Went to the PCP this am. She graciously let me try valcyclovir, however, she is being strict about the three weeks at 3 grams, 3 weeks at 2gm, then 1gm. I had a great 6-7 days, I am on my third week of 3 gm. Last night and this am I am having off balance, full ear, pulsitile tinnitus, etc. I am afraid to decrease my dose in 2-3 days. My doc is being firm and she is also INSISTING that I do physical therapy. She actually said "I won't need to see you until after you go to PT." I don't want to go. I do not think it will help. I am digressing, my question is about the strict tapering, has anyone done the tapering this way and still have good results? It seems as though everyone takes extra here and there. When I told my doc that any ppl need to take a higher dose for a longer time she gave me a blank stare. She gave me a chance with AVs but she's not really willing to use her imagination. What to do?
I agree with Serbian but you can show her the part of Dr Gacek's paper I just posted/quotes in the other thread by enjoy, it may change her mind.
Ill repost for you this is pasted from Dr Gacek's paper on page 104 "Most patients experienced relief from vertigo in the first 2 weeks but some required a longer period. The gradual lowering dose was then used to find the lowest level maintenance dose for a given patient. Most were controlled on a single dose daily but occasionally a patient required an adjustment to 1,200 mg of acyclovir or 1,500 mg of valacyclovir."
It took me about 6 weeks until I could start the tapering. Potentially I "could" have started after 3 but not sure if I would have gotten the full benefit. Dr Gacek agreed to extend my initial load period by 3 weeks accordingly.
I'm one of those people who seem to require 1200 mg of Acyclovir for maintenance. I've been on it for ten months and each time I reduce to 800 mg I have problems. Plus I take 2000 mg lysine daily as this even the 1200 Acyclovir doesn't keep the brain fog away but by adding the lysine I'm finally having more good days than bad!
I'm glad you find your maintenance dose and way of more relief, that's awesome Sharon. as it says in Dr Gaceks paper individuals need to find the lowest dose they get relief with and it isn't always 800 mg of acyc or 100 mg of val