Tomorrow is the day when I ask an internist if he will prescribe acyclovir, in Dr. Gacek's paper it says to take acyclovir 800 mg tid for 3 weeks, if there is significant relief of vertigo, decrease to 800 mg bid for 3 weeks and to 800 mg daily, my vertigo has let up since I was diagnosed with low sodium from my water pill and following a low sodium diet and I stopped the diuretic, so I am mainly wanting to try the acyclovir to see if it will help my bilateral hearing loss and bilateral tinnitus, The OTO and ENT both think I have Menieres by the low sound hearing loss and tinnitus and the vertigo I did have, even though the vertigo was not often. The OTO was the one who prescribed the Menniet device, he lives 500 miles away and so he is going to have the ENT where I live put the tubes in my ears, but I don't see the ENT until September, the Menniet device is $3000.00, and my insurance does not cover it, so I want to try the acyclovir first. And I am praying it will work and praying the internist will prescribe it. Just wondering :Is that how everyone who started acyclorir do it, just 3 weeks tid then 3 weeks bid? And did it work that fast? Thanks so much for any suggestions from experience! I posted this in database by mistake, so I copied it and am now posting it in Living Room!
I started at 400mg. 3X a day and experienced a dramatic change in 3 months. Others have posted that it took awhile for them too. I maintain that dosage but I will occasionally drop myself to twice a day. However, I had tubes that fell out without healing and I didn't know it. I developed perforations in both eardrums that one ENT said required Tympanoplasty surgery to repair. I went to my old OTO who made the repairs right in the office. I told her I was under a lot of stress and asked to increase the dosage. Now I take 800mg. 2-3 times a day according to how I'm feeling and what I'm coping with. I have a very knowledgeable and generous OTO. She knows all about a,entered which we all know is rare. She also knows I have regular blood work done and provide her with a copy and that I belong here and know what she knows, well almost, lol. I'm hoping the antivirals work for you. Have you tried printing out some of the studies done by Dr. Back reporting dosage amounts? I know I've read many accounts of different dosage amounts but I also know that most of us that it worked for didn't see results for a few months and many still take a maintenance dose and increase during certain situations. I wish you good Luck! Keep us posted!
Bea who is Dr Back? Linda it's best to follow Dr Gacek's doses but some of us had to stay on longer than the 3 weeks. If when you decrease, any symptoms return, increase back up for another 2 weeks or so then try again. Sometimes it takes months before you can decrease w/o symptoms returning so don't get discouraged. I was lucky and on my 4th day of starting acyclovir my vertigo stopped and haven't had a vertigo attack in over 2 and a half years BUT it took me months to decrease from 1200 mg to 800 mg my maintenance dose. I chose to go from 1600 mg a day to 1200 mg a day instead of the leap from 1600 mg to 800 mg a day.