#yippee-hsv

[yippee-hsv]

I’m so sorry I’ve been MIA

This community helped me immensely when I first got diagnosed. My last post before this was about finding out I was pregnant for the first time. That pregnancy resulted in a gut wrenching miscarriage, then I later conceived my now 3.5 year old son. I married my long term boyfriend and we just celebrated our 9th year together (he’s the one who gave me HSV). In that time we’ve had another miscarriage in January 2020 and our second son in June 2021.

HSV has become such a minute thing in my life, most days I completely forget about it until I hear some pop culture joke about it and get offended. I don’t recall the last time I had an actual outbreak, but there have been numerous times I’ve felt like one could be happening. The feeling/sensitivity passes in a matter of days. Most of those times have revolved around the early weeks of pregnancy and then postpartum - and reasonably so considering that part of my body went through considerable trauma during birth which can trigger an outbreak. Each time I hit 36 weeks in pregnancy, I was prescribed Valacyclovir (anti virals) to prevent or lessen any potential outbreaks.

My life doesn’t revolve around HSV anymore. I got it from my partner who had a cold sore in its early stages that neither of us paid any mind to, and I haven’t passed it back to him genitally. The first few outbreaks are hell. I recall trying to pee once during one of my first outbreaks in my work’s bathroom and it hurting so bad that I imagined breaking my arm in the handicap bar to distract from how bad it hurt. This is an STI that you can totally live with, and part of having it and learning about it can equip you to be an advocate to make it less taboo.