I started the thread below when I was just starting out on Valtrex and now switching to the generic version of valacyclovir http://menieres.org/talk/index.php?topic=619.msg20171#msg20171 My new job started late last year has been keeping me busy, so i will keep this writing here brief for the benefits of others. I began Valtrex sometime in early Nov last year. The first few days, i began to see that my occassional giddiness or fogginess began to go away. Hearing wise, it took quite a while to recover back to where I was. It was early December that my hearing went back to zero again. By this time, I switched from Valtrex to the generic version of valacyclovir. By around Christmas 2014, most of my hearing came back, but still with the tinnitus. In early Jan, i recovered better to make a new hearing aid to replace my old noisy hearing aid. By this time, i was already switching from 3 X 500mg to maintenance dose of 2 X 500mg. Something happened in late Feb on a Saturday morning , i still remembered that i woke up with high frequency loss. But otherwise than that, I thank God, that for the rest of the day, it was just high frequency loss and not all, 'cos if anything were to be like the years 2013-2014, I would be slipping to a day of giddiness and total hearing loss for two weeks, and no hearing aid would help. Quickly upped my dose to 6 X 500mg for the next one week. And I was surprised that it took 2 days later on Monday that I got back this small loss and fast enough. Suspect cause: lack of rest few days before Saturday and some salty bedtime snacking. LOL. Same thing happened again in mid March and recovery was swift again. Suspect cause: Beer alcohol guilty. Early April (last month), one Sunday morning, i started to feel a bit unwell and foggy, by after the afternoon nap, i woke up to more giddiness and total hearing loss. It was bad enough. And i went to work on Monday with bad handicap. By Monday evening, i started to hear a bit. And one week later, instead of the usual 2-3 weeks recovery (twice last year, took 1-3 months), i am back to where I was. Suspect cause: Not sure, could be accumulation of forbidden foods especially 3 donuts in that morning. For the past few months, i have been enjoying gradual and improving and many good days so much more than not more than 2 weeks of bad days. Comparing these to when it relapse in June 2013, my hearing is back to where it was, tinnitus less noisier. Thank God for you people and showing me this AV. Right now, i am still on 3 X 500mg. I was supposed to go on 2 X 500mg maintenance early last week. I had a bad flu early week on the 11th, I only went one day on my first day of flu increasing to 4 X 500mg. No giddiness and no hearing loss. I just had a flu of a day of sore throat, then a day of stomach flu, and finally of 5 days of runny nose. I did not take any flu medicine except the AV. i guess it was the Vit D3 that was helping me to recover fast. All these while, i have been taking JOH (except MSM and Gingko) with regular Lysine and since Jan added Vit D3, and recently the added mono coconut pills. Pycnogenol, I had a bottle of it few months ago, when it finished, I did not reorder. Might try the OPC on my next order. Good health to all.
Sounds like u are doing pretty good! I did a search on OPC and I found that is more popular than I thought. There are many brands out there. Cheaper than the first bottle I tried. I started a second bottle the other day. I also have been on monolaurin for one month. I expect I will be completely healed in another month or two.
I am hopeful that my symptoms improve like yours have Enjoy! I have been on valcyclovir for only a week now. Santa, you feel like the monolaurin, OPC, and av are going to totally heal you soon? You are feeling very good? Do you plan to stop any of these elements? Thanks in advance for the info, I am trying to learn.
Now I need your opinions of vote as third party readers. Yesterday, Sunday morning, i started to feel like i began not to be able to hear the high frequency and within 2 hours, i started to feel a bit of giddiness coming and cannot hearing anything at all and until now (today is Monday here), i am still not hearing anything at all. For the past one week, i have taper down valacylovir down to 2X500mg only in the morning. And as you know this is the 2nd full blown since my last one in early April in my earlier posting. The day before, Saturday, i was out, i noticed that I was getting a bit sleepy easily while on some bus journeys I also noticed that this always happens on a Sunday. I worked in a quite stressful job from Monday to Friday. And I always my kid out on Saturdays to have fun and do eat a lot. The question is, what do you think? my symptoms caused by: 1. Accumulation of stress from work from Monday to Friday? 2. The destressing on Saturday followed by eating too food trigger stuff? Please vote or other opinions welcome.
