Question:
Hi, just signed up today, have been reading for a few days.

My wife and I are married and have sex outside of our marriage often in a swinger community. Recently, we experienced some symptoms that point to a herpes infection and we are trying to sort it out. We have no allergies and took no medications currently.

The Male: Last Thursday, started running a 102-103 Temp, swollen throat, painful to swallow. By Sat, went to the ER with inability to take in food and liquids. Tiny sores covered my tongue, my bottom lip, a little on my gums. They have ruptured, turned nasty grey, and now i'm recovering. Doc put me on steroids for swelling reduction so I could eat, Famvir for a herpes outbreak, 600mg of Motrin each 6 hrs to keep the fever down. Now I'm better, it still hurts to eat, the tongue, throat is very rough. Doc cultured the tongue, says it came back positive for Herpes, no typing of course, blood type is pending. No genital irritation. ER doc never suggested anything, but my local doctor who knows we swing was heavily pushing the Herpes angle. ER doc simply says acute viral phyngitis, swelling of the throat due to unidentified virus, didn't even mention the bumps.

My local doc (well, the assistant), the one who knows of our swinging, calls me up and says 'tested positive for Herpes.' I say, what's that mean? She says, it's not the cold sore kind. I said 'what?' and she puts me on hold to talk to the doctor. I think we knew this was a positive HSV just because of appearance and symptoms. I had many lip cold sores as a kid, and I guess that means I'm HSV positive anyway, so this is no surprise. This is the largest outbreak I can recall. When she comes back, she basically fesses up that it means nothing without the typing.

The Female: Two sats ago (8/7) we met a couple for sex. The female/female interaction was kind of rough and she developed some cuts and such in her genital area. The cuts are painful, the genital area is swollen. She went to the doc, no bumps, nothing but a few splits in the soft tissue, they tell her to keep it clean, soak it, let it heal for two weeks. Bumps start to form around the skin on the outside, looks like ingrown hairs. They eventually get larger, and break, but have puss, not clear liquid. After opening, they can appear to be a little like a Herpes liesion, but, don't scab over, just turn red. Doctor does a culture, comes back, says Staph infection. Gives her antibiotics, tells her to keep it clean. On those, she's feeling better. Occasionally gets a new bump, has a little yeast going on, always puss in the bumps, not clear. Doc says it does not appear to be herpes but they cannot test reliable because they're open already. Blood test pending. The puss, the bumps continuing to rise (not a single outbreak), and the rapid recovery after beginning antibiotics for the Staph leads me to believe her condition is not related to HSV in any way, but the blood work should tell.

Doc pushed both of us for HIV and Hep-C testing as well.

Our partners: Male and Female both experienced the same throat symptoms and blisters as I did, and at the same time or a couple days earlier. The woman is a nurse. Like me, she's feverish and eating jello and whatnot almost exclusively because swallowing is painful. Her diagnosis is 'fever blisters' in her mouth, due to the swollen throat (which is Herpes of course). She had it very strong, he had it very mild. She's recovering at about the same rate I am or just a little faster, and she is NOT taking Famvir, but I am. No one suggested Herpes to her.

I'm confused. My positive test, as far as my reading tells me, is pretty meaningless. I always had cold sores as a kid, so HSV positive was a given when they cultured my tongue outbreak, and I'm confident our partners would have the same result. The ER seems to be treating us like normal people with a virus, our partner's doc seems to be acting somewhat rationally, our office who knows of our swing activities seems to be treating us like a STD farm, although they know that we practice penetration safely, but don't protect during oral.

I would guess that my blood will show Type 1, and this outbreak could have been triggered not by a sexual transmission but simply as a effect of the virus in my throat. I doubt that this will be the start of frequent oral outbreaks, but how could you tell?

I would guess that our partners and us having the same problem at the same time is likely due to the virus in our throat, because Herpes would not have infected a new partner and shown up in this type of outbreak within 4 days of transmission, I have read 7-30 days before it happens would be much more typical. And, the timing appears to be unique and overlapping with the throat virus. We both got it at the same time. And we've never seen that couple before that day.

I would also guess that my wife's outbreak is bacterial in nature almost entirely, there's no fever, it's painful, but antibiotics appears to be taking care of the whole thing.

I get the impression that our local doc aware of our swinging is attempting to scare us or assuming the worst because of our 'unsavory' activities in their opinion.


I would love to hear from anyone on what I might be missing, what I have right or wrong, or what your thoughts are.

-D

Answer:
well...believe me, i certainly am not any expert...but could it be genital herpes in your mouth and throat. it is my understanding that if you have a cold sore, you can transmit that hsv1 to the persons genital area. but i think that is the case if someone has genital herpes and you have oral sex with them. i think all of the players should have been tested for hsv1 and 2.

but i am new here...just learning. so...not the expert. maybe if you dont get an answer you could private post someone like richard that seems to post alot.

Answer:
well...believe me, i certainly am not any expert...but could it be genital herpes in your mouth and throat. it is my understanding that if you have a cold sore, you can transmit that hsv1 to the persons genital area. but i think that is the case if someone has genital herpes and you have oral sex with them. i think all of the players should have been tested for hsv1 and 2.

but i am new here...just learning. so...not the expert. maybe if you dont get an answer you could private post someone like richard that seems to post alot. i did some research, and yes...hsv2 can infect the mouth....

" HSV type 2 is the usual cause of genital herpes, but it also can infect the mouth. "

the other thing is....symtoms can surface 2-10 days after exposure. mine was two days. :(