Medical Mystery Hour: Shocking Photo

Is it possible to get cold sores that don't blister?

I'm wondering if it is possible that you might have "shingles" (herpes zoster) Your symptoms sound very similar. As you probably know, shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox, and if you have ever had chickenpox, you have this virus living in your body forever. Most of the time it just hangs out doing nothing for the rest of your life, but once in a while it gets reactivated... (I had shingles once and it was not fun, the outbreak follows along nerve paths, but which ones are totally random)

Oh, and I didn't mean to hit "post" before I also added that I hope that you feel better soon!!

I just read a bunch about shingles and I'd say the suspicious thing here is that this rash is confined to my mouth and shingles is also (like herpes and chickenpox) characterized by blisters. So far I have got no blisters. Plus is sounds like shingles is super painful, this is not.

Of course, this could just be the first week of a three week illness in which my mouth will begin to ulcerate and ooze. Oh, nice.

My daughter thinks not cold sores as they stick out from the lip more. That's a 10 year's view on it.
I say up the beer intake just so you feel better. Could you get free advice from the pharmacy? Over here they'll have a look and suggest a product to help.
Would you use a general purpose antibiotic cream? My daughter had Fucidin for her impetigo and is worked really well.
Have you read The Island by Victoria Hislop, it's about a leper colony!Sorry, not helpful.
Final thought - if you email me your address I've something I could send you.

Hmmm...well the rash on the lips has me stumped. The cracks are classic herpes simplex but with the rash I'm not sure. Do you have a free clinic near you or a town over where you could get some advice? An M.D. will most likely take one look and know just what it is.

Just looked up impetigo. Still, blisters. Everything seems to involve blisters that I don't have and I've already been dealing with this for a week. You'd think blisters would show up by now if they were going to show up at all.

Ha! I think maybe I shouldn't read about leper colonies right now, I already have it that I'm going to die of this mysterious disease.

There is supposedly one clinic in our area that is low cost, but there's no such thing as a free clinic in these here parts. I will find out what the low cost one costs. I don't think I can afford a penny this week because I need the last bit of money to last the weekend so we can have money for Max food and beer. I know, screwy priorities.

If it's bacterial then I should be able to apply an antibacterial essential oil like lavender to it and it should help. I might do that to see what happens.

I get something similar when I'm under a lot of stress. It has gotten so bad that it forms a ring around my mouth extending out almost an inch. I know - gross! Anyway, the only thing that keeps it under control for me is Eucerin Cream. You can get a tube at any drugstore for about 6 bucks. Get the Original Cream, not the hand lotion or ointment.

I've been to the doctor about it, but they had no answers for me. I do have occasional outbreaks of eczema, which I've had all my life, if that helps with your self diagnosis ;-)

Get better soon!

Your lippers look like my hubby's when he comes down with a roaring case of herpes simplex uno!!! Stress, sunlight even, can make them arise -- isn't that a lovely thought?
It's been awhile since he had a case -- but as one doctor told him, "I can give you a RX, and it should clear up in two weeks, or do nothing, and it will clear up in 14 days." We usually do a "Burt's Bees" application for the 14 days -- at least it makes them feel a little better.
Hope they feel better soon............
Bonnie

Bonnie- are you my very own Sister B? Or are you a different Bonnie? So your husband's flare ups don't involve blistering? All pictures I have seen of herpes simplex 1 have involved blistering and I don't have any.

You guys have a funny doctor! I suppose I could have gotten it from my mom. I've never had herpes of any kind before but I could have drank from her glass during one of her outbreaks. (Hers always comes up in one spot and looks different than mine...but maybe herpes 1 likes to mix things up a bit?)

Whatever it is I am thinking that I will stay away from all pregnant ladies, do no kissin', and not go to Kung Fu until this thing is cleared. I don't care to be the person who spreads the goodness around.

God I feel so pretty.

Eeek, mouth splotches. I hope they go away!

