Elesean Fields

About cold sores.

I got my first cold sore when I was in first grade.  It ran from the inside left of my lower lip, all the way down past the dip between my lip and chin.  It was about half an inch wide, and an inch long.  And it was gross.  It started as a series of funny little blisters that reminded me of those fancy goldfish with the big blistery looking eyes.  It itched and it tingled, and I reeked of Campho-pheniq.  When it started to scab over and heal, it was horribly, horribly painful.  It bled, children ran from me.  I cried.  And I was terrified that it was never going to stop growing, and soon I would have a scab that covered my entire face.

It never grew that big, but it did scar, and I do have a visible mark left in the dip between lip and chin.  And since that time, at least once a year, I feel that familiar itching and watch in mute horror as the blisters appear.  The good news is, I know how to treat the rotten things now.  The bad news is, there isn't a cure.

I swear by <a href="http://www.abreva.com">Abreva.</a>  I spackle myself with the paste as soon as I feel a cold sore coming on, and am generally spared the overwhelming grossness of a sore gone un- or under-treated.  I ran out (I've had the same little tube for a couple of years) and could only find Releev at the grocery store.  It turns your lip brown, so I am looking luscious.  I have half a brown lower lip.  I will be going to find some more Abreva after work.  That way, I can have a white pastey looking lip.  Mmm.

So the biggest problem is that cold sores are a member of the Herpes Virus family.  If the Herpes Virus was the Carter family, Genital Herpes would be Billy, and Herpes Simplex would be Jimmy.  You know Billy got around and had a lot more fun.  Jimmy was just a victim of himself.  Abreva.com says, "Unfortunately, once you contract the virus, your body's immune system cannot completely get rid of the infection. So it remains in your body, usually hidden in a nerve located near your cheekbone. During a cold sore outbreak, typically triggered by factors such as sun exposure, stress, fatigue or hormones, the virus 'wakes up' and eventually becomes a visible and highly contagious sore, usually on or around the lip area."  Kind of like Jimmy Carter and foreign policy.  God bless him.

And Abreva.com has a great visual aid chart of the Life of a Cold Sore, which includes Tingle, Blister, Ulcer, Scabbing, and Healing stages, with a lovely characterization of the "golden-brown crust" that appears to form a scab.  And now I am thinking of McDonald's apple pies, and I may never be able to eat them again.  Bad for my love of apple pies, good for my hips.

Basically, if you've got the Herp, you're up a creek.  Nothing you can do.  But you can get some cold comfort from your sores if you treat them.  Kind of like handing Billy Carter a beer.