My Cold Sore Remedy

This last month has been super stressful. I am a laid back person who avoids a busy schedule. Actually, to be honest, I avoid schedules in general. I am a naturally anxious person. When it comes to stress there is no in-between for me. I go from 0 to 100 in 1 second and when that happens I  sometimes feel that awful tingling on my lip that most of the time indicates a cold sore is about to show up. I think the last one I had was just before my husband came home from Afghanistan last year. This time around it was the stress of multiple doctor appointments, a broken AC in 90 degree whether, the $1000 it cost to fix it and the sales booth and ultimate flop of said sales booth at a local community sale. Oh yes, and expecting a baby anytime in the next few weeks.

When the first blister started I went with the remedy I found on earthclinic.com that worked really well. It's not the best remedy as it is hardly wholesome but wow was it affective. Basically I just applied a q-tip soaked in acetone nail polish remover on the area every 15 minutes for an hour or so for the first day as opposed to the gross multi bubbling that is whitish/yellowish. the acetone basically killed/dried ( or lets be honest, burned) out the virus and went straight to a scab in a few days verses the 1-2 weeks it can take with over the counter creams.

This time around I decided to beef it up a little. I have recently educated myself just a bit on the help of oils. I already knew that coconut oil has antiviral and anti fungal properties so I wanted to start there. I also had tea tree oil so I looked up how it can be used for cold sores and as it turns out, it can be used in a really simple recipe of just 1 tablespoon coconut oil to 5 drops tea tree oil. I added that to my treatment list and then decided to try out a direct application to reduce the swelling. 1 crushed ibuprofen with a little water to create a paste. I applied that once in the morning and once at night to significantly reduce the swelling.

My total routine goes as follows.

1. Apply acetone by q-tips once every 15 minutes for an hour or so.

2 &3 . I know it's a big no-no, BUT, I went ahead and popped the blister to apply the coconut tea tree oil mixture. I wanted it to get right in there and work it's magic. I applied this mixture all day.

4 &5. In the morning I made a paste of baking soda and water and I gently scrubbed my lips, including the sore area. After I rinsed I applied the paste of ibprofen and water directly to the sore and let it sit for about 30 minutes.

6. After rinsing the paste off I went a head and reapplied the tea tree/ coconut oil mixture and did that all day.

7. At night, I applied the tea tree / coconut oil mixture directly to the sore and then slather the rest of my lips with vaseline.

My sore, which was huge, was already scabbing and healing within 72 hours. It started Tuesday morning and here is a picture of me on Thursday evening.

I'm lucky enough to be a SAHM who can basically work on the treatment all day. If you have to work, carrying a small jar of the oil mixture and a baggy of q-tips to apply it all day like you would chapstick.

Unfortunatly for me, between that stress and these blasted pregnancy hormones, while the first one started healing a second one popped up next to it. BUT, I immediately popped the thing and did an acetone treatment and  applied the oil and by the end of the day it was clear it was never going to be visible. By the next morning it was even more clear that the second cold sore would never fully form and by day three there i am having a hard time even finding where the tiny bubble was with my magnified mirror.

WARNING: When reading about these treatments I did read that several people had bad reactions to the acetone which makes a lot of sense since it is a chemical and if you have sensitive skin or even normal skin, if you are not careful with application you can end up with a chemical burn. From what I've read but have yet to try that Braggs Organic apple cider vinegar works just as well to dry out the sore. It wouldn't surprise me if it really does. I've used it for planters warts in the past ( I feel like a total leper now) and it really worked. The only reason why I didn't use it this time is that I knew the acetone had worked for me previously and I had two events coming up so didn't couldn't really afford the time for a possible failed treatment. But i do recommend going as natural as possible.

The same warning applies to using the ibuprofen paste. It's recommended for oral use only so it's always best to ask your doctor or look up a alternative natural treatment.

If I wasn't such a picker I probably wouldn't have needed to use the ibuprofen paste. I am though. In fact, if It wasn't for me constantly biting at my lip, I'm sure it all would have healed a lot faster. But I'm still so happy with the results.