antivirals- worse before better

Darn, I was hoping to read some replies! I have the same question. I’ve been on Valtrex for over 2 weeks and my symptoms haven’t improved... Last week was the worst I’ve felt in a while.

 

Mine was no change, then worse, then tiny intermittent improvement, then gradual etc. My stage of worse was just days.

 

Mine was definitely worse for almost a month.
Have been seeing a gradual improvement recently with spans of 3 to 4 days of no dizziness and then some feeling off hours. I have no more all day dizziness and...
My tinnitus has gotten better as well and little if any brain fog.
Still too early of a call but hoping

 

I had my 3 week follow up with Dr Gacek. He has me taking 1 800mg acyclovir a day now. He says he thinks it's better for the patient. He also spoke about some type of injections where he goes under the eardrum and injects steroids into the middle ear. He mentioned 2 other types but said he wouldnt do those because they can cause hearing damage . I'm also taking 3,000 mg of lysine . I'm feeling better every day slowly but surely.

 

I took me about a month to see symptoms start to subside some and about 3 months to really notice a permanent change. The old saying walk before run really comes into play here it will be a slow improvement and you have to be patient. You will start to mark the days with no vertigo if it is working and one day you will notice, hey its been a month, oh now it's 2 then 4 then 8 and hopefully a long remission.

 

I agree with Fisherman. Been noticing longer periods of no dizziness.
Latest one has been a clear head since this past Monday
Less pockets of feeling "off" too.
Tinnitus has cooled down as well.
I'm staying the course on anti virals, JOH, b5, b6
It's working for me so far, fingers crossed.
Have faith

 

Hi Rgv, thats great that you are noticing such good improvement. What antivirals are you taking and what doses. Thanks.

 

I had that done. Didn't help me, but I worried for months. I had been monitoring my ear with a little USB camera that plugs into my computer. It allows me to take pictures and video of my eardrum - keep tabs on what's going on in there. When it was suggested that I get it done, I looked it up online. Two little pinprick holes. I had it done the next week. When I looked the day after - it looked like a bloodbath. When I went back the next week I was told that it was "completely healed". When I mentioned all the blood, I was told that I "couldn't see inside my ear" and that everything was fine. It took half a year before it looked somewhat normal in there.

 

I'm on Valtrex, 3000 mg per day spilt into 3x of 1000mg each
Took about 4 weeks before I noticed improvement.
I'm on a full week now with no symptoms, just slight tinnitus
Hope that helps

 

I'm sorry that you had to got through all of that. I couldn't look at it if I had it done lol. If I saw all of the blood I would have been freaking out , ignorance is bliss lol. Have you tried any type of antiviral treatments ?

 

Nope, no antivirals. I found this forum after discovering that Lysine seemed to help. Now I’m trying the JOH regimen as well as BennyHill’s B-Vitamin idea. It’s gotten worse for me, but I’ll keep on plugging along for a few months. If I don’t see any improvement, then maybe I’ll revisit a doctor and ask about antivirals.

After the shot in the ear didn’t change anything, my doctor said that nothing else could be done and to make an appointment for four months later. He made no mention of antivirals.

 

Brother of Nool
I don’t know your story... are you trying to fix Menieres related vertigo? Keep looking... there are surgeries etc if antivirals, diuretics, Serc, gentamicin injections etc don’t work.

 

Is that what the antivirals are for? The vertigo? If that's the case, then he probably didn't mention them because I didn't have vertigo at that time. I feel that the vertigo/nausea that I have experienced was caused by too much gluten, based on what I've read in the forums here.

My hope is that the cause of Ménière's is like the cause of scurvy: lack of necessary nutrients. JOH and BennyHill have given me hope that this can be controlled without returning to the doctor.

 

My understanding is a Herpes like virus attacks the inner ear. The antivirals keep the virus from replicating and allow the body to heal itself. The JOH regiment does that also with the lysine repressing the virus and the other supplements allowing proper blood flow for the body to heal.

 

No, not vertigo specifically. As Nivekc said, hydrops can develop in the tiny inner ear either in the portion that affects balance, the part that affects hearing or both. Over time it can move from one area to another til all parts are affected and both vertigo and hearing loss occur along with tinnitus etc. In certain cases, sound will cause vertigo. When the cause of this is a herpes type virus, then antivirals can cure it. Not an on off switch but as the other poster said, stop the virus and allow the ear time to heal which occurs gradually. I never had vertigo although it was going in that direction. I had all manner of hearing issues and antivirals and allergy treatment returned my ear to normal
functioning. Left untreated, it would undoubtedly progressed to vertigo, and no useful balance or hearing in what was already my only functional ear.

The success of antivirals with many (but not all) menieres cases is relatively new discovery and not know or accepted by all ENT’s. Most ENT’s who specialize in menieres are primarily surgical practices and that is how they think. Antivirals are pretty benign drugs for those who do not have any kidney or liver issues, much less damaging to the body than things like steroids and some other drugs used for menieres which are also not yet ‘proven’ to ‘cure’ menieres and of course less destructive than surgeries. Many family doctors will write an rx for antivirals to see if it works. Mine did and it worked. Consider it.