The Chronological Diary of a Monster Cold Sore. My day by day picture diary!!!
Well as you can see, I haven't posted on here for a while.
We were frantic in the lead up to Christmas with lots of school and family events. Then low & behold straight after Christmas it is my D.D's birthday. But I was so run down that I came out with my FIRST EVER cold sore. Even before DD's birthday. I didn't even get out of bed to make her a cake and my partner had to do it!!! And he did a great job but that is another post.
I have googled and googled and everywhere it says that 90% of the adult population has the virus that causes cold sores & that it is when you get run down that they appear. But why do I still feel unclean & dirty??? We eat healthily and eat a variety of foods, just I still have become run down enough to have this huge growth on my face for a week now.
On the first night - New Years Day no less, I felt the tingling and the blister developing. I have never had a cold sore before and as it was late all the pharmacies were closed, so I couldn't rush out and buy any cream.
- Be warned - dont'scroll down if you don't want day by day pictures - and it really does look like something out of an alien movie. It is just gross!!!
Initially my lip just kept swelling up and the blister began to appear.
I felt ABSOLUTELY dreadful and my lip kept getting bigger and my nose started to swell too.
The next night we rang the locum doctor to come out, as everything was continuing to swell up and we were thinking it may have been a spider bite. My partner even suggested we went into the Emergency Dept at the hospital. The locum assured us it was a cold sore, albeit an extremely big one. The biggest he had ever seen!!!
The blister started to weep and sections started to scab over. While other sections still felt like the lip was growing bigger.
It then became quite scabby and yellow. The sore had crusted over in places, while it was still a blister and beginning to weep in other places.
It finally started turning brown and sections of the scab starting falling off.
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| Lower Lip is still very swollen & scab is appearing, whilst it is still weeping from the middle |
It got so big it took up 3/4 of my lower lip.
This is what it currently looks like. It has now been 1 week since I first started to feel the tingling feeling and the blister was starting to develop. As they are highly contagious I have stayed away from everyone and even missed the first birthday of a very close friend's only child. I still feel fairly average. I never realised that a cold sore could make someone feel so bad. I thought it was merely like a pimple, it hurt if you touched it, but didn't affect the rest of your body, but how wrong I was!!!!! The skin on my hands is now sore from so much washing and anti-bacterial hand wash in an attempt to stop the spread to any of the other members of the family. Let alone the towels over my pillow and facewashers that I am continually washing in vinegar to hot water to kill off the virus.
So I kinda look like your first picture. My lip is swelling beyond what I thought was possible and it hurts SO badly. I missed work today. I'm supposed to leave for a week vacation on Sunday. Did the doctor give you any helpful advice? I've been trying everything I can from the interweb: salt, toothpaste, nail polish remover, hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, hand sanitizer, and ice all day long in between. Abreva, too. I'm dosing lysine, ibuprofen, and vitamin C. I literally feel your pain. It is just awful.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think anyone else had the same problem as I did a few years back....but my upper lips swelled up like this and I had to miss work for a week because I worked at a fastfood restaurant and I couldn't be in front of customers with my lip looking like I had this bad disease. It was horrible, and I haven't had it sense.
ReplyDeleteMrsa is what it looks like. You should have it checked.
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing, so i know what it is...it's happened before and i was told sunpoison or overheating, but this one now is in the winter :/
ReplyDeleteA word of advice for any future outbreaks from someone who has had cold sores since kindergarten.
ReplyDeleteDO NOT LICK IT!
I know the urge to do so is very strong, but licking it is what causes it to get so bad. Licking causes the fragile skin of your lip to dry and crack and causes the sore to spread and worsen. Most cold sore sufferers who get them frequently keep a specially reserved chapstick in their purse to help prevent this. Vapor rub, Tiger balm or other such product is especially good. There is also a cream you can get at the chemist that will prevent the cold sore from appearing at all if you dab it on at the very first feeling of a tingle. Myself I haven't had a cold sore eruption in almost a decade simply because I have learned to ignore and not lick when I feel the tingle.