I have daily dizziness and BPPV and over the past 15 years, have exhausted every treatment except anti-virals. I live in Australia and to have Valtrex prescribed for a non-recommended use, it's $120 per 100 tablets (500mg). Obviously this isn't sustainable for the years and dosage I would need to take this med (that's if it helps). How does everyone else afford it? Is it cheaper in the USA or can I get it online anywhere?
In Canada my work health plan covers 85% of cost. It is expensive everywhere as it is the brand name.
If I had shingles or genital herpes, each script would cost $10 here, subsidized by our government. When it's for a 'non approved' ailment usage, we pay top dollar.
It is exactly the same here ,UK! I managed to fake genital herpes and I got acyclovir for£40 a month's supply. ( used online doctor service) before I had to order the medication online (from India) and I paid over £120 a month's supply!
In the USA is it usually covered by insurance, so its just small copay for me, although I use acyclovir I pay $6.00 120 pills. The doctors here do not need to give a diagnosis. They just write a prescription for the medication.
I use the generic. Cash price with prescription that I have found is about $75 for 30/1000mg pills. So at maintenance dose if not covered by my insurance it costs me about $75 for the generic. Name brand would be astronomical. But if it is daily "dizzy" (meaning to me off-balance) versus full room spinning vertigo I would wonder if it is something other than Meniere's. labrynthitis? MAV? For me when I had a 4-6 week period of daily 24/7 off balance I remembered Meclizine. I had some as it was first offered as vertigo solution but did nothing to help my full vertigo. BUT I took during that 4 week period of time and almost immediate relief. Yes, it makes me tired...but I can make it through tired.
I agree with nicmger daily dizziness and BPPV are symptoms of vestibular migraines aka MAV aka silent migraines (headaches not required) "some migraine patients also present with true benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) even after the migraine headache event has ceased. This is thought to be caused by a combination of vascular events along with an alteration of neural activity associated with the migraine event. - See more at: http://vestibular.org/migraine-associated-vertigo-mav#sthash.RD3p6tir.dpuf"
It is easy to fake herpes, indeed, luckily for me. I spoke to my GP (again!) trying to inform about dr Gacek and his findings and all I heard was that acyclovir (for treating vertigo) is illegal in the UK!! I am seeing ENT in March and I will try my luck with him. If unsuccessful I will have to " suffer from genital herpes" for good in order to get the medication mentioned above. If anyone from UK is reading this, please let me know if you have had any success getting acyclovir yourself.
Just go to a primary care doctor or dermatologist. They will prescribe it for life if you have herpes. ;D
Marta I would suggest giving them the Gacek information and asking for a 3 month trial to see if you can get similar results. Aciclovir is not a recognised medication for Menieres and therefore you are asking your clinician to stick their neck out by going ‘off-piste’. By asking for a time barred trial/experiment I think that you are more likely to have success than by presenting with the latest all singing all dancing Meniere’s cure. They are human, and they have "heard it all before"!
I have decided to fake shingles...you can have the pain before the blisters appear. I figure if I go to a doctor I've never seen before, say I've had shingles before and feel like they are coming back, I might get a script with repeats to keep me going. My husband has had shingles and I've Googled symptoms so it might work. By the way...how do you fake herpes? I've had cold sores in the last but not the other sort.
I've had a 15 year diagnosis of vestibular migraine but have tried every med and treatment for this to no avail. I don't have a lot of the usual symptoms...eg. do not experience motion sickness, crowds/shopping centers don't aggravate it. I've tried NUCCA, TMJ treatment...you name it, I've tried it, both quackery and legitimate. I even started a FB MAV group that now has thousands of members. I read now BPPV can be triggered by the herpes virus and after getting this again a few nights ago and now being free of all other medication, decided to give antivirals a try. I have nothing to lose and much to gain. I have some acyclovir and have stated this last night. I learned here that Valtrex is more effective but will see how I go with acyclovir first.
onehorse, have you avoided MAV food triggers? some info..... also I had shingles recently a mild case w/o the blisters. probably due to me being on an antiviral for MM I didn't believe my dr it was shingles because I never broke out with blisters, in fact 2 doctors both said it was shingles, I looked it up and there is a version of shingles w/o the blisters. good luck with the AV!
Good luck! The acyclovir helps many. Have you done the Epley Maneuver for the BPPV? That really helps me.
Onehorse, something you might want to seriously take a look at is your calcium levels in your blood, some people have excess calcium in their body (hypercalcemia) and get BPPV because of that. So let's suppose you do the test for this and find that your calcium levels are fine, but since you've had it for so many years, it would still be a worthwhile idea to take supplements that help absorb calcium into the bones or wherever else they need to be used up. Also give it a long time for this to work, with your doctors knowledge and advice on this it can't hurt I think and just may help you finally to get rid of your chronic BPPV since those crystals are made of calcium to begin with. If it were me I'd take those supplements and do the epley maneuvre every single day, the one two punch you know? Also there is a guy here who had this exact same problem though he thought it was Meniere's but it wasn't and solved it by taking vitamin K2 (warning I don't recommend you take this without a doctors consent). Vitamin K2 is supposed to channel calcium into the bones, he took this and got rid of his BPPV after a few months for good and he did have high calcium in his blood. Here is Ernie's thread http://menieres.org/talk/index.php?topic=1423.msg39132#msg39132
You fake herpes by saying you have it and it keeps returning. Just say that the sore doesn't happen to be showing that day.
Some great replies..thank you all. I get BPPV about three times at year. I used to do the Epley but once I did it and managed to move the crystals into the horizontal canal and got violent vertigo whenever I moved. I had to crawl down the street clutching my husband to get to the Eye & Ear ER. I've haven't been game to do it since...I just ride it out for around three weeks, when it resolves. I've been reading a lot about vitamin k2...might go check it out more closely! Been on a half dose of Acyclovir (250mg x three times a day) and no side effects so far, so will increase the dose tomorrow.