A story that's a little bit different

I'm 23/f, and was diagnosed with genital herpes just under a year ago, on November 20th 2007. Having read several of the posts on this site, and not really finding anything similar to my experiences, I decided to relate my own story.

In August of 2007, I met a wonderful guy, smart, attractive and the perfect counterpoint to my vivacious carefree spirit. We dated for a few weeks, shared a couple of physical encounters, nothing heavy, because I didn't want to ruin the relationship by rushing into sex too early. One night, he explained to me that he'd contracted genital herpes from a previous girlfriend, had never had an outbreak, and wanted to be sure that I knew exactly what I was getting to - in short it was the turning point in our relationship. I was shocked initially, having never encountered someone with the virus before, but I liked him immensely, and so made the decision to continue seeing him. He was thoroughly blown away by my reaction. Unfortunately, a few weeks later, we split up. I tested negative for the virus but took the breakup very hard because I'd felt a real connection with him. That, coupled with several disastrous situations sent me into a deep depression. I resumed my pre-ex lifestyle: friends with benefits.

On November 17th, 2007, I removed my clitoral piercing for cleaning when I accidentally scraped myself with one of my nails, which caused a small abrasion. Later that night, I hooked up with a random guy (used a condom, yes, but no dental dams for oral sex), and woke up the next morning to a feeling of discomfort. The area that had been bruised seemed to be hurting more than anything else. Gradually all the symptoms began to emerge: the itching, swelling...well, you get the idea. Having extensively researched HSV2 while my ex and I were together, I knew immediately that I'd contracted genital herpes through the miniscule cut. My doctor later confirmed it, and prescribed Valtrex.

How did I feel? Well, I cried. More from the pain of the examination than anything else, as there were something like thirty-two separate blisters spread out over the entire area, but mostly clustered around the site of infection, and the glands in my pelvic region were so swollen that it hurt to sit. I cried because I'd always been so careful to use a condom and get tested regularly, and yet I still ended up with an STD. But after a while, I dried my tears and thought about the ways the situation was tolerable. I'd only have to deal with it once in a while, it wasn't life-threatening, and best of all, there was a shot at me reuniting with my ex. By the end of the day, I was smiling again.

The ex and I did reunite and did manage to have trouble-free sex, without the risk or worry of anyone contracting anything. Relationship-wise, we resumed an on-again, off-again sort of thing over the next few months (it sounds weird, I know, but it's a very loooong story). After a while we agreed to see other people, and then another worry loomed on the horizon: how did I begin dating, having contracted HSV2?