question about antivirals for suppresion

[seeker]

ok, I have to call the doc on this also but damned planned parenthood in these parts is a pain on the phone. I have a 2x a day for suppressive rx and ive noticed if I take the meds on an empty/ near empty stomach I have issues. so I started 1 at dinner and the other I take in 2 halves, 1 in morning the other at lunch. im wondering if this is ok? I read a big article on antivirals from the national institutes of health and it spoke of saturation levels in the blood and such. I don't want to inadvertently dilute it to non usefulness.

[Faith512]

I believe you and I have the same meds: acyclovir right? I take mine twice a day too, one at 8am and one at 8pm. Both times are usually on an empty stomach and I have no side effects from it. It might be because I'm nervous about getting dehydrated from the meds so I make sure to chug like two bottles of water within the same hour. How much water do you drink throughout the day?

[Jennie]

I take mine with breakfast and dinner so usually 9 am and 5pm. I find myself chugging water also seeing as the label says to make sure to drink a lot of water

[WCSDancer2010]

You should be fine doing it that way - if anything you are actually helping to level out the amounts that are in your bloodstream by taking it this way. Otherwise you would just be told to take the 2 pills at once anyway ... so if it's keeping you from getting the symptoms, keep doing it :)

[seeker]

@ dancer, when I read the article on antivirals it mentioned saturation levels of the blood and that's what I was concerned about. if cutting the dose to 1/2 would enough of the chemical be in my system to be effective. article also stated that in a healthy adult a 400 mg dose is metabolized in about 2.5-3 hours. was an interesting article from the NIH, very technical, I had to read it well after going to Walmart so my IQ would stabilize.

[WCSDancer2010]

Again ... if you think about it ... if you take 400mg 2x/day and it's metabolized in 2.5-3 hrs you have 9 more hours before you take it again so the blood levels will go up and down anyway ... if anything spreading it out will level it out more. But over time you will be keeping a sorta baseline amount in the system at any time ... which keeps enough on average in the system to do the job....