Who still had some vertigo attacks after starting Valacyc/Acyclovir and how long

Many folks here have taken months to find relief with antivirals. Many also report worsened symptoms prior to recovery. Don't lose hope this early. Especially not if you know surgery is still a final option.

 

I was on acyclovir for five months. Started taking in July of 2014. Had vertigo every day or every other day for first month or so and then maybe a couple times a week. I also had aural fullness, lots of weird noises in ear and brain fog. Then I started valacyclovir in December. Still having the occasional vertigo attack, not as much brain fog and aural fullness started getting better. February 23 I had the strangest noises ever in my ear and felt vertigo coming on. I took a meclizine and was able to get through that day. The strangest noises, squeaks, squawks, hammers on pipes, helicopter noises like whup,whup, whup. It was like the virus was dying and screaming in pain. I started a thread called Beginning of the End.

Next morning no noises, no aural fulness, no brain fog and no vertigo. I haven't had vertigo since, or brain fog, or weird noises. I do get occasional dizzies, but they only last a few seconds. Sometimes it seems like vertigo is going to happen, but then it goes away.

I still take a maintenance dose of 2,000 mg per day- 1,000 in morning and night.

 

I did not have any vertigo attacks in the first few months after starting the a/v - BUT for me that was not abnormal. I could sometimes go 6 months between attacks - but then mine would come in clusters. Every day or every other day for 4-6 weeks.

I started to feel a "little" better after the first 4 weeks on a/v, but stayed on the full high dose (at my request) for additional 4 weeks.

Stress is a major trigger for me - so perhaps there is stress going on for you right now and/or you are stressing just about the vertigo that is contributing? Stress is, of course, so so hard to just "fix".

For me, if you had an attack at 6am but were fine by 8am that sounds like progress.? For me, without an ativan, my attacks were 4-6 hrs of full vertigo room spinning; with ativan immediately at start, reduced to under 2 hrs...but didn't feel great for the rest of the day. So perhaps there is progress??

 

Dwayne please clarify what you mean by you have been miserable for the entire 21 days if you only had 2 vertigo attacks during that time. List the symptoms you have that are making you miserable.

Also if your Meniere's is caused by a virus you need to avoid trigger foods, and make sure your lysine intake is more than your arginine intake.

 

Ok that's why I asked, feeling unbalanced everyday is more of a symptom of MAV. Many Meniere's patients have both, I have both.
Have you looked into MAV? Migraine associated vertigo? you do not need a headache, you can have silent migraines but with all the symptoms as having one,
off balance, vertigo tinnitus etc.
Are you light and smell sensitive? Motion sensitive? Please read the MAV thread in our database and see if any of it applies to you. You could be battling both, MM and MAV.

The first line of defense for MAV is to try a Migraine diet which means avoid migraine food triggers, many of those trigger foods are listed in that thread and throughout the forums. Also I posted an image of MM vs MAV and how to tell which symptom is from what, you can do a forums search for it.

Also for MM make sure your daily intake of lysine is more than arginine, arginine promotes HSV.
Keep us posted.

 

I had a 4-6 week period last April (before a/v) that I was off balance every day 24/7; it was horrible. After week 3 or 4 I thought about Meclizine that I was given initially for vertigo but it did nothing for me. I took the Meclizine and almost immediately the off balance was better; had to take every 4-5 hours for a couple of weeks. Didn't go to doctor, hind sight probably should have, probably was some time of infection....

 

true nicmger it could be in ear infection but if that's his usual way of feeling I still suggest he looked into MAV.

 

I think another 3 weeks s fine..and fingers crossed!

 

DwayneHoover - I am STILL on 3000mg but my results are good. I will be at 4 months at 3000mg (except for 3 weeks when I tried to taper). Some people on here have stayed at the high dose for 6-8 months then taper. I would stay on, especially if you think you are beginning to see slight improvement. Did you start taking lysine yet? 3000mg/day without food.

 

Hello,

Im on day 7 of the acyclovir and still getting attacks. Don't really have any useful info for you, but hang in there! Hopefully we'll both get through it.

 

My suggestion is stay on the 3,000 per day for at least 3-6
Months.

Qntario try to get valacyclovir.

 

I am atypical as I used to have only ocassional vertigo episodes. Between the episodes I only have some tinnitus in one of my ears. Anyway, I have been taking acyclovir since early April. I tapered off according to dr G.'s paper.
My experience is that on the day 14 of the therapy (while I was on 2400mg a day of acyclovir) I experienced something that looked as if vertigo was coming. But it did not happen. I have been fine ever since, except from tinnitus that is not such a big deal if it were not reminding me of the main issue...

 

As long as your dr agrees, I would definitely recommend staying at the higher/load dose for longer. I was at 3x1000 for 2 months before starting the tapering.

 

Good luck! Keep us posted.

 

I still have had some dizziness and/or off balance issues since starting acyclovir, I am still taking full dosage for now, but I have had good days where there is no vertigo or anything, I love those days and they give me hope! I do believe I have Meniere's and MAV. Stress is a major trigger for me(even good stress), I just spent a week with all of my adult children and their spouses and grand children, loved every minute of it because I could hear most of the time! but I did have to take a meclazine or ativan at least once daily, plus I started a different job, definitely stress, but a good stress too because I will be working only 2 days a week, (12 hour days) but I love it! Am finally starting an exercise program today! Don't give up! I started acyclovir 2 months ago, I tried cutting back once and then went back to full dose, will try again soon, I did not have to take any meclazine or ativan yesterday during my 12 hour shift (that always makes me optimistic!)