He grew a pair!

[Hope75]

I should be nice here and say that I think he has had them all along, but just didn't have his ducks in a row.  He should, but he just didn't and apologized for it.  

He said that he does believe I have Lyme, but he doesn't know the best first step to take for treatment.  There is no proven best protocol yet of treatment, he said.  Which is technically true, since their are no hard a fast rules for treatment, it is based on your docs opinion, past experiences, your personal history, etc.

With that said, he said he thinks the hives I had for a month after taking minocycline were actually a herx.  I agreed that it was a little too long to be an allergic reaction.  He wanted to put me back on mino since it made me herx so bad, but, I asked if we could try doxy, since I've had it several times before for acne (and I'm battling acne again).  He said to kill two birds with one stone, we'll do doxy for two months and see how I am doing.  I am satisfied with that.  

What do you guys think?  Too little treatment/just right/need IV??  I personally want to try oral first, especially during the summer.  I just don't want to go to the beach next weak with a PIC line!  It would be my first one and I'd think I should stay close to home  when I start an IV treatment for the first time.  

[patsy10]

Doxy worked the best for me.  But be careful about sun exposure as skarey mentioned.

[JackieCalifornia]

I'd do the oral doxy if I were in your shoes.  I've never taken doxy and know that some people have stomach upset with it, but some don't.  But I'd give it a shot.

I have never had very bad herxes, just little ones like 'I feel like I'm coming down with something' -- and I have Lyme and had Babesia too.  So you might be fine.

A PICC line is not necessary for effective treatment, acc. to some/many LLMDs, including mine.  Oral abx work fine in most cases, and I don't know in what cases it would not -- perhaps in very resistant cases.  I would pursue oral first just because of the risks of PICC line infections.  I read something the other day that there have an increasing number of problems with them in recent years, but don't know why exactly -- I'm not sure the drs know.  I know someone who had a PICC line back East and someone in that area got a really bad infection from it, so her doc called her in and took hers out even tho she was fine -- the public health people freaked out or something.  I've never been offered a PICC line and don't know what I would say to one.  Don't want to scare you off, but trying oral doxy isn't a bad step.

Skarey's right -- and I had forgotten:  doxy makes your skin VERY sensitive to sunburn.

Wishing you the best on your treatment -- your doctor sounds nice to deal with.  Have you guided him to the ILADS website?  Might help him.

[Hope75]

I have been on 2 wk trials of doxy probably 4-5x in the past 15 yrs. and I don't recall any herxing.  But, I can't remember past this morning - Lyme fog!  LOL.  So, I don't recall anything major, though, so I was so miserable on minocycline that I would rather be not miserable if possible on doxy.  One could argue that I'm not killing off the bacteria apparently if not herxing, so I should go back on mino.  I think we both have that 1% in the back of our minds that maybe it was an allergic reaction that happened to be way beyond the norm.  I doubt it, but we can't prove it.  Since I've never been on doxy for more than two weeks, I thought it may be that I could herx after three??  I don't know.  I'm just scared of minocycline now!

[skarey]

I'm happy to hear this!  I think your dr is a good dr, and is giving your case a lot of consideration and thought.  
When were you on the doxy before?  Did you do good on it?  Herx symtoms?  
You say you wanted to be on oral first because of summer... but remember that DOXY makes one SUPER sensitive to the sun, so be careful with the sun at the beach.
Finally...