side "pain" from antivirals?

[seeker]

OK, I started taking antivirals last week. 1x a day then went to 2 then 3 for 2 days when I noticed some discomfort in my side. about half way down between my kidney and my bladder, actually about 2 inches down from where pelvic bone is. I had this pain Monday after I took my morning pill, maybe 1 hour after. I took 1 at lunch, pain seemed to go away @ 6pm, I didn't take a pill Monday night. Tuesday I take a pill in am and an hour later, discomfort. it went away about 2 pm, I took another later in the evening, say 9pmish after having a good size snack and no pain. what the hell? I was planning on going suppressive as ive been having a lot of stress and such and have been having ongoing OBs for about a month now it seems and just wanted to have some time to adjust. I swear ive had more herpes related crap since getting my diagnosis than in the previous 11 months I believe ive had it. im on acyclovir now, not sure if my local planned parenthood does Valtrex which I took for "mono" and saw no discomfort. oh, its Wednesday morning, I took a pill last night and no pain last night nor this am, not sure if I want to take one right now and work all day with low level pain in my side, just enough to make you grumpy after a bit.

 

could it be the food? I don't have breakfast and I was taking it right after my coffee but with a couple glasses of water.

it didn't happen till several days on them also, and last time I took them I had side discomfort but also had a kidney stone im pretty sure. ( something made its way out very painfully).

 

anyone else have this side effect or is it just me or the way im taking the meds?

[willow]

I havent had pain, just the dizzy, tired and dissoriented in the beggining.

im on vacyclovir.

drink plenty of waterwhen taking these meds. And altho my bottle doesnt say to eat with the meds i do..

[WCSDancer2010]

These are the listed side effects of Acyclovir:

 

Call your doctor at once if you have any of these serious side effects:

 

pain in your lower back;

urinating less than usual or not at all;

easy bruising or bleeding; or

unusual weakness.

Less serious side effects may include:

 

nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, stomach pain;

headache, feeling light-headed; or

swelling in your hands or feet.

 

So you may want to call the Dr ... however, I wonder why they have you on it 3x/day ... the usual dose is 2x/day to my knowledge.

 

You may also want to try taking it with food given that you get the pain when you take it on an empty stomach.

[seeker]

@ dancer, I was wondering what was going on with the dosage myself. I would have thought the higher was for episodic, to bust the virus in the chops and a lower for ongoing. I didn't take any today and no "pain" I took one right after dinner and its been @ 45 minutes and notta, it may be the food thing. also pain isn't in lower back but lower front, about 2 inches toward bladder from pelvic bone. and its more discomfort than pain. I am going to try to call on Friday as I need to figure out what the dosage is and if they have Valtrex and to get more of whatever. if suppresives turned out to be 1 a day id be fine with after dinner.

 

@ willow, I try to drink plenty of water anyway and with the weather cooling off down here I will find myself peeing a lot because of not sweating as much. I always took the meds in the morning with at least 2 glasses of water, discomfort started within an hour anjd lasted till @ 2 id say ( taking med at @ 6 am).

 

back @ dancer, bleeding?? you do know im in construction yes? not a day goes by I don't whack myself somehow and spring a leak. and I wish I had lessened appetite, packing on the winter fat lately.

[WCSDancer2010]

You need to take Acyclovir 2x/day because the body processes it faster than Valtrex... the reason they came out with Valtrex was to simplify the process by getting it to a 1x/day dosage. Valtrex is also a lot more expensive :p

 

I think the bleeding is more to so with hemorrhaging type of thing... not accidents ;)

[seeker]

yea ive heard that Valtrex is more expensive but there is a generic now. took a pill last night with dinner and no discomfort. a little gun shy about trying one in the morning since im not a big breakfast guy. I was also taking my vitamins and lysine at the same time, sometimes an Echinacea/goldenseal supplement also. it seems odd that I took 1 pill a day for 4 days and 2 pills for 1 day then 3 for 2 days before anything happened and now it seems to be dependent on food intake. I may try one after lunch. a little confused right now.

 

the doctor said 1 pill a day for suppressive but the script read 3 a day and the script she gave me for episodic reads 1 a day for 5 days w symptoms. PP in Pinellas is very busy so im not sure if ill be able to call and talk to doctor and I don't have the time between now and tues of next week to spend 4 hours there AFTER my appointment time.

[WCSDancer2010]

Look - if you are not in a relationship and 1 pill/day suppresses it, that's all you need. Standard supressive dose is considered 2 pills/day for Acyclovir which you may want to try if you start dating, at least at first till you see how sex affects you (it causes OB's in some...esp at first).

 

There - I just saved you 4 hrs in the PP waiting room...LOL

[seeker]

@ dancer, and you don't know what that's like as a man. we have exactly 2 reasons for being there, vasectomy and STDs. worse yet, some hot women come in, awkward sauce.

 

after doing some sane research on the web im a little concerned with it crystalizing in the kidney cause that is exactly what a stone is and im prone to stones. something like every stone you have gives you a 20% chance of another and im on number 10 so, eek I say eeek. ive not taken any today as of yet. in full disclosure, had a couple beers so not real concerned about any possible pain, lol. like the first time I went to the emergency room with a stone and they gave me Demerol, suddenly I was fine with the stone, now those fluorescent lights.............

[WCSDancer2010]

Well, try the 1x/day for now... if you find you get another stone really soon you may want to rethink it but I don't think that the kidney issue is to do with crystalization.

 

Just thought of this ... instead of sitting in PP for 4 hrs, why don't you do a phone consult with the Dr at Westover Heights. You can ask all these questions and you can count on their answer being as close to the "truth" as anyone knows .... at $5/minute, odds are a 10 minute conversation (just be really prepared with your questions) will cost you the same as the PP visit and you won't be sitting with pregnant teens and hot women for 4 hrs and hiding behind a 2 yr old issue of Women's Day ... LOL

 

Dr. Lisa Taulbee at the Westover Heights Clinic,http://westoverheights.com/ (503) 226-6678

[seeker]

well. im not getting anything with the pills now. go figure. and PP is only the cost of the meds, so 24$ for a suppressive RX, dr visit thrown in. im still not sure what the heck the rx is for. I reread the bottle today and hear it is 2 scripts plus she said suppressive is 1 a day. take 1 a day for 5 days with symptoms, 1 pill 3x a day for episodic. wth?? I was originally gonna do suppressive when I called but changed to episodic. they also made it sound like I was getting sup at the epi cost. I need to reorder, was trying today but got interrupted at lunch. ordering herpes meds over the phone isn't something im inclinded to do with other around.

[WCSDancer2010]

My point was to call WH about the kidney concerns ... I wouldn't trust any regular Dr to be on top of that shit ... as well as asking them what to take for your current situation in what dosage. Then take THAT info to PP if you want to get the script ...