Cold sores & stress

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Specializes in LTC.

I've stressed myself out so bad and now I have a GIANT cold sore on my bottom lip... has this ever happened to anyone else and what do you guys use on them??? I've tried everything and nothing is working.. I'm so frustrated!!!!

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Specializes in LTC / SNF / Geriatrics.

Carmex, Blistex, my mom and dad used to use....

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Have you tried Denavir cream when they first come on or perhaps valtrex to prevent them?

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i've stressed myself out so bad and now i have a giant cold sore on my bottom lip... has this ever happened to anyone else and what do you guys use on them??? i've tried everything and nothing is working.. i'm so frustrated!!!!

i'm sorry for you!

i got shingles the last time i stressed myself out -- on my face. think of it like this -- the cold sore is a bummer, but at least it's not shingles!

sorry i can't help

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I called the doc on base and said, hey, I feel the prodrome, my lip's buzzing, and I can't work with patients with an open sore, so can you call in a scrip for Valtrex to Walgreen's? And he said sure, give me the number, and I did, and he did, and I've never been without a bottle of the big blue suckers since. This last freebie bottle is humongous, the doc told me sure, the 1g for 2 days I was using worked, but 2g 2x a day for 3 days is even better. If I take it the second I sense that little buzz in my lip, it never becomes an open sore. It stays real dry.

My dentist gave me Denavir. Seemed OK, but no better really than zinc, which I take all the time anyway 'cause it recycles SOD so well, the source I'm taking now is very available, NSI L-OptiZinc 30mg as l-methionine from vitacost.com (cheap place).

She told me next time to come in and she'd laser the spot. She had one pt who had painful cold sores and came in very agitated, she could feel the prodrome all over her face instead of just her lip, and she ran the laser all over her face and she never broke out, in fact she's never broken out since. Something very new to me but whatever works.

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ABREVA!!!

Love it! It dries the cold sore up but it doesn't make it crusty. It seems to really shorten the healing time, too. Also, in the future, if you apply it as soon as you feel the cold sore coming on, the cold sore won't get as big and nasty.

Man, I hate cold sores!

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Oh yeah, this is for those of you who have Tricare. I went to my military doc and explained how shingles would put me out of work at the hospital, so she told me to ask if the shot clinic would honor her scrip, and they got in a little debate about me not being 60 yet per CDC suggestion, but the NCOIC decided if the doc wrote it, they'd honor it, so I got it.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geri, Ortho, Telemetry, Psych.

I don't get cold sores but I've had alot of people tell me that Abreva kicks butt. Little expensive, but they say it's worth it.

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I've stressed myself out so bad and now I have a GIANT cold sore on my bottom lip... has this ever happened to anyone else and what do you guys use on them??? I've tried everything and nothing is working.. I'm so frustrated!!!!

Which is a sign of herpes, depending which area on your body....but still a form of herpes.

Valtrex works well if you take it immediately when you feel the tingling feeling or a numbing or burning sensation.

My hubby gets them a lot on his lips, and he uses Valtrex for a few days and it keeps it from becoming a bigger problem. I unfortunately have it in another area below south. I am allergic to the chicken pox virus, and when my kids got the chicken pox, I broke out too because I had the worst case of chicken pox when I was a baby and was hospitalized, and so now I have herpes down south, since I was a kid!! So, sunshine, stress, extra shaving or waxing in the bikini areas can bring on a cold sore or herpes, and if I take Valtrex in time, I can prevent it. Lovely eh? My mom has it on her cheeks (on her FACE, not bum), and it runs in families.....some people just have more of a tendancy to get it than others, and my resistence is down for the zoster/herpes virus.

Anywho, they do make an acyclovir creme that you can rub on the actual cold sore....that is where herpecin and other cremes like abreva come in, but they don't have enough acyclovir to really work well. Just ask your doc for the prescription kind, but I think you can't take both together, the pill and creme. In England you can buy the creme without a script, when I returned to the USA, I went to the pharmacy and asked for a tube, he got the tube and asked me for my script.....I was like HUH?? You have to have a script for it?? So anyway,,,,,all you ever wanted to know about herpes and more!!! :)

Good luck, and oh, take LCarnitin, it can help prevent outbreaks during high stress times and also B vitamins help as well....OJ is also another one that is supposed to help.

:)

Deb

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PS, I also have shingles.....and I can feel like I have the flu in my entire leg areas, the prodrome. SO, can they laser those areas as well?? I have had shingles lots of time, but not in years until this past week, very stressful week, plus we were in Hawaii laying in the sun, which brings out mine too.

Hmmm, laser, I wonder if that would work!!

:)

Thanks!!!

Deb

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Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

I never had a "cold sore" before I became a nurse!!! I now take L-Lysine 1000mg everyday,.no more cold sores,.my nails are longer and stronger,.my hair is less dry,..love it!

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Thanks, L Lysine, not carnitin!! Although that can help too probably.

I know the L Lysine is a big help in prevention!! :)

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