Embarrasing dilemma

[rv1978]

Hey guys,

I need your input on something that has been bothering me since I decided to pursue a career in nursing. I suffer from cold sore breakouts about 1-2 a year and I find this to be embarrasing espcially if I'm going to be a nurse and obviously I'll be in close contact with people. I'm afraid that the patients might feel kind of weird if a nurse that has "herpes" on his lip is coming in contact with them. I'm sure I will not be the only nurse in the world that has cold sores once in a while but maybe is just me overreacting? what do you guys think? thank you in advance for taking the time to read my lame post.
I hope all of you are having or have had a great day!

[Old_School]

overreacting

O_S

[Aaron C.]

you aren't planning on kissing any of your patients are you?

Unless your girlfriend, wife, mom, grandma, sister, daughter is one of your patients....

I think a cold sore here and there is pretty irrelevant and not pertinent at all.
If you have that big of a problem with it, start taking year round medication for it to suppress the outbreaks...

[Sean RN]

Shortbus is right on. No worries. At least you don't have MRSA or VRE.
Right?

[nursinghumor]

Agreed, I could think of much, much worse than a few cold sores, fever blisters.

Like: Persistent Facial Acne, Allergies with a constant runny nose, Body Odor, Halitosis, Frequent Belching, Odorous Flatulence, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, etc . . . sounds comical but they are actual problems.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursing.com

[rv1978]

thanks for your replies guys. I really appreciate your input.

[WJBDineen]

I used to get them, as well. Really bad ones. The last one I got ended up scarring my lip and chin. A few years ago my physician suggested that I take Acyclovir (400 mg BID) prophylactic. I haven't had another outbreak since.

[kimmiejs]

Unless you plan on laying a wet sloppy kiss on each patient you care for, relax, no worries mate. If you are really worried there are medications that you can take that will decrease the amount of time per breakout and decrease the amount of outbreaks that you have.