Thanks. I need more opinions as I have given more inputs from my case, for my own analysis. Frankly speaking, today Monday, i am recovering like 1 to 2 percent.... too little. Feeling down and disappointed. Thought that I have brought this disease down well with the past many months on AV. But it's ok. I went for a swim with my kid. Just trying and doing the real thing to be positive. One more thing, I upped my 2 X 500 mg to 4 X 500mg of vala yesterday for just one day yesterday. And I have decided to maintain it at 2 X 500 mg which is the maintenance dose, from now onwards. I noticed that in early April, when I had the first full flown of hearing loss after my started journey in November, I was already trying to go down to 2 X 500mg, and the beast started over me, and i managed to get it down within a week by going to 6 X 500mg daily for a week. This time round, i was already starting to go on 2x500mg daily last week. And I am not sure if my gut feels is that I don't wish to be dependent on 6X500mg all the time which is not healthy to the kidney. In short, it seems like if i take at least 4x500mg to 6X500mg daily, i do not have any issues. Any opinions on this? Currently, i am still on JOH.
My opinion is it is stress and food triggers combined, maybe even allergies, if it is Spring time where you are. Under certain conditions I was told to increase until the situation has passed, like more than usual stress, or fatigue or allergies or getting sick. I would also suggest if 100 mg in the AM isn't working 100% try 500 mg in AM 500 mg in PM or increase your dose until the situational triggers have passed. Also if decreasing brings on symptoms increase back up to where you do not have symptoms for another 3 weeks and try to decrease again. It took me many many months and many tries before I could decrease to the maintenance dose. Every time I tried I got symptoms until eventually I was able to.
After rereading your post I would suggest go back on 2000 mg a day for another 3 weeks then try reducing to 1000mg again. You are only taking the AV for 7 months it took me about 8-9 months just to go from 1200 mg of acyclovir to the maintenance dose of 800 mg and I started at 2000 mg then down to 1600mg but was stuck on 1200 mg for a long time before I could go to 800 mg.
Hi Enjoy I am now taking WholeHealth brand of OPC I have dropped down to one dose 1,000 mg of valacyclovir each day. I also take 1,000 mg of lysine first thing in morning, wait 20 minutes before having coffee and breakfast, and monolaurin. My hearing does fluctuate. Sometimes I start off the morning and I can barely hear my fingers rubbing, but I can hear them. I haven't had brain fog or vertigo for over three months now. I always have tinnitus, sometimes in both ears. Most of the time it's easy to ignore. Good health to you!
I have no doubt that stress is a large factor - it certainly is for me! I agree with Vicki, if you can get your doctor to agree, I would try staying on the higher dose for a while longer and then try tapering again.
Thank you all for your feedback and encouragement. Really feeling awkward today that I told my boss that I cannot answer the phone for the next few days. @Santa, nice to hear that you are doing well on 1000mg daily. I am very eager and will be looking towards end month to order OPC by month's end as I am quite cash tight now too. But it will be another brand as the shopping merchant I usually order from, have free shipping to Asia. Think I showed you the brand the other time, the contents looks about the same, what you think? @Vicki, thanks for your analysis. Let me give you the breakdown as much as I remember of the dosage that I have been taking since November. I should have journal down on a notebook, but i did not. Now i realised it is important Early November - 3rd week December - 3000mg daily 4th week December - end Jan - 2000mg daily Feb - 3rd week Feb - 1000mg daily 3 days of small high frequency attack One week of last week of Feb - 3000mg 1st-2nd week of March - 2000mg 2nd 3 days of small high frequency attack 3rd week of March - 3000mg 4th week of March - 1st of April - 2000mg 3rd attack - Full hearing loss 2nd - near 4th week of April - 3000mg 1st - 3rd week of May - 2000mg 4th week of May - 1000mg Currently 4th attack - Full hearing Still on daily 1000mg (except 2 days ago, on 2000mg one day) I am trying to build my system not to be overdependent on higher doses. Vicki, maybe you are right, my system was not strong enough yet. Lets see over the next few days how long my recovery will take as I do not want this to jeopardise my job. I am currently taking past few days usual 1 X 5000IU D3 ... now 3 X 5000IU, maybe for another 4 days.
Question - Is anyone getting blood work done as they change dosages looking for viral load increase/decrease? Or, making sure the antivirals aren't causing renal, liver, or other issues? Apologies in advance if that's an obvious question. I understand the rationale for tapering - Who wants to keep taking more pills? - but I haven't read or seen anything about long-term use of antivirals or verifying that they aren't causing other issues. (Not that I've searched for more than a few minutes.)
I get bloodwork done every 3 months and I have posted a few studies on long term safety and efficacy of antivirals. If you search the forums or forum archives you should find them. Keep in mind too that people with genital herpes and patients with HIV are prescribed to take them long term.
Vicki, have you ever thought or planned a target to stop taking AV and see if you are stable enough without the AV?
I take Famvir antiviral as it is/was the one used by House Ear Clinic and I can get them and they are small. I have given up tapering down as every time I try, I have a setback, i.e. increased fullness, reduced hearing, louder tinitus. So, I keep on with 3/day.