Lip Explosion

An unwanted side effect from my surgeries last week has been that my lips have exploded.

**If gross pictures make you queasy then you may want to skip today's post.**

Ever since I was a little kid I have had a tendency to have cold sore break outs on my lips and around my mouth. As I grew into adulthood the break outs lessened in both severity and frequency. I'm thinking it's because I used to take pills like prescription Zovirax by the handful when I could feel an attack coming on. Plus I tried to avoid the triggers, which I learned were stress, sun combined with wind, and being übertired.

When I went into the hospital for the second time I could feel an outbreak coming on and I had my husband bring me a tube of abreva. I rubbed that on my lips everytime I thought about it, which was frequently.

The abreva was able to keep the cold sores at bay, just lurking under the surface of my lips, for only so long. Once I got home it was just too much. My lips and mouth exploded into a mass of blisters, at one time even looking like one giant blister!

Not too bad at first.

The pictures don't really show everything. Don't forget besides the ugliness it also hurts!

The abreva was overmatched. I can't take any medication right now unless it's in liquid or shot form or its been approved for crushing (which is still very nasty tasting) and I've always been told that some of the medications I'd asked for before were ineffective unless taken during the tingling stage. If the break out already happened then it's too late.

I went looking for some other form of remedy and found this stuff called "H Balm". Of course I ordered the extra strength because I want to get rid of this as soon as possible. I couldn't find it on line in any of our local Vitamin Shoppes or Health Food Stores so I ordered it overnight.

When it came the next day I had to try it out right away.

I am very impressed with this product. I could feel it started drying up the existing blisters immediately and no new blisters have formed. This is after one full day of applying once every 2-3 hours.

Meanwhile I am feeling better, by increments. I'm looking forward to when I'll be back to "normal" and especially when I'll be able to be back on my horse.