I found a forum where others suspect that their immune system took a temporary hit after the flu shot, resulting in a cold sore outbreak.
After researching further, I also found that there is arginine in flu vaccines. How much? I don't know. Enough to warrant a "do not take if allergic to arginine" warning. It seems to be in only the nasal spray form of the vaccine. I took the shot specifically for pregnant women, so theory #1 sticks better.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Cold sore. Pregnancy. Flu Shot?
My usual recipe for a cold sore involves at least 2 of the 3: excessive caffeine, unusual stress, dry air. Unusual stress usually means something's keeping me awake at night or my body is going through an especially strong hormone fluctuation. So when I'm stressed out, I avoid caffeine and try not to turn the heater on at work, where the AC makes my cube colder than the outside on a winter day. Rarely will I ever get cold sores from an actual cold.
To nurture my precious bao bei in the womb, I've been sleeping a lot, avoiding caffeine, taking my vitamins and lysine, and trying my best not to stress at work. But I still woke up with a raging cold sore this morning! I would've expected my cold sore to flare up during the first trimester when my hormones were out of control and I felt like walking death. But in the middle of my second trimester, I've been happy and energetic aside from the sciatic pain (much more on that later). The only thing I can think of is that the flu shot from three days ago has been calling all my white blood cell soldiers to create antibodies, and no one is left to stand guard against the monster that is HSV-1. I do get the cold sore and the flu shot around the same time every year. Or it could be the dry weather. Time to break out the humidifier.
10/11/13 - I woke up with a second cold sore, and I've never had two at the same time before. After spending over an hour reading several product reviews, I found that maybe I've been wasting my money on Abreva. One review stated that the clinical trials proved Abreva only shortens the healing time for 17 hours -- 17 hours in an 8-10 day cycle is not worth the ~$20/tube.
11/30/13 - Update: I'd gotten at least 4 rounds of cold sores, with at least two of them being double cold sores, since I first posted on this topic. Also found that Lysine+ preceded by the liquid version of Campho Phenique works better on myself than Abreva. 2/3 the price and way more product, yay!
To nurture my precious bao bei in the womb, I've been sleeping a lot, avoiding caffeine, taking my vitamins and lysine, and trying my best not to stress at work. But I still woke up with a raging cold sore this morning! I would've expected my cold sore to flare up during the first trimester when my hormones were out of control and I felt like walking death. But in the middle of my second trimester, I've been happy and energetic aside from the sciatic pain (much more on that later). The only thing I can think of is that the flu shot from three days ago has been calling all my white blood cell soldiers to create antibodies, and no one is left to stand guard against the monster that is HSV-1. I do get the cold sore and the flu shot around the same time every year. Or it could be the dry weather. Time to break out the humidifier.
10/11/13 - I woke up with a second cold sore, and I've never had two at the same time before. After spending over an hour reading several product reviews, I found that maybe I've been wasting my money on Abreva. One review stated that the clinical trials proved Abreva only shortens the healing time for 17 hours -- 17 hours in an 8-10 day cycle is not worth the ~$20/tube.
11/30/13 - Update: I'd gotten at least 4 rounds of cold sores, with at least two of them being double cold sores, since I first posted on this topic. Also found that Lysine+ preceded by the liquid version of Campho Phenique works better on myself than Abreva. 2/3 the price and way more product, yay!
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