Hi Mia
I was diagnosed with hsv2 end of aug start of sep and yes the first outbreak was awful. They always did seem gooey and disgusting it was so bad ! I took the aciclovir but there's not much u can do apart from wait.
I had to do a flight from new zealand to the UK and it was HELL. Gross but I bought some big sanitary towels and some baby wipes and this really helped. Kept anything from getting stuck too badly to the gooey sores and the baby wipes kept everything clean without killing me with pain. I was in so much pain but I went to wipe the sores probably every 1-2 hours and felt this helped. I had such bad nerve pain too, like shooting pains. Especially if I sat for too long. This went on for weeks even after the sores healed. That and the itching. Omg. At night everything drove me mad witch this itching. This also went on for ages. But that's what u get when something attacks your nerves I guess ...
Remember to keep taking the aciclovir. This stops the virus from replicating. I had two small sores followed by two MASSIVE sores. Probably took about 3 weeks for my first outbreak to heal. And I had them for ages. It was rubbish. I had continuous outbreaks too so I went on to continuous aciclovir. Now I take two 400mg tablets a day and haven't looked back. I haven't had an outbreak since and quite often I actually forget i have herpes ( I was an emotional wreck at first, crying, life was over, blah blah but this does get better and go away
it's mainly the stress of having outbreaks that's bad. There's some good advice on this forum about how to tell people if u trawl through posts)
Anyway, the open sores were never this bad on follow up outbreaks before I started taking continuous aciclovir, much more like what u seen online (little blisters) so hopefully for u it will be the same. Supposedly you can spread it if you touch them. Use soap. The virus is hydrophillic (possibly hydrophobic, can't remember which, my science is failing me) anyway the soap breaks down the outer barrier on the virus so just use soap on the area and it should help kill anything where you may have touched. Wait till you have healed though before doing this. Just be careful for a few weeks in case u are still shedding. Also, don't overdo it as we all know how thrush can be caused by using soap so use your brain when doing this, don't go mad. Just be careful.
In terms of oral, I still give my boyfriend heaps. He gives loads to me. He gave me hsv 2 in the first place and doesn't have outbreaks. We started having sex in June and I didn't catch herpes till almost sep so transmission rate is quite low (he didn't know he had it and doesn't really get symptoms or anything - lucky b****** haha). Hsv2 is quite hard to catch on your face, but also, because hsv2 is suited to your nether regions and hsv1 to your face, even if u catch hsv2 on your mouth you are likely to only have like one outbreak ever as it's not its natural environment.
NOW I did read something - once you develop antibodies, your body should be able to fight the virus so transmission is unlikely as u already have it. I don't have any proof behind this though so don't quote me on it. Developing the antibodies in your blood can take a while (which is why sometimes blood tests come back negative) so just be careful for a little while is my advice. You can also catch herpes on any areas of soft skin (lips, nose, butt, even nipples!) so be careful. Don't have sex when either of u have symptoms.
I remember my other half saying his penis was sore back around the time I contracted herpes. We were having absolutely loads of sex though and I felt pretty bruised so we just thought it was that. Looking back I think he was probably having a bit of an outbreak even though there was no visible herpes virus anywhere on him.
In terms of numbers, there is about a 4% chance of catching herpes a year when having unprotected sex with someone. If u take a suppressive dose of aciclovir, only have sex when symptoms are not present and use condoms this drops to about a 1% chance. There's less chance of getting herpes than there is getting pregnant with most contraceptives. So use that to inform your judgment.
I am of the opinion that I would prefer to have a healthy sex life and rebuild everything with my other half than worry about getting more herpes. I'm young, blonde and quite vain / insecure about my looks, was always terrified of cold sores before I got herpes. Now I know a cold sore isn't even that bad and If I do get it I will probably only ever get one cold sore on my face. We continue to have unprotected sex and lots of it. We are lucky in the fact our partners also have the virus and contracting it is not something to worry about.
Herpes is not a big deal now. It's only cold sores. We've got it. So what. There's no point changing the way we live to accommodate the virus. It's not some debilitating disease. It's cold sores. Something like 80% of the population has one form or another of the virus. Absolutely LOADS of people don't get symptoms which is how it is spread so easily. It is an epidemic of a rubbish disease that just doesn't really mean anything.
Don't let it take over your life. For a few weeks I was like ew gross ew gross but now I'm over it. Don't freak out about being uber clean. Just be sensible while u adjust. Your body will fight it on its own in time. Just give it a few weeks to develop its defence mechanism. You won't have blisters all the time but when u do just don't touch everything that's all. Keep some baby wipes in and use those to clean. If u want to dry everything use a hair dryer on cool.
Honestly it sucks but it gets better and it ain't that bad
If you have loads of outbreaks go to the doc and demand to be put on aciclovir all the time. Best thing I ever did. Life is back to normal, getting on and climbing the ladder at work, socialising with friends, love my boyfriend, great life really. Herpes didn't change anything and I won't let it.
Good luck ! PM me if u ever want to chat !