Questions for people who get coldsores

is it tingly? they can come and go wherever, ive suffered over the years and had them in different place!

Not really sure. As I've only had two before, I've not quite nailed down the feeling yet. This lump is a bit numb and my lip feels tight.

I would assume so Footlong. I get the buggers when I'm run down mostly, but they do vary as to where they decide to live. Always my lips but rarely in the same place.

Definitely sounds like a coldsore. I don't always get the tingly sensation before one appears.

Yeah, it just doesn't look like what I've had before. There was a 2 day gap between me feeling the numbness/the lump appearing to starting to put Zovirax on - should it not have started to blister in that gap? (The others I've had blistered very quickly, within a day).

What does the tingle feel like? Like pins and needles?

Doesn't sound like a coldsore, if you have had it since Saturday it would be showing blisters by now. If the blisters break and the liquid transfers anywhere else it is highly likely this spot will become another regular site.

I have had them for as long as I can remember. Mum remembers some woman bending down to kiss me in my pram who had a cold sore and obviously gave me the herpes virus, how kind of her!

I started taking Lysine before the wedding as I was paranoid about getting one and had read this does the trick and I haven't had one since Christmas 2010! I always got them being in the sun for the first time in a while and when I was run down.

Yes, I have 2 areas, both quite close together the cold sores will always appear in exactly those area but my triggers are going from winter to summer (on holiday the difference in weather brings them out not general seasonal changes) and the other trigger is stress. The more stressed I am the bigger more painful and longer lasting the cold sore. I also get them if I have had a really really bad cold but thats only happened twice.

I have had a lot of stress at work in the last few weeks and have had 3 huge cold sores appearing one after the other, I've been using (for the first time) the cold sore patches - they are not completely invisible as the packet claims but as the cold sore is now covered and contained I'm hoping I wont reinfect my self again.... ?

I too occasionally get tiny red lumps in the cold sore zones, no idea what they are, they dont respond to zovirax and never become anything more they usually last about 1 week.

I've had cold sores my whole life - when I was a baby my mother let my auntie (who was covered in coldsores) have baby squishes and kisses. Apparently when the coldsores appeared on my a couple of weeks later it was really horrific and they couldn't even feed me and I had to go to hospital.

I don't get the tingle anymore. It starts off as a small spot/bump, always in a different place, but luckily for me always on the main part of the lip, rather than on the edge of the lip/over onto the skin. It just feels "different" when I run my tongue over it, but I can't explain how.

I think it'd take a day or two for the "lump" to turn into a blister. Particularly if it's on your lip where it's being kept moist. I normally catch it early enough so that it just remains this lump and then dies down. If it's come overnight, however, and I don't put Zovirax on until the morning, sometimes it's too late and turns into a blister the next day.

I get them, rarely these days but when I'm run down mostly. Mine are not normally the ones on the edge of my lips, I'm more likely to get a swelling on my bottom lip which sometimes blisters and sometimes doesn't. They are a severe pain in the ass!!

I get them every so often and can generally tell when they are coming usually by a tingly sensation. If you put Zovirax on quickly then maybe that's whats stopped it from blistering. I would suggest keep putting the cream on and it should go soon.

Am doing. Today, the lump has flattened a little and it isn't as sore. Still no sign of any blistering or rawness. Maybe it WAS going to be a full on coldsore, maybe not.

Does anyone here use Zovirax prophylactically? Given my previous tow coldsores were in the same place after a heavy cold, I now rub Zovirax on this spot during any cold and I've not had one since. I'm not sure this is recommended so would feel better if others do it....

Zovirax cant prevent a sore appearing, it will only work when you feel the tingling and when one is on its way.

I vote for it being a spot. One of those annoying ones that never comes to a head but hangs around for ages.

I'd probably go for tea tree oil.

From NHS website

If you know what usually triggers your cold sores, try to avoid the triggers. For example, a sun block lip balm (SPF 15 or higher) may help to prevent cold sores that are triggered by bright sunlight.

Use an antiviral cold sore cream as soon as you feel the tingling sensation of a developing cold sore. However, there is no benefit in using an antiviral cream continuously to try to prevent future cold sores. They cannot cure the virus and are only effective once the virus has been triggered.

OK, but if I am applying it in advance and one does start to occur, it will not develop at all?

Is it a myth that if you've never had a coldsore, you will probably never get one?

Nope, it will only start treating one that is developing. It would be just as easy to carry Zovirax or the patches in your bag at all times then as soon as you feel the tingle/burn/ twitch/needles whack the cream on. Sometimes they develop in to full blown sores some times when caught immediately you can get rid of them before they get nasty.

