I have been taking 1 gm of Valacyclovir 3 times a day for 10 days now. The first 7 days I was not good. Vertigo episodes daily, no hearing in affected ear. tremendous fullness, dizziness etc. I figured there was no way the anti viral was working. Then after 7 days (Thanksgiving ) I woke up with decreased fullness, hearing and no vertigo! Since Thursday my symptoms have been up and down. Better one day and worse the next. No vertigo worthy of taking klonopin though! Has anyone else had patterns of being better and worse when starting on antivirals? I am wondering if they might be helping or if it might be my strict avoidance of wheat and sugar that is helping. One interesting note: on Wednesday..the day before I felt really good, I believe I may have taken 2 Valacyclovir tabs instead of one due to severe brain fog.☺. I felt very drugged the rest of the day, slept a lot, still took the evening dose and went to bed. Woke up at 3am and realized I had regained some hearing. I thought this was very interesting!
first I am happy to hear you are seeing improvement that's wonderful! and yes many (if you search the forums) go forward and back in the beginning of taking an antiviral. Its common but it means the AV is working which is good news. I was told this happens because the virus gives off nucleic acid when you start taking the AV which can make one feel worse for a short time before better. Setbacks are common as well, in the beginning, because the virus isn't totally suppressed yet, and even when it is, there are times which can bring it out of its latent state (anything that weakens the immune system ie: alleriges, illness, fatigue etc etc) and that's when we usually increase dose temporarily once we are on a decreased dose
Thank you Vicki. It is great to know that they may still be helping despite it being up and down. Very interesting about the nucleic acid. I definitely notice an increase in ear fullness starting about 40 min after taking a dose. One other question. I am currently taking the Mylan generic. Could it make any sense to try a different manufacturer on my next refill to see if I get a different benefit? I'm having no side effects to speak of.
some people did not do well on Mylan they changed to northstar, you might try a different one. Nicmger found that mylan gave her symptoms back, but hopefully she will post and explain better.
Yep, it's quite common to roller coaster the first few weeks and then it gets better and better. I think I peaked at six months. Good luck!
I have doing well with the anti-virals. Valtrex, 500 mg and all the JOH supplements. Then it started getting worse, so I backed off on sodium, cleaned up my diet. The ear fullness did not go away and last night had the worst vertigo episode ever. Called the ambulance. Went to the ER. I had a ball fall 2 weeks ago with a bad bump on the head. Could that be contributing? Should I continue with the antivirals? I feel a bit lost. thanks, any help would be appreciated .
500mg is a tiny dose. I'd go up to 3000 and hold until I felt better, or six months passed, whichever comes sooner.
I agree with scott plus 500 mg is even too little for the maintenance dose which usually takes many months to be able to get to.
Type Valacyclovir in the search box at the top, make yourself your favorite beverage and take it all in.