What caused the Ramsay Hunt to occur? I was not stressed at the time. My last very stressful time was in October 2001 thru about the middle of 2002. Since then my stress levels have been pretty low. I do have a type A personality although I'm working on improving it. When thinking back, the one thing that sticks out in my mind is that I had a deep muscle massage right before going on vacation in March. He worked on an area of my neck that had given me problems for several years. He could feel several pockets of toxins and worked on them with deep massage for quite some time.

Two weeks ago I stopped taking the Phenergan (anti-nausea medication). I had been taking it since the 2nd week in April. At first my taste was worse and I again was fairly dizzy for several days. I worked through it and did not go back on the Phenergan. Now, I have achieved a new level of balance and am back to about 95% of normal! I still get a little wobbly down on the floor or passing over people in a stadium to get out of my row or when I am tired. I am happy I got off the medication and feel really good now.

I am doing quite well although I do realize I am not the same person I was before all of this began last March. The main reason for that is the loss of balance that is still noticeable - but manageable nonetheless. The Bell's Palsy symptoms are 99% gone. My ear still hurts occasionally when it is windy or if I pull on it or just when it feels like aching. It's not a sharp pain and it only hurts as a level 1 or 2 pain and for just a short time. My taste is 95% restored. Some drinks still taste a little strange but nothing serious at all.

During the latter part of this time period it was also time for the tumor they found back in April to be removed. Clinically, the tumor is called a benign pituitary adenoma. Mine was a macroadenoma (large) and had to come out as it pushed on the optic nerves and was wrapped around the carotid arteries in my head. Endocrine tests revealed that mine did not produce any hormones as only a slightly increased level of Human Growth Hormone(HGH) was noticed. I considered that good, as I would probably not have to be on any meds after surgery.

Back to work and back to running. I started slowly but after a few days resumed my 4 a week workouts of running 5k's. It felt good to be able to run again. Running still seems a bit unreal as I am conscious of my balance problems when I run or when I walk for that matter. I took up bike riding again although at first it was very comical. If I turned to look back for a car I would run into the curb or my wife's bike or whatever was there. I didn't crash but had some near misses. Good time to be wearing a helmet. After a few weeks bike riding was pretty much back to normal.

This week was a milestone - I began driving again on April 23rd. It wasn't 100% for sure and I took it very very carefully. It was tough backing up as that maneuver requires a lot of head motion as does looking both ways at intersections. Maybe I started a bit too soon but I believe that forcing it a little went a long way towards improving the latent dizziness and balance problems. It also gave me relief that I was becoming independent once again and that I was really going to recover from this. I still had dizziness and balance problems and some taste problems.

I purchased a bottle of L-Lysine after someone at work recommended it for Herpes-related illnesses. I got the 1000 mg tablets from the local health food store. I noticed an improvement in my dizziness and other symptoms right away - however, I have no proof that the L-Lysine was responsible for the improvement or if it was just a matter of time healing me or all of the prayers that were being said for my recovery or all of the above. I certainly credit Almighty God for His healing. I continue to take L-Lysine (500 mg day) because it gives me peace of mind that it might prevent a recurrence.

On Friday, I started back working again but went in late after I had sufficient rest. I was so thankful to be doing this well so soon after diagnosis, especially since I was in the 'over 50' group that usually doesn't recover as well. At this point I was still not driving and avoided going into stores because it gave me such a 'weird' feeling of being disoriented. I was also very sensitive to sunlight and needed my sunglasses whenever I ventured out. My wife took me to work each day and picked me up. I didn't like it but driving was too dangerous at this point still.

By Wednesday, the 14th, I realized I had done too much too soon and was out sick again to get much needed rest for 2 days.

I was feeling enough better by April 12th to start back to work nearly full time.

I refilled the Valtrex prescription April 12th and took all of the 2nd course just to be on the safe side. I continued slowly to improve.