Name: The Duderino
Age: 28
Sex: M
Occupation: US Army Special Forces
Type: HSV2
Yr. Infected: 2003
OB's: 2 so far... both within a month or so of each other
Prodromes: Varies - itching, tingling

My Story: Here it goes... I've been single for the past five years and 
living like I was bulletproof (most operators tend to think they are 
anyway). I'm not even sure how many partners I've had. But, I had been 
with the same partner for a few weeks when after a weekend of drunken 
belligerence I took a shower and found a small lesion on the shaft of my 
penis. At first, I thought it was a just a pimple, but it was a tad itchy. 
I had a jump that weekend and thought maybe I had bruised my groin from a 
hard chute opening since I was feeling some pain. It turned out to be a 
swollen lymph node. This got the wheels turning. I think I had already 
made a self diagnosis by this point but I got into the clinic ASAP for a 
culture. However, the lesion had already begun to heal within the day and I 
feared a false negative from a poor sample. So I threw the money down for 
some bloodwork and found I had the antibodies for HSV2. My jaw dropped... 
so much for being bulletproof. That night I called the partner I was with 
and we had a talk. She was great to say the least. We agreed she needed to 
be tested immediately. And much to my relief, she tested neg. So, I'm 
still a little hazy on how I contracted it since any previous contact before 
this was a few months prior and I think I would have become symptomatic by 
then. Perhaps I've had it for a long time but remained asymptomatic till 
now. I did the initial 10 days of Acyclovir regiment. Then about a month 
later (this morning, actually), I found a little itchy lesion in exactly the 
same spot though somewhat smaller. Now I'm going to have to get another 
prescription for either more Acyclovir or Valtrex and begin really paying 
attention to those prodromal symptoms.

Medical Experiences: I'm somewhere between a trauma PA and a paramedic 
myself, so STDs aren't my forte, yet. I simply went to a public clinic and 
the NP was great. She did the best she could to obtain a culture, but the 
lesion had healed too much already. Hence, the false negative. I need more 
time to see what the frequency and intensity of these OBs will be and to see 
how best to treat them.

Telling: I haven't told anyone yet but I'm still somewhat new to this new 
life of mine. I think this was a wake up call for me as I was probably 
headed down the road to something a lot worse. Guys in my field work really 
hard, and party even harder. Those days have now come to a close. And it's 
about time I suppose. I was so reckless. It's ironic that I put so much 
care and detail into my job as the lives of my team depend on it, but I 
never thought about my own personal well being. But I am healthy, except 
for this. I have a job I love and give a 100% to and this doesn't prevent 
me from doing that. I'm now abstinent and don't plan on being intimate with 
someone unless I know them well enough to tell them I have HSV2. And that's 
got to be someone you know and have a good gut feeling about. A month ago I 
planned on going into a social coma. Now, I realize it's just a minor 
change in something very awesome, my life. I know it'll be very hard to 
open up to someone I'm interested in about this... but I figure if it's 
meant to be, they'll hang for the long run.

This site has been very helpful to me and I just wanted to give back a 
little with my little story.