Herpes outbreaks on your hand?

So the guy that I'm seeing, the one that gave me H, recently went to the doctor because he's had this weird itchy patch on his hand that would come and go every now and then for the last several months.. well the doctor said that it was a derivative of herpes. It really just looked like dry skin, there weren't any blisters or pain to it he said. Just itching. I know it's possible to have outbreaks just about anywhere but I just thought that there would always be a lesion or blister there and it would be painful? I'm so confused by this.

Did the doctor do a swab and found out it was herpes? It's hard to auto-inoculate like that, especially since herpes prefers warm, moist environments (which is why the lips and genitals are prime areas). But it is possible to spread herpes to the hand if there is a cut or abrasion on your hand and you touch that area to a herpes sore and your body hasn't built up an immune response (herpes antibodies) yet. Usually it shows up right where the fingernail meets the finger. It's called herpetic whitlow. Here's a picture of what it looks like on WebMD:

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/picture-of-herpetic-whitlow

I've heard of herpetic whitlow and it looks nothing like that. I don't know if he did a swab or not.. I don't think so though because he said the Dr said there was no way to know for sure. It's around his knuckles and it just kind of looks like little white dots of dry skin that he says just itches. He works with his hands a lot so he always has cuts and scrapes. But as far as I know he hasn't had any other outbreaks and my first one was about 3 months after he said it started showing up on his hand.