posted
I have this thing in my mouth. It started out feeling like a regular cold sore, right at the juncture of my gum and my lip, but it's been four days, and it's not responding to the regular 50% hydrogen peroxide/50% water or very salty warm water treatments. I looked at it, and it's now looking funky: a white ring around a dark, sunken area. It's extraordinarily sore, and the surrounding area (my lip, basically) is now visibly puffy, as well as tender. The puffiness and tenderness also extend down at an angle, toward my mandible, and below that all the way to the lymph node slightly in front of my jawbone, which is also swollen.
Any ideas what's going on? What can I do about it? Seeing a doctor is not an option; we have no insurance and can't afford it.
posted
I did, and I also felt like poop on top of it so I thought it was strep cause the sores were towards the back of my mouth. I went to the medical center before work (didn't want anyone to catch strep if that's what it was) and they said it wasn't anything they had a name for, just some ole nasty virus, and all I could do about it was drink water and take aspirin for the pain
It disappeared after less than a week Posts: 3636 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
I have absolutely no scientific evidence to back this up, but I always drink tons of crysanthanum tea whenever I get cold sores or sore throats and I always feel better after a day or two.
I hope you feel better. Posts: 4116 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I know my wisdom teeth are coming in, and we don't have money to get them out, either, but all that they seem to be doing is aggravating my TMJ and pushing my teeth out of alignment so I can no longer get my retainer on.
This is in the front of my mouth, about half an inch from the midline of my face, on the bottom, at the juncture of the gum and the lip, or maybe a little above, on the gum.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
I've had them too. As long as they don't come in multiples, I wouldn't worry too much about it. When I had several, they put me on antibiotics and they cleared up in a couple of days. I know they are horribly painful. Advil helps some.
Posts: 676 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
I get nasty canker sores in my mouth quite often. I find that they're usually caused/aggravated by nuts and chocolate. They usually get exactly like what you've just described: sunken center, white ring, swollen nodes and all. Mine usually take about two weeks to finally disappear. The only real cure I've found is to have a dentist cauterize them with acid (it's painful, but it works). Taking Ibuprofen makes mine less sore.
I empathize completely with what you're going through. I'd wait another week or so and see if it's getting any better. The location could be worse: I once had one near the back of my throat and eating anything and even breathing was unbearable agony for two weeks.
Posts: 194 | Registered: Feb 2005
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I had that once. It sucked for a while then it went away. My girlfriend has had the same thing a couple times, and she had to wait it out as well. Nothing we tried worked. Sorry to be of no help. I know they are painful, you have my sympathies.
posted
Nah, it's not that, FG. It seems, after considering everyone's information and what I can remember, like it's just a cold sore that had gotten further than it usually does before I treated it (I think it took me the same amount of time to notice it, it just progressed faster; it's possible my immune system is still a little weak after losing all that blood with the miscarriage last week).
After another salt-water gargle (aaargh, that stuff burns like all heck), it's no longer looking black in the middle; it looks yellow instead, which I'm taking as a good sign. I'll keep up with the salt water (which definitely helps more than the hydrogen peroxide), and hope that it goes away soon.
Thanks for the advice, guys.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Lysine!!! You can get a small tube of lysine ointment at the health food store; it works wonders.
Posts: 1021 | Registered: Sep 2004
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You can also take lysine in capsule form and it really DOES work. I was really prone to terrible, multiple canker sores as a teenager and I took lysine as part of my vitamins every day. Helped a lot. The cream is probably a better treatment, but the supplements are good prevention.
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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I think this, and my chiropractor appointment today, have inspired me to write an opera. Yes - a theatrical masterpiece about suffering and loathing and why the American healthcare system SUCKS.
Posts: 285 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Aaaah, I thought it sounded familiar. It's an essential amino acid. I get the trauma/stress/local infection kind of cold sores, though, and wikipedia says it's used for the herpes kind of cold sores. I wonder if it would work anyway.
I don't think I'll need it, though; I've been doing the salt water gargle every 4 hours or so, and it feels like it's doing its work-- "cauterizing" the sore, and now it's "scabbing" (not really, but it feels kinda like it 'cause I can't move my lip too much without feeling like I'm ripping off a fresh scab). The local puffiness is there still, and the tenderness is still present, but lessened. The neck and lymph node swelling and tenderness are gone.
Ah, the wonderfulness that is home remedies.
Annie, if you write that opera, can I be in it?
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:I get the trauma/stress/local infection kind of cold sores, though, and wikipedia says it's used for the herpes kind of cold sores. I wonder if it would work anyway.
I was going to turn that into a joke about it actually being herpes. But you're so nice. It'd be like clubbing baby seals or repeatedly running kittens over with a lawn mower. Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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Hey, the internet only talks about genital herpes. The internet is always right.
An alternative that I came up with was that you had a job cleaning stripper poles part time. That still didn't sound particularly nice. It's still better than implying that you have a man on the side or something though.
Hey, you offered me girls clothes. While I didn't take you up on the offer, I still thought I'd be nice in return .
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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Well, if I had a man on the side, I'm sure it would make more sense to have genital herpes in my mouth. *shudders* (Yes, it can happen. No, not to me.)
But, in fact, I don't. Nor do I clean, ah, dance poles with my tounge. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Oh, and we really do have a lot of pretty summer clothes, including adorable sundresses, if you want them this summer. Just e-mail me if your daughter runs out of clothes. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I used to aske people who wanted to borrow my chapstick whether they had Lip Herpes. Apparently, even though it's funny to me, not everyone knows the difference between Simplex A and Simplex B.
Posts: 285 | Registered: Apr 2005
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