quick ? about antivirals

I just had my appt. yesterday with my gyn, since i got diagnosed with genital herpes 2 weeks ago.  I was on the acyclovir for 10 days, 500mg. five times a day. Which pretty much cleared everything up.
I asked him if i need to be on anything daily to prevent and outbreak, and he said that usually you just call right away if you have an ob, and he can write me a script. And if i have many outbreaks we can think about taking something daily to prevent them.  Now i dont get why i cant just take meds right away to prevent them?? Or shouldnt I at least be able to have something on hand jsut in case???  Just wondering how everyone else goes about this issue.

[waringblender]

I think a lot of docs just aren't comfortable with the idea of chronic suppression for herpes. The flip side of this is that since you just had your diagnosis, you might want to wait and see what your outbreak pattern is. Many people don't have any more symptoms after the first one. That happened to me and I was asymptomatic for a couple of years before  before I settled into a pattern of 1-2 episodes per year. I didn't use medication during my asymptomatic period unless I had a partner who was negative for type 2, and I then took medication daily to protect them.

I agree about having meds on hand in case of an outbreak. If this doctor is unwilling to do even this, find another doctor. If you have a negative partner, you should definitely find a doctor who is willing to prescribe medication chronically for you to help protect that person.

[gracefromHHP]

I'm totally with waringblender on this one - you should have meds on hand at home to start at the very first sign of a herpes recurrence - not have to call to get them. Invariably your next recurrence will be at 9pm on a saturday night of a 3 day holiday weekend ( murphy's law at its finest ) and then you'd have to wait until tuesday morning to get antivirals which is far too late to do any good.  I'd call your doctor back this week and ask for a prescription for at least episodic therapy ( acyclovir to take whenever you have an ob - either 400mg 3x/day for 5 days or 800mg 3x/day for 2 days ).  If you are really interested in suppressive therapy and your doctor is still resistant than I recommend finding a new doctor who will prescribe it. Patients with herpes should never ,ever have to beg for treatment - it's a patient driven condition that only requires for the most part a new prescription each year for you to fill at your discretion.  

grace