Questions about my Initial Outbreak (face and vulva - link to photos)

NOTE: I don't see a spot to upload photos here, so I'm providing a link to two photos I've posted elsewhere. They are photos of my first (and only, so far) outbreak, on my face and vulva. LINK: https://honeycomb.click/topic/73571-questions-about-first-outbreak-photos-included/

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I was recently diagnosed with HSV (but doctor did not indicate 1 or 2) after first being diagnosed with impetigo. I had never even had a cold sore in my entire 41 years of life. 

This outbreak started after current boyfriend’s mustache rubbed a spot raw in my upper lip one weekend, and then the next weekend when we saw each other my lip swelled up a little, oozed clear liquid, and then the following day I got a fever, my lymph nodes were sore, and my face and lips started breaking out.

The photo of my face is from the worst day, which was 4 days  into the outbreak. I still thought I had impetigo at this point. Two days later, another doctor swabbed some sores on my face and had a lab draw blood. 

She did not swab anything on my vulva. The photo of my vulva is from about 4 days in, as well. I had a few sore spots but nothing like blisters that broke open or oozed. It was uncomfortable to pee for one day. I was not in excruciating pain down there like I have read a lot of women experience.

The diagnosis I was given said HSV and Genital HSV. (Again, nothing has been determined as far as HSV 1 or 2.)

I’m supposed to see the doctor for follow-up in a week to see how my face is healing and I have a list of questions. I’m on Valtrex.

Vulva completely healed very quickly. Face is healing slowly but now just mostly redness. It was also in one eye, and eye doctor said my eye healed nicely.

In the meantime, I have read a ton of posts here and I have looked at photos of HSV vs. impetigo online, but none seem to look exactly like my face or vulva looked.

So I wanted to ask here — Do these photos (link at the top of this post) look like HSV to you?

I realize HSV 1 can be in the genitals, and wonder if this looks like it. I’m still freaking out about all of this news.

The doctor who said initially that I had impetigo did not swan anything. The dermatologist who said I had HSV seemed young and flaky, and really did not know how to talk to me. She ended up scaring me to death by calling me eight after I left her office. She said, “Yeah, no. I’m really concerned with the way this is diffused on your face. We usually only see that with HIV. You need to come back.” WHAT??? The HIV test was negative, thank God.

Also, the “Yeah, no” doctor said that the timeline with the raw lip through the time of outbreak fits within the incubation period for this to have come from current boyfriend. We haven’t seen each other in person since this nightmare began, but have plans for a weekend together the weekend of New Year’s Eve. I’m waiting to talk to him in person and trying to learn as much as possible first. 

Thank you for looking at my disgusting face and nether region. I just kind of want reassurance of “Yes, my HSV looked like that” or “No, I’ve never seen an HSV outbreak like that.”

Since this was my initial outbreak, will I shed from my face? Will future outbreaks happen again on my face? 

If current boyfriend gave this to me, thene is no need for ya to use condoms, correct?

I’m still working through how I will present this whole thing to him. Ugh.

Thank you for any info you're able to share.

your pictures definitely look like they could be herpes, especially given your positive swab. as i said in another post, the swab does not diagnose which type of hsv, that takes a blood test. yes, he could have given it to you in both places with his oral infection, but you can't be sure that he doesn't have it genitally either. he could, and could have been shedding. so, just to be clear, he could have given you a genital herpes infection via his mouth or his penis. and you could have gotten an oral infection via his mouth or his penis. if you are sure he gave you herpes, i don't understand why you are afraid to approach him with this. maybe it's because he's acting like he doesn't have a problem? he should actually know he has a problem so that he doesn't do this to anyone else unless the consent. hang in there.

Thanks for the response.

It isn't that he is acting like he doesn't have a problem. I have not told him yet, because we have not seen each other in person since the morning of the day the outbreak crept onto my face. We live about an hour apart and don't see each other every day. Or every weekend. But not at all since this happened. I have looked disgusting, felt awful, and didn't want to be seen.

Plus I'm learning as much as I can before I talk to him. I have a follow-up appointment with the dermatologist next week. Need to ask a lot of questions, although I'm not sure how helpful this doctor will be since she is the one who had her nurse call to give me the diagnosis of H and then had the nurse tell me things like I'm only contagious from the time I feel a tingle until the time the sores dry up.

That doesn't seem too helpful when I've read online that it's wrong PLUS there was never a tingle with the first outbreak so I'm not sure about it.

I have no idea if he knows he has this. I haven't said, "Hey, do you ever get cold sores?" or "Do you have herpes?"

He did mention that he sometimes gets irritated places near his mouth when he shaves. But that was the only thing that might have been a clue, and it was after my outbreak.

He still thinks I had impetigo, which was my initial diagnosis. I'm waiting to bring up all of this when we see each other again in person. I've got handouts and pages printed. I'm going over facts and learning as much as I can. I'm practicing how to begin this conversation and what I'll say.

It isn't easy to plan this conversation.

The only person I have told so far (and probably the only person I will ever confide in, unless it's another lover who needs to know) is a former lover who is a very good friend. I presented the story to him chronologically, from the time I noticed my irritated spot on my lip caused by current boyfriend's mustache, to the following weekend when the irritated spot was still there, to the end of that weekend when my lip started to swell and ooze, to the next day when the breakout on my face began, the misdiagnosis and antibiotics with my PCP, the terrible appointment with the dermatologist days later when she scared the crap out of me/implied that I also had HIV/indicated I was on my way to blindness, to being scared and in isolation while waiting for test results for 8 terrible days, to getting the diagnosis and being in even more turmoil.

His only suggestion was not to leave it hanging in mystery when I brought up her comment about how the breakout on my face that bad is usually something they see in HIV so I needed to come back right now for labs. Turned out I do not have HIV, but why in the world would she present this information to me like that? I feel like the whole appointment with this woman was handled badly. Like she flunked bedside manner in medical school.