Yet another reason to heart sheep --

-- aside from the fact that they provide fluff to spin and knit.  Pardon the medical obsession for the day - feel free to skip this post and check in later.

I occasionally suffer from having a cold sore - about once a year.  In me, it generally shows up on my face - not on my lips or mouth so much, as on the surrounding area of my chin (and occasionally inside my nostril - that's fun).  I've had them long enough to usually know when one is coming on, and to treat it quickly with Abreva - which in my experience actually does shorten the lifecycle of the outbreak of the virus. 

Last weekend, Toby had a short-lasting but dramatic stomach virus.  I suspected the rest of the household wasn't far behind - 3 days later, we all succumbed.  On that morning, I looked in the mirror and saw one tiny cold sore blister - without the precursor "tingling".  I started using the Abreva immediately.  That afternoon, a whole crop of blisters broke out.  The next morning, a few extra broke out - it ended up being a sizable sore, on the side of my chin and cheek.  I used the Abreva cream a lot - and by day 3, it started drying out and crusting over.

The cream doesn't do a lot at this point - the virus has mostly run it's course, and the healing process is left.  But the sore hurts a lot and itches like mad.  Especially on the face - where you have a lot of fine-tuned muscles - every time one twitches, it breaks open the crust... (lovely eh?) and bleeds a lot. 

I was looking in the medicine cabinet for something that might help  Regular facial lotion works briefly, but doesn't last long.  I spied an old tube of Lansinoh - pure medical=grade lanolin that breastfeeding moms use if they get chapped and/or cracked...tender parts.  You can also use it on chapped lips.  It's really *thick* stuff - if you put a dab on your fingertip, it will melt with your body heat and you can spread it on an abrasion.  And yes, it's 100% lanolin - if you've ever felt a not-yet-scoured fleece fresh off of a greasy sheep (e.g., Merino; Cormo) - that's what it feels like.  Thick and greasy - it's sticky when cold, and it glides when warm.

I put some onto the cold sore area - and instantly the pain and itching went away.  It stayed on pretty much all day too.  And sluffed off the dried skin that was ready to sluff off - without hurting the skin that still needed to be attached.

AND mostly?  It has drastically sped up the healing process of the sore itself.  I am at the pink-skin phase already, with only a minor sore left to heal.  In sum - the Abreva is great for speeding the process of getting rid of the active virus; and lanolin is great for the healing part of the process.  While I still feel oh-so-attractive (yeah, not so much) it is healing fairly quickly.

Thank you sheepies - for all you give :)

Comments

[Teej]

Nice! I get cold sores/fever blisters, too. Over the course of the years (I've gotten them since I was a kid), I've tried to identify the triggers and most recently, prolonged exposure to sunlight (like all day out on the river) is the most common trigger. No idea why, though. In any case, I agree about Abreva seeming to help, especially if you catch it early. I'll have to try to track down some lanolin to try - in the past I've used Neosporin, but I'm not sure it actually helped. Thanks!

[ki]

Great tip. We don't have this issue yet but I imagine with 6 of us, it is only a matter of time. Thanks for sharing and so so sorry for your misery.
Sheep rock.

[lkmcland]

I have leftover Lansinoh too! I have to tell my partner about this, she has the same issues!

Glad you found a good solution, and don't you just love sheep?