Cold sore diary – waking up with one

So this morning I awoke knowing what was going to be nestling on my top lip.

I felt it coming in the night but ignored the tingling and went back to sleep. Or tried to sleep…

Step 1 – ear wax

At 6am I finally gave in to the swelling and pain, got up and harvested some ear wax.

Yes you heard me, I dug out some ear wax. Now it’s funny stuff when you examine it up close. My ears didn’t contain much for a start and what I did find was dry and flakey.

However I mixed it with a little saliva (don’t go yuk at that, we’re talking about ear wax here) on a sheet of paper with a paper clip and rubbed it over my lip with my finger.

It still seemed to dry out into thin shavings of dry waxy stuff and the more I try to rub the sore with the wax the less wax I seem to have left. All I’ve managed to do is rub my lip with some earwax, I didn’t have enough to create the imagined compress or to cover it.

How quickly does ones ear create more wax? I was hoping for a great glob of the stuff but was very dissappointed with what I managed to harvest. I really don’t think I had enough ear wax to make any real difference.

I did have a very kind offer from my husband of his ear wax but very politely declined. I’m sure it has to be one’s own ear wax? Doesn’t it? Please say it does… urgh!

Step 2 – LLysine

With my breakfast, a bowl of fruit, grapes, blueberries and some pureed apple I had about 1500mg of Llysine, some multivitamins and echinacea.

Step 3 – garlic

Never let it be said I do not venture into new areas in the sake of research.

Until today I have never tried garlic on a cold sore before and be warned, this is not for the faint hearted.

Garlic on a cold sore STINGS – a lot!

Can you tell from the photo below, of the garlic actually sitting there, pasted on my cold sore. Oweee. I can still feel that special kind of stinging pain.

It was so painful it was a shock but I didn’t rub it off, well not right away.

Now it’s a nice big swollen blister so I’m really not sure if any of this is working but it’s the life span of the cold sore we’re thinking about here.

Can we get rid of it in a few days tops?

Step 4 – the tea bag

I used both a damp warm tea bag (early grey) and later on a dry one, held in place over the cold sore for 10-15 minutes at a time to see if it would dry it out.

The damp one was more soothing. The dry one was a but hurty as it stuck a bit and then had to be peeled off… ewwww.

It still looks pretty much the same.

It’s still swollen, it still hurts. And so, to more of the same. I believe wholeheartedly in bombarding cold sores and attacking them from all angles.

So onwards with the garlic sting treatment, now applying some soothing Aloe Vera and LLysine lip balm to relax, chill and calm the blister… before wamming it again with the nasty garlic. No more ear wax to be had yet, I just had another dig.

And, when I have one, in treating myself kindly, taking it easy and chilling out a bit, when I can. I have lots of work to do but made sure I had a proper break for a herbal tea this morning and sat in the sun to have my lunch and to read for an hour. A proper lunch break – what a treat. Having cold sores is not all bad.

Let’s see what it looks like tomorrow after a day of this treatment. Shame I’m going out to the theatre tonight… with a top lip full of blisters. Lovely!