Hello and Happy New Year to All! I hope that 2015 will bring all of us some relief and peace. I wanted to know whether anyone regained hearing after taking anti-vitals. It seems like some of us have or are unfortunately experiencing setbacks and decreased hearing / increasing tinnitus while or after having taken antivirals. I personally took antivirals for 3 months and had my hearing improved (or at least this is what I thought). However, I then stopped the antivirals and had my hearing relapsed to where it was before. Tinnitus seemed to have gotten worse event. I am have since re-started taking valacyclovir but no improvement yet. So, in order not to fill myself with illusions and insist on taking drugs in vain, I was interested in knowing whether anyone had long-lasting or permanent hearing improvement with A/Vs and if so after how long? Thank you very much for sharing your experience vaita
I did. I took av's for apx 5-6 months. My hearing improved but i had setbacks that usually lasted about 6 weeks. I also had allergy testing and have taken allergy shots for 6+ years. The combination has kept my hearing in the normal range for 3-4 years. I have occasionally taken antivirals for a month or two since the original course. I do not remember exactly when my audiogram made it to the normal range because it was a gradual improvement with a few setbacks. So far, so good.
Thank you very much June. Your story is so encouraging. Did you have regular audiograms to monitor your progress or did you just feel it improving? Does anyone else have had substantial improvement with the hearing following a course of antivirals? Thanks for sharing.
I had audiograms quarterly and now twice a year so i have a very concrete record of the improvement that even impresses doctors. But i could also tell by listening to the television, what setting i had the volume on and most important to me by the disappearance of the distortion, my most hated symptom.
In the beginning i had audiograms every seven weeks when my hearing was going down hill fast. When it stabilized, i had them farther apart but to this day have them twice a year and they remin very stable.
After being on AV's for 60 days, I had another audiogram and the report showed significant improvement. Now over 90 days on AV's plus JOH and today the only MM symptom I have is a slight ringing tinnitus. My most current ENT has encouraged me to stay on the max Gacek dosage awhile longer and do whatever I can to keep being out there engaged in life to retrain my brain to not focus on my ear distress. I think this is also part of the marked improvement in the last 30 days and a big leap in the past week. My hearing does fluctuate but overall much improved. No rain here lately so that report could change at any time being in San Francisco in the winter months.
Thanks for your reply Hollyflo, this is a great news! Very happy for you! I think you are right when you say that it helps to stay engaged in life - I think this is when I also noticed my improvement as I started to be active and doing my things again. So have you stayed on the max dosage for 60 days? And is rain for you a trigger that influence on your hearing loss?