Returning to antivirals after remission period

Hi all, I'm interested to know if any of you who have been taking antivirals and found relief have taken a long break from them without symptoms returning?
7 years ago I found complete relief from vertigo after 2 months of taking Famvir 750mg per day. I continued on this dose for several years before tapering down to 500mg per day. I then went completely medicine free (and vertigo free)for almost a year. My symptoms have started rushing back in quick and fast on the past few weeks so I have just started back on the Famvir 750mg per day.
My question to you all is; should returning to antivirals after a break take as long to show improvement in symptoms or does your body recognize the drug and respond quicker the second time around? I am hoping it will not take two months to return to normality this time! Have any of you experienced this situation; stopping antivirals and restarting once symptoms resurface?

 

Scott, you are very lucky, incredible that you recovered your hearing aswell! How long did it take before you started noticing improvement in your symptoms when you first started antivirals? What dose of Famvir did you start on and what dose are you on now?

 

Just wanted to leave a little update here for anyone who is interested or finds themselves in this position in the future. This may give you some hope.

I am now in day 10 of restarting Famvir antivirals after a full year break. 8 years ago I started on antivirals and got complete relief from vertigo, dizziness, balance problems and brain fog. My doctor believes the reason my symptoms resurfaced now and accelerated at such a speed is because I am pregnant and pregnancy automatically lowers your immune system(to prevent your body rejecting the growing embryo). A lowered immune system allows the virus to come back out of its latent state and start replicating again! I had to wait until I was at least twelve weeks pregnant before starting back on my prescription(Famvir 750mg daily, not a very high dose) I do hope that I am not speaking too soon but I do believe my symptoms are already improving and have been since day 5. I have gone from having at least 3 vertigo attacks per week along with hours of daily dizziness to VERY mild dizziness that lasts less than an hour and just one minor attack of slow spinning in the past 6 days. The increased loudness of my tinnitus has not improved yet unfortunately. I do hope this trend continues and I can update you in a few more weeks with a full recovery! My doctor mentioned that often when returning to a medication you have previously used to fight a virus your body will recognize this and respond faster the second time around. I'm not sure if this is the case here but an interesting concept. I will update again in the coming weeks!

 

UPDATE:

Day 20 of returning to antivirals(Famvir 750mg).
I'M BACK!!!!!

- no vertigo in past 13 days
- no dizziness at all in past 10 days
- tinnitus slightly reduced
- hyper sensitive hearing gone(can't remember the name for this)

I am so so thankful and thrilled to be able to say that antivirals have once again given me my life back. If anything they worked faster this time than when I first started on them 7/8 years ago! Albeit a slight decreases in my already dreadful hearing(in one ear only) I would say I am back to where I was before my symptoms reappeared!

I intend to stay on a maintenance dose for quite a while!

My doctor is concerned about drug resistance if I stay on Avs for too long. Has anyone else heard of or had this problem?

 

I had never considered AV resistance until now. It scares me that they may not work forever as they are the only thing that has ever worked for me! I can say that I took the same AV (in a tapered down dose) for about 6 years straight with no reoccurrence of symptoms at all during that time.

I wonder what is the best way to prevent resistance from happening or at least reduce the chances of this happening. I can tell my doctor really doesn't know a lot about long term AV use so would rather I was just off them completely!

 

Yes Bonlyn, I have tried betahistamine(serc) and it made no difference to me whatsoever. I have also tried stemetil, diuretics and acupuncture. I did have a particularly aggressive case when I first started treatment options so I'm sure these work for some people but not in my case! I hope you find what works for you.