"my question to you doc is this--- you said the herpes live dormant in the root of the nerve cell. now are you talking about the nerve cells on or near the site of the outbreaks or the nerve cells in another part of the body (like somehwere in the central nervous system)?"
The best example of this in with the disease "Shingles" caused by the chickenpox virus (a type of herpes I think). the nerve roots are in the central nervous system. When a person has an outbreak the blister lesions show up every where that nerve goes. These are called dermatomes. It is like a map of where the nerves go all over your body. I had one patient-friend that had it in her eye. Any nerve can be affected. That is why when they reappear they are always in the same general area.
"my present doctor takes my blood and finds the epstien barr virus titers. is there a similar titer test for the herpes 1 or 2 ??? just curious again"
Last I know there was a blood test looking for titers but it was very unreliable and worthless from a clinical point of view. The culture test was the best and that test even missed over 10% of known cases.