostly) and stress. Now I put it on with the first tingeling, and it never really gets nasty any more.
If anybody knows where to get the Acilovir creme in the U.S., please let me know.
DORFL
As far as I know, I have no herpes viruses. I have never had cold sores, shingles, mono, gential sores, or even chicken pox. Yes, I was one of the few children who made it to adulthood without ever getting chicken pox.
Granted, I do know it’s possible for it tol ie dormant for a while…but I think 22 years with no outbreak is a prety good track record, no?