Forgive me if this has been discussed previously. I just got a call from Dr. Gacek in response to a request for a valacyclovir refill. He told me that the hospital is no longer allowing him to prescribe it as it is unproven. Has anyone else received this response from Dr. Gacek? I am concerned that I won't be able to get someone else to prescribe this for me if I tell them why Dr. Gacek will no longer prescribe it. Has anyone had any success weaning off it? I am down to 1gm per day, but anytime I have tried to reduce the dose, I have felt my ear fullness increasing so I have always returned to 1gm per day. I have not had any vertigo since 4 weeks after starting it and I would like to keep it that way! Any advice or info on another dr. who will prescribe would be very appreciated. Thanks!
Wow, you gotta love the medical system here. Even when a doctor is doing the right thing for once, the hospital will be sure to stop that. LeeAnn, any doctor can script it. Any doctor. I personally would fake herpes to get it if i couldn't find a sympathetic doc. It's pretty easy to do. June, you only took antivirals for a few months and then stopped? I would be terrified to stop it.
Yes. When you have shingles, you dont take antivirals forever. I dont know which herpes virus is our nemesis but t is similar enough to respond to the same drugs. I was lucky. I hope i remain so. I think it is important not to overstress my system and invite a flare up in the future. I know i cant guarantee that but i try to get plenty of sleep, yada yada to put the odds in my favor.
My doctor takes it for shingles, and she says she's taking it forever. She said when she stopped once on vacation, it came right back. I called her about this and she said don't stop, as it's not worth the risk.
I guess it varies. I had shingles for a month. They only gave me valtrex for maybe ten days. (I would have preferred longer). The shingles lasted a month, and it was a long month i can tell you because they are painful. But they did go away. The answer appears to be sometimes antivirals are needed long term and sometimes they arent. Even when they arent needed forever, i think they are needed longer than most doctors suppose. It is not a two week thing.
The thing is, no medicine is entirely benign. If it can change the body for the better, it can change it for the worse. I just saw a headline(ad?) about argenine indicating it was good for heart issues. But for us with herpes issues, we arent going to want to upset the lysine/arginine balance .... The body is a beautiful intricate sometimes frustrating thing.
Thanks for the responses - I will hope that one of my other providers take pity on me and will prescribe it. I have tried to wean off of it 2 other times and my symptoms have returned but I will try again. I am concerned that as time goes on and word gets out about Dr. Gacek not being allowed to prescribe this that others will follow suit and not prescribe it either.
I took 3 g per day for 15 months. Then I dropped to 2 g for about 2 months and for the last 5 months I have been on 1g. I got the prescription from my GP.
I also weaned down from 3 gm, to 2gm, to 1gm. Most days on 1 gm I am good. There have been 2 times since I have been on Valtrex that I increased back to 2 gm for a few days when I had an increase in symptoms. On Dr. Gacek's advice, he said I could try cutting the 1gm in half for 500 mg. This is when I felt my symptoms increasing again. I have also tried to do 1 gm every other day and also saw an increase in symptoms. It just seems that 1 gm is what I need to keep this laying low....
Very good points. Everyone should decide for themselves how long to take them. I personally view it like insulin. I will take it forever until a cure is found. I can't let my life go down the tubes again like before.
I am curious about the dr 'not being allowed' to rx valtrex off label. Doctors do that all the time, it is part of the art of medicine. I do know, often insurance companies refuse to pay if they consider a drug experimental or too expensive relative to an alternative, but in the us, i never heard of 'not being allowed' to rx.
I agree June. I had never heard of this either. My first thought was that md's prescribe off label all the time. My only thought was that because he is such a prominent researcher on this that they felt that any poorly done research would not reflect on their institution well. Dr. Gacek specifically said that, "UMASS won't allow me to prescribe it anymore because the research isn't strong enough - "it is only me, I guess" were his words.
Perhaps he is an employee of umass and therefore they make the calls. I assume they are getting some flack from somebody about it.
I bet a lot of doctors bristle at the notion of saying that menieres is a virus, but wouldnt have a problem prescribing an antiviral for a patient who has a viral labyrinthitis.
I am absolutely confused about this post. The father of the antiviral theory is no longer prescribing antivirals? Did I read that correctly? If he is not prescribing them, is it because a hospital/pharmacy told him there is no evidence they work? Who is the Dr? Him or the hospital/pharmacist? Seems a little strange to me!!! Dr. Gacek won't refill AV's because a non doctor told him there is no evidence they work. I thought he had years of studies/published papers and patient success rates to fall back on? He advertises a 90% success Tate with AV's in his papers and now suddenly he won't prescribe them? Help me understand this!!! Am I reading this right?
Why won't Dr. Gacek call in a prescription to an independent pharmacy? Walgreens, Kroger, CVS ect... My wife has called in AV's for so many people in our support group in Atlanta for those that want to try them. Dr's prescribe medicine not hospitals or pharmacies. Strange I you ask me....So I guess in the end Gaceks papers are irrevelant as he no longer will prescribe them. Something not right here my friends?
If he works for a hospital, then he has to follow their rules. It matters not what the pharmacy is. It does not make the papers irrelevant. If the data was reported accurately, then it's relevant. You don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. I'll keep taking antivirals. You all do what you want.