Valtrex and cold sore

superman21 · Jun 23, 2016

I get a cold sore on my lip maybe once every 6 months or year. I was just using campho phenique, but recently a friend of mine said I can get an anti viral medicine to knock them out faster.

Long story short, I went to the doctor and was prescribed 4 pills of the generic valtrex that I take 2 pills 2x a day for one day. I took them yesterday and here I am today wondering if that's enough, does this sound like a normal protocol? The half life of valtrex shows to be 3 hours... Anyone with experience that can chime in, is one day going to even do anything for it?

Thaistick · Jun 23, 2016

Usually one day is enough. If you caught it early you should be able to tell it's stopped growing. Sometimes with really bad flare-ups I've had to take it for a couple of days.

JustWannaBeHuge · Jun 23, 2016

I would say one a day (also depends on the mg, are you taking 500mg tabs?), along with putting abreva on the cold sore to help it heal faster. Just my opinion.

garcia · Jun 23, 2016

If caught early enough, 2 1 GM pills are probably enough. I usually take over at least 2 days with lysine, though.

DoWork · Jun 23, 2016

I take 2 right away as soon as you feel the tingle. Then two more later that day. I'm hyper sensitive to cold sores and they swell very quickly if not treated.

chinaboy · Jun 23, 2016

I will get a sore on the inside of my mouth 1-3x year and they kill if they rub against teeth. I looked it up and b12 deficiencies can cause this. So I took b12 with my last cold sore and it seemed to knock it out in a day or two and I was impressed.

machinemind · Jun 23, 2016

Yes that is the correct dosing, sometimes it's repeated on a 2nd day. As another user mentioned it's best used with early detection, when you get tingling or burning in the area. If it's been several days it's harder to control because the virus has been replicating for a long time, the medication stops it from replicating.

If this starts to be a regular thing, you can actually get a lose dose of generic Valacyclovir, dosed once daily, which usually prevents the problem completely. If your doctor says they can't do that they are lying/unwilling.

Reno911 · Jun 23, 2016

I always keep some Valtrex on hand if I feel really run down and get a tingle. I also take this stuff daily and it works well to prevent outbreaks:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BN5KJ56/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1JJ4WXRVYIALX

asteelz · Jun 23, 2016

As mentioned above, one to two days is usually all that is needed. 1-2g per day.

Thaistick · Jun 23, 2016

Abreva works great for me too. My little boy gets them more than I do so I keep both Abreva and 1g Valtrex on hand all the time. I use a pill cutter to cut it into eighths for my son. His doctor said it was okay.