Do these vesicles make my butt look big?

It all started a week ago. Something raised. Something red. Something itchy and painful and hidden where I couldn't see. I knew immediately: flesh eating bacteria. Had to be. But, it was a Sunday. I would probably not die before Monday morning.

So, before work I took myself with my expanding redness, my increasing pain to the doctor's clinic beside our veterinary surgery. When could I get in to see the doctor? Tuesday. 3:30 PM. First available.

I went to work. I went home. I tried to sleep. It hurt to walk. It hurt to sit. It hurt to lie in bed. It hurt to wear pants.

I arrived at 3:15 on Tues. As the receptionist advised, I had cleared my schedule from then until 4 PM. About 3:35 the guy ahead of me was called in. "This is going pretty well", I thought. But, at 3:45 I was starting to worry. And, at 3:55 I went up to the desk. I was fighting back tears.

"I have to go. I have appointments. We are double booked."

"You are next."

"I have to go. What is available tomorrow?"

She found a time during our surgery break- a time I knew would work better than smack in the middle of afternoon appointments.

So, I went back to work. I went home. I tried to sleep.

I did get seen on Wednesday. The doctor let me know I could have come back later on Tues. He was there until 5:30. I guess he thought I would somehow know this or that it would help me now.

Anyway, he looked at my bottom.

"That would be very painful....You should have come in sooner....This should help if you haven't waited too long."

He told me I had herpes, not flesh eating bacteria.

And, so I bought my $130 of antiviral medication. Went back to work and hoped "I had not waited too long." I hoped while I meticulously examined my life wondering how and when I had contracted herpes.

"Have you had this before?" the doctor asked.

"No."

"Is this the first time you've been seen for this condition?"

"Um, yes."

What would this mean for me? According to the website I was reading, often people will get 4 to 6 breakouts in the first year. That's a lot of discomfort. That's a lot of $130 boxes of medication.

Yesterday I stopped by the doctor's clinic to get the results of the swab he had submitted "for the government". ?? I wasn't sure if/how/when he was going to get the results to me. It was my day off. I asked that he leave the result at home on the answering machine.

Herpes. Yes.

Herpes simplex. No.

I have shigles. Herpes zoster.

Chickenpox has returned.