Hi Tom,
Yes, type 2 is usually associated with genital and type 1 with oral. however, this has now all changed. although it is more unlikely for type 2 to cause oral herpes, loads of new cases of genital herpes are caused by type 1 due to all of us youngsters going crazy for oral sex.
No, no, the stats helped me too. Really hold on to that. If you think that 80% of your flat have some kind of herpes, then that's nearly all of you !!! The herpes free people are actually in the minority !!
Oh god, well i just got home from my trip, was very tired and emotional, completely jetlagged so hadn't been to sleep, also got my results sent to me at 3am so i was definitely not going to sleep after that, i basically called my parents who were on holiday in tears, broke down and said ' i have something to tell you. i have herpes' and they were just like. and? is that it ???? they thought i was going to tell them something dreadful like i had burned the house down. it's not even a big deal to them. immediately my mum told me it was the most common STI on the planet and then they have just been really supportive since.
The real life changer for me though was my brother. i felt really awkward telling him but we are really close and he is studying medicine anyway and has effectively become immune to all things vagina and penis, and he was also just like. so? everyone has herpes nowadays. it is almost fashinable to have herpes. then he went on to tell me how he had been getting cold sores for three years and that he had had chlamydia about one million times.
For me, if i was telling a new partner, i would try to not say the word herpes at first. i know for me, the word 'herpes' is just horrible. why couldn't they just call it 'fever blister virus' or 'cold sore attacks'. herpes is just an awful word !
yes, i started taking aciclovir 400mg three times daily whilst on holiday. i went to the doctors once home on monday to get everything on my records and also get more drugs as i had a new blister appear sunday evening. im now on a course until next wednesday. the drugs stop the virus multiplying but once you stop taking them the virus can continue if you havnt finished with your outbreak yet. get to your doctor asap as if they do a swab test the sores still have to be relatively fresh so they can get the fluid out of them. next week may be too late as they may have healed by then. you can request a blood test but this will probably not prove anything definitely until you've been infected for a while so that your body has had enough time to produce antibodies.
i know how you feel when you say you feel lost, but coming on here has helped me loads. i only wrote my first post yesterday and had some lovely responses. there are millions of us out there, and we are a growing community every day. chances are the majority of people will have herpes soon and it will actually be a surprise to find someone without it.
The real problem at the moment i think is that if 80% of people have herpes, why isn't it routinely tested. it shows up in your blood after about 16 weeks from infection. herpes should definitely be included in STI testing. the health authorities justify it in saying that the majority of people don't get symptoms and testing them would only cause negative psychological impacts on that person. WELL what about the rest of us who do get symptoms, get tested and feel rubbish about ourselves? Also, these people with no symptoms will still shed the virus. that is what happened to me, my other half gets no symptoms and had no idea he was infected. it is not fair to just let everyone carry on about their normal infected no symptom life, spreading herpes to people who may get symptoms!? no wonder its an epidemic. there wouldn't be so much stigma attached to it if we were all tested and virtually everyone in the uk found out they had the virus.
In a nut shell, you have done nothing wrong. try not to feel bad, or blame yourself. i know damn sure that i am not a promiscuous person, i have slept with barely anyone and always been in relationships and always been faithful. i didn't deserve this, you didn't deserve this. no one deserves it. but the majority of people have it. they just dont know about it. we are just some of the unfortunate few who get symptoms and know we have it.