I'm sick of Coldsores!!

[ash6605]

For over a month now I have had recurring coldsores.
It started with a huge one while my daughter was in hospital so I put it down to stress.I used my usual cream,Virasorb but that didn't work.
I then tried Zovirax which seemed to make it shrink but not disappear completely and since then I have developed another 3 smaller ones.
I am now using Cymex but still have 4 coldsores,not massive hideous ones but they are really irritating me and I don't understand why I have had them continuosly for this long.My poor children are sick of kissing my cheek and D.H will leave me before long if he doesn't get a snog!!

What can I try now,I really don't want to bother the doctor but maybe I need something a little stronger?

it sounds like you are having a rough time!
if you've had them this long and your normal creams haven't worked it might be worth going to the doc.
I usually use Zovirax asap, but even if the sore's come out it will shrink it, and it usually goes within a week or so.

Are you ok, healthwise, in other ways?
Is there anything niggling at you that you've been meaning to get checked? If I were you I would be looking for the underlying cause of the outbreak - your immune system could be low. Don't want to scare you, it could be as simple as a vitamin deficiency.

Avoid citrus fruits and anything with Citric acid, like lemonade etc.

My friend swears by it. She used to suffer terribly until I passed on this info I read somewhere and now gets them rarely. She used to eat oranges every day.

Thanks for all the quick replies!

Starlight,wouldn't be lying about depression but my doctors answer to everything seems to be Prozac so I'm very reluctant to go to him with this!

Prunie,don't want to sound like a hypochondriac but I haven't been right healthwise for around a year now,after I had a mmc.Nothing I can put my finger on,nothing I would say is related to the coldsores but I have been having a lot of dizzy spells,migraine and vertigo type symptoms and have the most terrible hot flushes(I am only 27)my weight has crept up alot since the mc(about 2.5stone in a year)and I have suffered with acne a lot.
See,I do sound like a hypochondriac and I know my doctors answer would be Prozac so I have left it so long!

I have suffered with cold sores all my life.
I get them if I am stressed and/or run down/not been eating properly.

So usually 2 days into a new job I always get an attack, and if I've been run down with a cold or whatever then I get them.

I find good rest and relaxation, and better food gets rid. and just blisteze to take the sting out. The other stuff (zovirax or the prescription stuff) that claims to get rid of it, I find just supresses them then they come out worse a week or so later.

Oh and I used to get them after prolonged snogging from stubble rash...in my dim and distant dating days...

Oh yes,I was on Prozac and other anti depressants for 3 years and felt terrible emotionally.After my last serious suicide attempt I vowed never to go back on them and since them I have felt so much better emotionally.Just seems to hae turned to physical complaints now!

Don't you think I have tried EVERYTHING??
Over the counter, prescription, quack cures, I've had the damn things on and off for 45 years and if I say Aclovir doesn't work for me then it doesn't bloody well work for me.

So there.

Ash I think if you try Aclovir you had better come on here and say it works or Starlight will be after you and checking your prescription.
ffs
I only came on to give my own 45 years experience of my own coldsores on my own mouth to another mumnsetter and I'm being harrassed about what may have been on old prescriptions.
Good night ladies and Ash6605 I hope you manage to get rid of them.
I have been cold sore free for about the last 12 months but I can feel a stress induced bout coming on right now.

Ash - dizziness, migraine, weight gain even - probably we all get those. Hot flushes, though - with all of those symptoms I would be at the gp. Throw in the coldsores as well...Something is not right, is it?
How about seeing your gp, and if s/he wants you back on Prozac, you go and see someone else, even if it's an alternative therapist - who will at least give you an hour for a proper history-taking and you might find yourself saying something that clicks in your mind that you could then take back to another gp at your practice, perhaps.
(Hope that makes sense.)

Ash6605 - I can totally sympathise with you! I have suffered from these all my life and they are painful and horrible. I like you have tried many things! With zovirax, it says 'treat the ting;e' but for me the tingle comes and then literally 10 minutes later the cold sore is there!! I use it though as it does seem to speed up the healing process! I have been known to dab perfume on as well - stingy but dries them up!!

They say that cold sores can be triggered through stress, feeling run down, depression, hormonal changes, illness etc - so that means I get them loads!!

If you can leave them alone, and not touch/pick them then they will go away faster but I know that this is not always easy!!

Definately try the aclovir tablets you take 5 a day for 5 days then they give you around a years protection which will at best stop any further attacks or at worst make any attacks you do have very, very small. Aclovir is actually expensive for drs to prescribe so that's why they are sometimes reluctant but if you ask they should give it to you.

Thanks all.I will definately ask for Aclovir,Just hope he gives me it!!

With regards to seeing another G.P,I wish it was that simple!It is a 1 man surgery in a small village,there is another surgery in the village but they are a nightmare to get an appointment with,you are talking 3 weeks for most appointments,I kid you not!I was with them originally but changed to my current surgery when I was finding it difficult to get appointments for my kids,you know what its like,when they are ill they're ill then and there not 3 weeks down the line!There are no other surgerys in the local area that will take me on because of how far away we live.(downside of living in the country!)

KAREN-I knew about stress and depression being a cause but didn't realise that hormones were too.this may be relevant,I have thought since my mc that maybe my hirmones weren't right-aswell as the weight gain,acne and dizzy spells I get the most hurrendous sore breasts for about two weeks of every month starting from around ovulation until my AF arrives.It is so painful,I can be crying in pain,I can't even have a sheet over them.I didn't even have this much pain when pg and breastfeeding.Sometimes my migraine(again,always in the 2 wks prior to AF) can be so bad,I lose 2-3 days I just have to lie down,in the dark and silence.It is affecting my life so badly,it's not fair on the kids or my husband but I am so scared of going to the doctors about it because I feel like I have such a long list of complaints,he's going to think its my depression creeping back in again.My husband and I have both said that I have been doing so well lately,my depression has lifted and I'm dealing with things much better these days so really don't think it is depression related.

L-lysine is the answer

DH and SIL both had cold sores a lot, if you take it every day you don't get them any more. DH only gets them now if he stops taking it.

more here lots about it if you google

You can buy in Holland and Barrett

I used to get terrible cold sores. May I recommend to all of you fellow sufferers the only good present my MIL has ever given me

It is pricey, but it works. I hardly ever get them anymore, and when I do feel one starting and zap it at once, it only comes out a tiny bit.

Acyclovir stopped working for me too btw. I don't know why.

oh. oh, oh

Witch hazel stick!!!!!

Works so well, reduces the swelling almost immediatly. Hurts like hell first of all, and then feels soooooo better.

and I'm really not a 'herbal medicine' kind of a gal

RosaLuxMundi - when you say 'pricey' how much are we talking? Does it really work? I would be very interested!!

DD has suffered since she was about 5. She used to get really nasty ones, but since she was 11, she has been able to take the herbal ones, L-Lysine. It really works. She is definately getting fewer and fewer and they are no where near as bad as they used to be. Any health food shop does them. They are HUGE tablets btw!

I feel for you. I get coldsoreas all the time ( and DH gets them even more often) and have tried all the above treatments which often work in the short time but lose their effect after a while. I have had oral acyclovir which is v. good as a couple of courses seemed to leave me free of them for quite a while.I was lucky my dr would prescribe it- I believe it's very expensive.
I have used a new cream that is working for me at the mo called "Fenistil" with something called pencyclovir in it. It seems to dry them up really quickly
Sylica gel is also quite good and my aunt swears by rescue remedy.

It is £45. But worth its weight in Zovirax.