Cold sores are actually herpes outbreaks, and they come out when the person is stressed either physically, mentally or both. The doctor prescribed an antiviral herpes medication for her, which will probably take a little time to work (usually a week). In the meantime, topical l-lysine, a natural antiviral, will decrease the swelling and pain, within 2-3 days. You can get this at a health foods store. Hope this helps.

Thanks Aitan.
I am guessing that you were reading the rest of this thread and thinking that we thought that cold sores were caused by acidic foods etc. and not the herpes virus.
I did know that and the anti viral med is working well. My mom's immune system must be being affected by whatever the AD is doing to her. I can tell that her digestion is affected by her color and her weight loss and by her hair and nails and just her general AD appearance. It's a wonder she doesn't have more than cold sores to deal with.
northernlights

Northernlights,

I was going over the forum a bit and noticed your cold sore post. I'm going to try to make this quick as I can't sit here too long.

The night before I went in for my surgery, Sunday, March 8, Mom had the runs all night. By tuesday she had a bad cold and cough. My sister took her to the doctor on tuesday, and the doctor said she had an upper respiratory infection, and gave her an antibiotic. I came home on thursday, and Mom was a completely different person. She went down hill considerably, plus, she couldn't hear. We actually had to put our mouths by her ears for her to hear a thing. She also had this sore on her upper lip, but not on the actual lips where cold sores usually are.

I didn't pay much attention to it as she wasn't complaining. I actually thought she had just scratched herself and figured it just took a long time to heal because of age.

Well today my brother and Colleen (my helper) took her to the Ent. Mom has severe hearing lost in both ears. He did clean them out, and quite a bit of wax came out. My brother said it looked like a big stream of string. But the interesting part is when the ENT asked how long she had had the cold sore. We didn't even know that that's what it was. He said the hearing lose could very well have been caused by the cold sore, which was probably from the cold and upper respiratory.

She has gone down to a complete stage 6 now since all this. He also ordered an hearing aid for her at $1,700, which medicare and her insurance will not pay. She seems to be hearing better since they got back from the doctors so I'm reconsidering getting her that hearing aid. I know she will not cooperate with it and will not understand why she needs it. She insisted before it took me, brother and Colleen two hours to get her to go to the Ent., that she could hear. That of course is another story which I am still shaking from.

I haven't read everything on here really good as I just can take enough time to skim, but I thought this may be important enough for you to know about.

What a difference in two weeks time. She went down so very fast.

Jackie

Regarding the yoghurt cultures, you could try Yakult. It's a probiotic milk drink with similar cultures, except they're still active and alive. I LOVE the stuff and can't get enough of it, and it's supposed to help the digestive system too. Imagine a citrus flavored, slightly sweet, very runny yoghurt drink and you'll get the idea. It feels and looks nothing like pudding or yoghurt, so perhaps your mom will like it.

I used to always buy them when I was abroad but they weren't for sale anywhere in the US except for specialty stores. They started national distribution here in January or so, and I'm SO glad! I had been craving them since 2001 and now I buy in bulk.

Just one tip - more than 5 or 6 a day makes for a gassy evening. =-)

Hi Jackie, So glad that you feel up to posting again. My mom had her hip done and I know how difficult that surgery is.
Thanks for telling me about your mom. It sounds like she was pretty sick with the respiratory illness. That is the weird thing about my mom. No illness, just decline and the cold sores. Who know what is going on with her though. She doesn't feel pain and always leaves me guessing. The cold sores are pretty much gone and I'm hoping we won't have to deal with that again for a long time. (apparently it is my fault they come because I'm always putting stuff on her lips!!!!)
I would say that my mom is in the 6th stage too except that she still makes it to the bathroom. I'm so thankful for that.
Jezza, Thanks for the info about Yakult. I'm going to email some health food stores today and see if I can find a supplier in Canada. If I can't I could just put milk in other yogurt and make it like a drink. Thanks for that good idea.
northernlights

The distributor of Yakult for North America is in the US, coincidentally less than a mile from my house. (Sadly it's just offices, so I can't get it wholesale or anything.) The website is here: http://www.yakultusa.com/

I buy it at my local supermarket in the yoghurt section, but you can probably find it in asian or mexican supermarkets if it's not in the general ones. It is of Japanese origin.

I never knew that, but it explains some interesting evenings we had when our son was small He loved the stuff, he was probably sneaking it when I wasn't looking...