Am thrilled for you, yes the 20 to 30 minutes goes quickly if you find something to distract. Are you using coconut oil to moisturise?
Your theory about how got ec is like mine I infected myself from my saliva candida was probably present. Others dieted and killed the candida from within.
In my experiance never found any lip balm or medication via doctors or on the market that was able to penetrate the three layers of skin where the infection stems from, that is why I followed the cure for athletes foot which is also fungal and was intrigued about how they recommended soaking the foot in order kill the organisms, so I adapted it for my lips and it worked.