Hi AC,

Muscular aches and pains can be very normal for many.

What would cause them?  There are lots of factors:  types of food, stress,
illness, anything that effects the immune system, etc.

Valtrex is fine to take episodically--each time you feel an outbreak
beginning--and I mean the very first minute--then start taking the pills.
It will keep the duration of the outbreak down and perhaps the severity and
may keep that recurrance from happening as well.  Take the Valtrex through
the normal recurrance time.

If your outbreaks do not bother you, then there is no need to take the pills
daily.

ar

That depends on your outbreak and how long that will last.

Triggers vary from person to person.

I don't.

Hang in there,

Angela ;)

I was diagnosed January 27, 1994.  In all this time there have only
been maybe three outbreaks which were so severe that I had muscle
aches - the whole collection of "flu like symptoms" they talk about in
the literature.

Not sure of your gender - I think for a lot of women it's really
common to have an outbreak with every period  - I thought I was
getting recurring yeast infections until the time I found a blister
and actually went to the the doctor - behold the danger of diagnosing
yourself, even when you don't need a prescription for a particular
medication!

There are certain foods that may trigger an outbreak - chocolate is
one of them - I keep getting the amino acids mixed up but I believe
you want to increase your consumption of l-lysine and REDUCE your
consumption of l-arginine (sp?).  Chocolate triggers migraines too -
comfort food my a.s! lol

The ads for Valtrex are very misleading and there's one thing you need
to note - even if you DO take it every single day to prevent an
outbreak, it's still POSSIBLE to have asymptomatic viral shedding and
SPREAD the virus.  If, however, you're getting REALLY sick with every
outbreak - the muscular aches you were describing - then if you can
afford it I would go for the daily preventative protocols.

Even if I could afford it I'm not sure that I'd be on Valtrex daily
cause I have to take so many OTHER medications for other health
problems.

Hope this helps.

Depends on how soon you start. The sooner the better. If you wait
until day 2-3 of an outbreak, it may not help all that much. If you
start at the first sign of prodrome, you might be able to avoid the
outbreak altogether.

Everybody's different. Some people are able to figure out what their
triggers are... certain foods, stress, whatever, there are lists of
possible triggers published on the web. Some people never figure out
what their triggers are. Some people do.

That's not uncommon.

M2