Question:
I have gotten a (one coldsore) at a time since I was a little girl. My mom and brothers also had the same problem. Then on a recurrent outbreak my entire mouth turned into a huge swollen mess. From then on I have to fight off outbreaks nearly every day with Zovirax oitment and Valtrex. When I end up with a full blown outbreak it is a huge awful mess. I got cruelly teased in school. It made me feel dirty and I never did anything to warrant feeling like that.

I'm 30, married, and have one child. I rarely kiss my husband due to this problem and I've never kissed my own child for fear of getting them sick. I'm always in fear of losing my job for having to miss work and therefore losing our family home. This problem is severly depressing.

I live a healthy lifestyle for the most part. I don't drink, I don't do drugs, and I try to eat as healthy as possible. I do have a lot of stress though which is a setback I know.

How can I get through this so I'm not so depressed all the time. I just want to be healthy. I want to be able to kiss my husband and child and feel worthy. This problem has made me feel like I'm no good. It makes me feel like if God won't cure me then there's little hope for me living a happy life.

Answer:
You sound so sad. My heart goes out to you. It sounds like you're doing everything you can to prevent the ob's. The only other thing I might suggest is to take something to help your immune system along...like Lysine supplements, or I was taking Neem leaf capsules, and they seemed to help a lot when I was getting a lot of ob's. I stopped, mainly because I never remember to take them (I have a terrible memory for such things), but I recommend them. You don't say what kind of stress you're under, but if there's ANY way to lessen it, that might help. It could even be that the stress of anticipating an ob is adding to the problem. Stress is your enemy, for sure. It puts a tremendous strain on your body, not just your mind.

This is not your fault, and I wish you could see that you're not unworthy of happiness. Your husband doesn't think you're unlovable, your child doesn't think so, and neither should you. You sound like a sincerely nice person, and I hope that this period of ob's subsides soon. But mostly I hope you can come to accept the fact that regardless of the virus, you have people who love you and need you in their lives, and that makes you very special, and very blessed, indeed.