Cold Sore
For the first time in a very long time, I have a "honking" cold sore. Nothing boosts one's self esteem like a cold sore.
I mentally flipped through the files on cold sores and remembered that these are almost always some kind of herpes infection, but I wondered what caused this one this time. So I went looking for information. Here are some of the things I found.
Cold sores always develop on skin located at a nerve ending. On the upper lip are three nerve endings on each side, fairly evenly spaced. These nerves all are part of a network that spreads over the sides, front, and back of the head.
Cold sores often appear on the same spot repeatedly. Whenever one develops, it means that the herpes virus has been lurking somewhere up the line on that nerve. When some trigger sends the signal, and nothing squelches it, the virus busily travels as far as it can in hiding, and then pops out and does its dirty work in plain sight, on or near the lip.
Rebecca told me on Sunday that she always gets cold sores when she loses too much sleep. Ah. That makes sense. I kept some very odd hours over the time of the Miller reunion, and I first felt the beginnings of this cold sore right after that. Also, ( I can already hear some of my boys snort on this one.) I was more erratic than usual in taking the food supplements I usually take faithfully. My theory is that my body's defenses were compromised because of an insufficiency of certain kinds of nutrients and a lack of rest, and the opportunistic herpes virus saw a window of opportunity, right there at the high point of the left side of my lip.
One of our sons, who is otherwise very bright, loves to deride the "food supplements" practice. It's a racket and a waste of good money and not necessary. That's a toned-down version of what he actually says. He is also sick far more frequently than Hiromi or I, who know what's good for us, and usually take our food supplements faithfully. Since we've done this in the past four or five years, we have missed almost no days of work because of illness. It doesn't take very much lost work time to "cost" as much as our food supplements cost, and the energy and feeling of well-being we enjoy are bonuses.
Someday our sons may learn that being well is more important than being "right" and, when they do, I'll have some suggestions ready. Did I say suggestions? I'll have some pills and powders and suggestions ready.
I mentally flipped through the files on cold sores and remembered that these are almost always some kind of herpes infection, but I wondered what caused this one this time. So I went looking for information. Here are some of the things I found.
Cold sores always develop on skin located at a nerve ending. On the upper lip are three nerve endings on each side, fairly evenly spaced. These nerves all are part of a network that spreads over the sides, front, and back of the head.
Cold sores often appear on the same spot repeatedly. Whenever one develops, it means that the herpes virus has been lurking somewhere up the line on that nerve. When some trigger sends the signal, and nothing squelches it, the virus busily travels as far as it can in hiding, and then pops out and does its dirty work in plain sight, on or near the lip.
Rebecca told me on Sunday that she always gets cold sores when she loses too much sleep. Ah. That makes sense. I kept some very odd hours over the time of the Miller reunion, and I first felt the beginnings of this cold sore right after that. Also, ( I can already hear some of my boys snort on this one.) I was more erratic than usual in taking the food supplements I usually take faithfully. My theory is that my body's defenses were compromised because of an insufficiency of certain kinds of nutrients and a lack of rest, and the opportunistic herpes virus saw a window of opportunity, right there at the high point of the left side of my lip.
One of our sons, who is otherwise very bright, loves to deride the "food supplements" practice. It's a racket and a waste of good money and not necessary. That's a toned-down version of what he actually says. He is also sick far more frequently than Hiromi or I, who know what's good for us, and usually take our food supplements faithfully. Since we've done this in the past four or five years, we have missed almost no days of work because of illness. It doesn't take very much lost work time to "cost" as much as our food supplements cost, and the energy and feeling of well-being we enjoy are bonuses.
Someday our sons may learn that being well is more important than being "right" and, when they do, I'll have some suggestions ready. Did I say suggestions? I'll have some pills and powders and suggestions ready.
posted by Mrs. I at
8:09 PM
1 Comments:
I am catching up here, obviously. (Teaching 8th grade girls VBS and writing your own curriculum as you go limits internet time.)
Lest your supplements fail you, =)and you sprout a cold sore in the future, there is an excellent if expensive OTC remedy by the name of Abreva available. I have found that it considerably shortens the stay of a cold sore and is quite worth the $14 price tag for a tiny tube.
By
Anonymous, at 7/19/2008
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