You also have to be dabbing the cream on as rubbing helps stimulate the blood flow to the area and helps somehow to energise virus. Dr told me to pat it on so I do! I use cotton ear buds to put it on with.

If you are still applying the cream when it starts to develop it will stop it developing any further, but won't stop it making an appearance in some form. That's what my mum said anyway. Unless she's run out of cream, she only gets a teeny red bump most of the time now because she uses it when she starts getting a cold or is run down etc.

I might be wrong, but I think it's the herpes virus in general. My friend got downstairs herpes from a guy with a cold sore and she now gets cold sores. Her OH also gets them so there's a chance she got it from kissing him, but it's a bit coincidental that they started after she was naughty with herpes boy. However, if you've never had a cold sore or downstairs herpes then you should be fine.

/conditions/cold-sores/

Explains coldsores, treatment and initial infection pretty well I think.

Hmm, not sure. I have just read an abstract that shows that, by their teenage years, 60+% of Americans have HSV1 (the virus that causes cold sores) but never have outbreaks. By their 60s, it is thought that 85% are infected.

I *think* (and only think as I have no idea) that I have probably been infected for a while as my Mum has always suffered with cold sores, since I was a child. Although careful, I guess it would have been impossible for her to maintain a perfect barrier to her kids for all those years. I got my first "suspected" cold sore a few years ago, after a heavy cold and I really just thought it was a scabby bit of skin from using crap tissue. Then the very next cold I had, using similarly bad tissue, I got another and thought then "Hang on, this might be a cold sore". I started using Zovirax and taking care of that area during colds and I've not had another there since.

So, until a few years ago, I was "clean", and given that I haven't ever behaved in any way that would cause me to acquire a new infection over the last decade or so, I can only assume I was infected a long time before I ever got one.

So never say never!

CK - thanks for the link. I was very interested in the premise that cold sores can be brought on by injury to the area. As above, my previous two were on scrubbed and sore skin from excessive nose-blowing. This one - if it IS one - started on Saturday while I was trimming hedges for my Dad. A bit of fir hit my lip and within about ten minutes, it felt odd. I thought I'd given myself a fat lip from either injury or allergy.

Do you think it's possible to have some kind of immunity to developing coldsores? I ask this because my mum has always had them and it amazes me that I never have. Once I had a funny feeling on my lip, as if I had a hair there, tickling me. This lasted a couple of days but nothing developed (*knocking madly on wood*)

I can't say for sure, but it sounds like it may be a coldsore.

I started getting coldsores on my nose when I was 14 after a really bad cold and then fairly regular every few months when I'm run down/have cold. I also weirdly got coldsores when a really annoying friend/family member pretended to "steal" my nose!! (I know I was 14 + but they still found this funny)

3 years ago I then started getting them on my lip (I blame my H as he had one on his lip then a few weeks later I got it!!) It's very easy for infections to spread though and I know people that get them on noses/lips randomly.

A coldsore started on my lip on Monday, I woke up and after my morning cup of tea my lip felt a little numb and I looked in the mirror and a small area seemed to be slightly more red than usual. Barely noticeable to the un-trained eye, but I knew instinctively that was the beginning of a cold sore and oh my lordy it's huge!! The last few I have had were small and disappeared quickly but I feel this one will be here for awhile....

I used to take lysine tablets from Holland and Barrett as a preventative and worked really well, however the tablets are HUGE and I struggled to take them long term and have given up. I feel rather ugly and disgusted with myself at the mo and think I will try and go back to taking them again...

I get them and I use geranium oil on mine. Stinks but works. I was told that it makes you get them less frequently too. I have been using it about 4 years and I defo get them alot less. Try it, I think its great!

For those who regularly suffer, how often have you had them? I had two about six months apart, then nothing for years, now this one (if it IS a cold sore). If they happen very frequently, did they always come like that, or did they start off less often?

Its been 3 years since I last had them. When I was a kid I used to get them 3/4 times a year but now there isnt a pattern to mine.

My OH gets them, he has had them every other year around this time for as long as he can remember.

If its his year when he might get one he pus Zovirax on if he feels the slightest tingle or sees redness. He used the invisible patches last time and they were really good for covering it up but didn't seem to make it go any quicker than cream.

I usually get them 4/6 six times a year

I ave seen myself going about nine months without one but during the inter I can sometimes get 3 in 1 month....it varies

I suppose you've got to get your first one sometime! My dad has suffered from them ever since I can remember and my sister started during her teens. I got my first one during my A-levels. My sister's husband didn't get them until he met my sister and obviously caught the virus from her. H has never had one.

I once cut my lip trying to rip open some plastic packaging with my teeth. I had a cold sore in that same area the next day.

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