Cold sores, Ugh

Fancy Name

If you know anyone afflicted with herpes labialis, a fancy name for cold sores, I feel your pain. Unfortunately, I am one of the many millions who get cold sores. Once the herpes simplex virus is inside your body, it stays for life. Like an alien, it invades and conquers, remaining dormant in your body until it senses weakness or vulnerability and pounces.

Why?

Why do you get cold sores? The herpes simplex virus is common and highly contagious. It spreads through saliva or close contact, kissing, straws, or utensils. Lasting anywhere from seven to ten days, a cold sore does go away (not soon enough) on its own.

Stress, fatigue, and sun exposure will bring the virus to life, resulting in an enormous blistering, festering thing on your lip, front and center, for the whole world to see. There is no way of hiding it.

Let’s look at the five stages of a cold sore.

1. Tingling

2. Blistering

3. Weeping

4. Crusting

5. Healing

They Are Embarrassing

Once you feel any of the above symptoms, you may as well plan on staying in the house under quarantine for two weeks. Highly improbable for most people who have a full-time job. 

Walking around with a cold sore is an embarrassment. You feel as if everyone is looking at you. Besides being painful and itchy they make you very self-conscious. It is the first thing people notice; as I said previously, you cannot hide it. Maybe slapping a band-aid on one’s face is a remedy. 

There Is Help

I take L-lysine for mine. My daughter recommended it, and it seems to work. It doesn’t prevent me from getting one, but they are smaller than before I began taking over-the-counter medication. Abreva works better than most products I've sampled. Like most, I'm willing to try anything to end the misery.

Not The Only One

Not being the only one who gets cold sores is a small consolation. I’ve noticed co-workers walking around with that stricken look on their faces. A cold sore taking up residence is off-putting and humiliating. If you’ve ever been made fun of because of it, I commiserate with you. I know the feeling where you want to crawl into a deep dark place and stay there for a couple of weeks until the uninvited guest is off your face. I once had one so large it took up half of my face. At least, that’s what it felt like at the time. Reeling from people yelling, “hey, what’s that on your face?” Trying not to react, shoulders square, staring straight ahead, struggling to get through until the end of your work shift, returning the next day to the same taunts and jeers. I’ve been there and done that. Sometimes people are not nice.

Do You Know How Lucky You Are?

To all the people out there who are not afflicted with this horrible curse, do you know how lucky you are? Wishing it away doesn’t work. 

The most important thing is bravery. Look everyone in the face and smile! Good luck with that, I’d rather hide out for two weeks until it is gone. 

Your current cold sore will eventually go away.

Until the next one pops up.

‍