Second outbreak questions - just symptom free from primary

Hi!

New here and new to Herpes.

I want to start with a thanks to all of you, especially Adrial. Spent the first week in bed, crying, (getting dumped) and searching for info. You guys turned it around for me! Gave me the courage to reach out to some close friend.

So I just “cleared” my primary outbreak. It was bad in terms of fever, nerve, muscle and skin pain. My blisters where mainly located inside my vagina (I’ll take my gynaecologists word on that) only one blister on the outer labia and a quarter-size blister cluster on my buttocks.

Being clear of the symptoms and of the medication has me worrying about the next outbreak... I know my brain is playing tricks but every pinch or itch has me holding my breath.

To my question (warning a bit graphic)

My first symptom was discharges, something I normally only have the day/s around ovulation.

You guys who have had primary and follow up outbreaks; is this what I need to look out for?

I guess from the amount of skin sensitivity and nerve pain I had that that will be a tell as well? but that did not start until 4-5 days after the discharges and the blisters where later to the party...

Any experiences?

(I understand we are all different)

Love

Maggy

(Not native in English but hopefully I make sense)

Hi,

So sorry to hear of your initial experience and troubles. :( but glad you seem to be doing better! I was diagnosed a couple months ago and I can say it definitely does get easier to cope with. I’m pretty much at the stage now of acceptance where I’ve just chalked it up to a normal thing that happens to a lot of people. And it seems for the most part that with time it only gets easier to manage.

Just wanted to chime in and share my similar experiences with initial OB — I had the nerve/muscular/skin irritation as well... burning/tingling/pins and needles sensations. I’m still experiencing those symptoms now after my initial OB and I’m not sure how much I can attribute to herpes or my anxiety and spine issues... but it definitely seemed to get worse and more frequent following my herpes diagnosis. I also experienced flu-like symptoms (with no fever) before my OB, and I’m still getting on-and-off waves of those symptoms with fatigue, that come for a day or so then disappear again. I also had a very liquid discharge that saturated my panties, which is much of what sparked my initial herpes concern because it was completely out of the ordinary, and (mind you) smelled terrible. We’re talking, I bought some vagisil fragrance spray and was spraying that all over my panties several times a day to try to keep it at bay. It was bad. The discharge was definitely one of my first symptoms to appear though, as well as groin tenderness and the aches.

I’m still trying to learn more as I go, but I figured hearing about as many initial experiences as a possible can definitely help to determine warning signs and try to corrrelate specific things to the virus itself.

Wishing you the best!

Thank you for sharing! And I’m sorry you had this unpleasant experience as well but glad to hear it’s looking up.

I also experience a lot of fatigue despite the other symptoms being over. I contributed it to me going cold turkey on coffee but perhaps it’s more about my body working to cope with the virus?

Can i ask, has the discarges returend After that first outbreak?

Maggy

That’s what I’m starting to chalk the fatigue up to. It seems like everyone experiences different reactions depending on how their body deals with the virus. I’m starting to see more and more that it seems there is no textbook way anyone will respond to herpes. And I think there is still a lot doctors don’t understand... which is probably why my ob-gyn barely had anything to say following my diagnosis.

I haven’t experienced anymore discharge after my initial OB. That actually cleared up really fast after starting the Valacyclovir treatment. I’m really hoping I don’t experience it again if I ever have another OB, because that was definitely one of my worst symptoms. I felt so gross the whole time it was going on. Do you still experience the discharge? It sounds like yours was more akin to normal vaginal discharge, maybe just more of it at the time of the OB? Mine was so bizarrely liquid that at first I thought I had peed myself.

Hi OMS and Maggie.

I was diagnosed last week. My first memorable symptom was itching... then similar to you oms, the discharge. I thought I had peed myself too or having some kind of incontinence issues, it was very thin clearish fluid that would soak my panties too.

I’ve only had one OB (primary last week) but will assume that initial symtoms in the future will present as itchiness and potentially that same discharge.

On the other hand, i was also diagnosed with a yeast infection wihich may be a factor of the discharge... this may have been the case for you too as yeast infections have resulted as a secondary symptom of an H OB.

Just thinking out load here. But wanted to mention my similar discharge prior to OB.

Take Car,

Ros

@OMS My discharge was quite wet in the beginning as well but no odour. It stopped within hours of taking the meds.

@Ros thanks for sharing! Seems like discharge might be linked to the H. But somehow I hope it won’t be a part of the future. As OMS said, made me feel extra icky :( probably need to get over that as well...