~Angela

They don't really look like either canker sores which I get or cold sores. Cold sores have blisters which leak fluid from what I've known about them and the canker sores I get have a white center. For sufferers of the later try l-lysine.

Good luck!

Tingling is almost always herpes, in my painful experience. But I'm willing to write a note that it is beer deficinecy, for your pharmacist.

You know what think, but nonetheless:

The issue has arisen since you have made a change in your habits, i.e. drinking tonic and lime instead of beer. Contact dermatitis is a not-infrequent reaction to lime and/or quinine.

You have not, to my knowledge, suddenly been exposed to oral herpes. Sharing a drinking glass is a poor or incomplete vector. Therefore, contact dermatitis is a far more likely candidate than herpes.

I would argue that once you eliminate the lime and quinine for long enough for your system to recover, and also treat the sores until they disappear, you will no longer have this problem.

I think it the most likely cause (I have thought your suggestion made the most possible sense of all because I've had contact dermatitis before and it doesn't necessarily involve blistering)- however- I have not touched lime or quinine for a week now. My experience with contact dermatitis makes me think that once the whole thing bloomed up and the corners cracked- with no more exposure to the thing that caused it- it should immediately begin to improve. It hasn't improved as of yet. It hasn't gotten especially worse, either.

I just don't understand why I never reacted to quinine and lime all those years ago when I was drinking a lot of gins and tonics?

Well, didn't you recently start a new psych medicine, or a new dosage? That can change your body, and make you more sensitive to irritants.

You are so right Blaize. Are you my fairy god-friend? It's true that I've never taken Paxil before and that could react with things- though I did ask my psyche doctor if it was safe for me to drink copious quantities of tonic and lime in place of the beer for a while there's no way he could know how the meds would react with things in my body specifically. Philip mentioned that too.

I meant that I haven't taken Prozac before. Duh.

Nah, I'm not your fairy god person. I am, however, dedicated to applying Occam's Razor to your problem.

Oh, you'll like this story:
One time I got these dark triangular patches on my hands in the area between my thumb and forefinger. I had these patches on BOTH HANDS IDENTICALLY. I, of course, did a bunch of research, but had no clue. So I went to the campus doctor and she, brilliant as she was, took one look and said, "Oh, thats psorolin-induced photosensitive hyperpigmentation!" (I.e. I had been exposed to a naturally-occuring substance called psorolin, and then gone out in the sun, which had caused melanin buildup in two places.)

So she sat me in her office to look through some descriptions, trying to find what in my life had exposed my to psorolin. The condition is common in commercial celery processors. Or people who work with Persian limes. Which I wasn't and didn't. Then I read something about how it could also be caused by oil of bergamot, "formerly used in some perfumes."

Now, at the time, as now, I drank lots of black tea. Like a quart-and-a-half to two quarts a day. But then I was drinking Earl Grey exclusively. You know, the one flavored with oil of bergamot.

I was truly upset, because I couldn't imagine not drinking Earl Grey. But the doctor said the dark patches--since they were from ingestion, as indicated by their bilateral symmetry--could appear ANYWHERE, like on my face.

After two sad weeks, I settled into drinking Prince of Wales, a keemun blend, and now I find Earl Grey cloying.

Anyway, the point of the story was that nothing had changed, but I still got a symptom, simply because it was time for me to react to something that had never bothered me before.

In your case, however, you do have change, and it just seems logical to try to eliminate that as a cause before moving on to other possible reasons.

And you say your lips haven't improved, but have you followed a course of care such as cold moist compresses applied for 30 minutes 3 times a day, oral antihistamines such as (Benadryl, or hydrocortisone cream in nonprescription strength?

Just back from vacation...glad to see your comments are working again.

Have you considered psoriasis? My husband has it and it forms red scaly patches without blisters. He sometimes uses a prescription cream on the patches (expensive!) and sometimes not. It doesn't seem to work any better or worse than other moisturizers.

I've never seen it on his lips though. He does get it on his neck and face sometimes. Apparently where it occurs, how often and how intensely is different for everyone.