Feeling run down everyday

[Anthony_In_Au]

Despite wearing a condom during intercourse, I caught HSV2 around the base of my penis which was confirmed via swab a couple weeks later. This was around 12 months ago. I believe testing in Australia is a little different to the US as we only get a positive/negative result. 

In the first month I had several breakouts which led my Dr put me onto Famvir as a suppressive therapy. After a couple months, I started having side effects (mild dizziness, mild/moderate headaches) and I was switched to Valtrex (500mg). After a few more months, the valtrex started giving me similar symptoms and I started taking half AM & PM. Within a day or two I noticed an improvement but I still wasnt feeling right in the head. At this point I started taking half a tablet a day but within a couple days I started getting a OB, although it didnt develop into a sore. I am back on Valtrex, half AM & PM as of yesterday.

While I havent had a full blown OB for 2 months, I feel like my body has been fighting a virus for months as I'm constantly feeling run down. During the day I get abnormally tired from a small amount of exercise, constantly have mild dizziness and a mild/moderate headache When I go to bed at night, I feel exhausted and totally drained, like I've had an extremely physical day which I havent. I normally wake up a lot at  night but recently I am sleeping better which is good, but kind of supports the idea of fighting a virus. I've also found recently I am constantly thirsty and drinking more water than I ever have before and am urinating more. I will see my doctor about this next week.

I am on a very clean diet and have cut out any foods high in arginine. Unfortunately I cannot take lysine supplement as it upsets my bowel (UC). I know lysine isnt a miracle cure, but I know people who find it works so I was open to it. 

The main thing I am struggling with is trying to understand whether its the virus or side effects of the medication which is causing me to feel so poor. Part of me thinks I should stop the valtrex to see what happens but I'm a little scared to, as I know I will get an OB within days.

I am a bit all over the place at the moment and while I accept the virus is part of my life now, I'm struggling to see how I can restore some normalcy back into my life when I'm feeling so run down everyday.

I have got some good tips from looking through other posts on here and I'm hoping someone can make some sense of my ramblings, and offer their thoughts.

Thanks in advance

Anthony (45M)
  

[mr_hopp]

Hi @Anthony_In_Au,

Because you are at the year mark, your body should be able to handle the virus enough to where you won’t have a lot of outbreaks and they won’t be as intense. It does sound like it’s the medication (although herpes meds are well-tolerated, some just don’t play well with others).

Another avenue you might try to exhaust all options is acyclovir. It may work a bit differently with your body than famvir or valtrex.

Also, like you said, you might try going off medication altogether and seeing what happens. There are no long-term consequences to that; just the possibility of an outbreak that you would deal with. That would give you important data: Do these lethargic symptoms dissipate? Do you have an outbreak or not? Important to know. There are really only 2 reasons to take daily suppressive therapy. Here’s an article going into detail: https://www.herpesopportunity.com/post/herpes-medication