Had a cold sore? Not to my recollection. This does not mean that I may
have had one when I was very little. I'll say this much...I have not
had a cold sore since I was in grade school.

I first got a genital lesion at about 13, when I was in middle school.
It had an orangey puss like color to it and it grew to the size of
little less than a quater's diameter. There was no tingling, or a
general reddening of the penis skin before the outbreak...it just
happened. These symptoms may have occured when I was sleeping, but I
did not feel them. I did not know what it was, and I was too embarassed
to bring it up with my guardians, so I just kept washing and washing it
and it went away in about 2-3 weeks. I never brought the isssue up,
thinkinh that it was "healed", whatever it was. It left scars. I felt
no pain or burning.

In 1998, ten years later, it broke out in the the same scarred area.
This time there was the tingling and the general reddening of the
penis. Then the orangey puss lesion came back. I said "What the hell?"
and went to a doctor this time. He said you have Herpes 1 because,
according to his words "It tends to stay in the same area and spreads
slower." I was a little shocked to find out that I had herpes. I was
still a vigin then. I had no idea how I got it.

It took about 3 weeks to heal this time. There was no pain this time
either. The scar area grew. After the "main outbreak" there were
several mini outbreaks in the months ahead. By this time I had aot of
that cream stuff, and watching the area closely. As soon as I saw what
appeared to be a miniscule outbreak, I applied, so the scar area did
not get much bigger. They say the cream stuff does not work, (I forgot
it's name), but when I applied it is seemed to stop it in ist tracks.

During the mini outbreak period, I did feel some *very* slight burning,
esp in an area below the top portion of the penis head where it seemed
to breaking out. But I used the cream and stopped it in its tracks.
Then is went away and has not bothered me again.