If I were to guess, perhaps if there is to be improvement there would be "some" in the first 3 weeks and that is why the original protocol? The one thing that I have learned about this darn disease is that every single person reacts differently. The % of people here that needed longer than 3 weeks for load dose may be a small portion of the overall users. Good news is that LeeAnn is seeing Dr G so she can easily have conversations with him about extending the load dose if she gets to that.
The feedback has been very helpful. In reading here it seemed that many have taken longer than 3 weeks to respond and I was hoping he would be open to extending the loading dose. Does anyone have any experience with how flexible he might be with that? I did question the 3 weeks specifically. He confirmed that no improvement in 3 weeks meant discontinuing the anti viral. I think whether it is the Valtrex or not it would be hard not to improve in the next 3 weeks being the past week has involved 1 to 2 very intense lengthy vertigo episodes a day, topped off by yesterday which included my first day ever with this darn thing believing I might need a cane for balance! The 90 percent figure he gave me surprised me. Any thought? Thank you all.
I think (can't say for sure) that if you do get some relief in the first 3 weeks that Dr G will extend the load dose for longer. There are some that do not see improvement and will not ever so in those cases no sense to continue. But if you get some relief in the vertigo (etc) I have hope Dr G will extend. I will say that I believe that the dr primary goal is specific to the vertigo attacks themselves, not necessarily all of the other symptoms.