People with fever blisters - oral herpes - need to know there’s another form of herpes most people haven’t heard of: ocular herpes, which is one of the leading causes of blindness, actually. It can be passed from someone with active cold sores to another person’s or their own eye.
Its symptoms are occasionally confused with pinkeye but it’s far more unpleasant and serious. I got my infection as an eight year old from a grandmother with cold sores who knew not to kiss me near my lips but didn’t realize my eye was a problem. It’s not fun and I wish more people knew about it so they could take the proper steps.
One of my children got “herpes” in her eye as a child, also. She had a terrible cold anyway, and then she was poked in the eye with a stick, which broke her cornea. Thru the process of crying as a result of the injury, she rubbed her eye and transferred the virus to her eye.
It cost thousands of dollars to treat her over the years. One tiny vial of ‘viroptic’ cost $60 dollars at the time.
Eventually, she needed a cornea transplant. If she breaks out in a coldsore infection, which she does when under severe stress, or over sun exposure, the treated eye will hurt.
She uses L-lysine on a regular basis to ward off the cold sore attacks, and she swears by it.
She got the coldsores from ME when she was only a year and a half old. I didn’t know that it was transferrable. Neither did my mom when she gave it to me as an infant.
Some people are much more suseptible to it than others. My oldest child doesn’t have it and I kissed on her, too. The youngest two have it, but the middle one is the worst.
As an adult, learning that it was contagious caused behavior changes for me. It’s rare for me to break out, but when I do, I avoid kissing others, and make sure my hands are very clean very often. I’ve found that antifungals help me a ton. I can use athletes foot type creams, or even vaginal yeast type creams like monistat, and it will kill a coldsore even before it’s fully broken out. They go away in a few days rather than a couple of weeks.
I don’t know why it works, but it does. My doctor doesn’t know why it works, but it does. It relieves the itching immediately, relieves the pain, and it begins to heal.
I tried the L-lysine and it does nothing for me. Guess it depends on a person’s system.
It’s a huge relief NOT to have to worry about this beastly disease on the other end!