4 months into treatment

[RKF55]

Hello,

I am now 4 months into treatment for Lyme and Bartonella and I must say (with fingers crossed and knocking on wood) that I am feeling much better. My LLMD told me last week to stop all antibiotics and continue on with the herbals plus add Methylfolate. Stopping the antibiotics is a little scary for me but I am also glad to get off them for a while.

I took the advice of Jackie California and kept track of my symptons from the first day of treatment and continue to do it now. When I saw my LLMD last week I gave her printed charts showing my average symptons for each day of the full three and half months I had been following her treatment plan. The charts clearly showed that over the 3 1/2 months my really bad days were coming further apart and the good days were coming closer together. They showed that the high peaks of my symptons severity were getting much shorter and the good days were flattening out, meaning longer periods of several days in a row with low symptons. She was quite exicted about my progress.

I asked her near the end of my visit if she wanted to see it since we had never talked about it before, she very much wanted to look at them. She said that it was a great tool to help her tailor my treatment program and use in conjuction with blood test to track my progress. So anybody that is goint thru treatment I would advise to do the same thing, even if the dr does'nt want it, it is helpful so you can see your own progress.

I am not ready to declare victory yet as I still have symptons like headachs (this one has gotten much worse since starting treatment), numb and tingling feet leg and hands, neck pain, joint pain, nausea and other fun things, but they are all surely better.

[JackieCalifornia]

Your colleague is indeed causing problems by stopping antibiotics before their mission is complete.  But her bad habits don't mean antibiotics should not used.

[grdner]

Well said - one of my coworker friends was concerned when I told her I was on high dosages of multiple abx for 2 months, and she told me she was worried about me having issues with developing resistant bacteria.  I told her that was not really a concern with this, and that she (as one of those people who is on abx frequently and stops every time when she feels better) is much more likely to have issues with it than I am!  Aaargh!!!  It's scary how many resistant bacteria there are already - we do not need more!  And get them out of the food supply!!  

But that's another topic  ;-)

[grdner]

That is very similar to what I intend to take someday after my abx regimen is done, with the addition of magnesium and milk thistle, and glucosamine sulfate which I need for my joints.  From everything I have read, the herbals are quite powerful and should keep hitting any lingering buggers and keep your system heading in a good direction.  Fingers crossed, and please keep us all updated!

[JackieCalifornia]

I'm a big fan of antibiotics for those who can tolerate them ... I'm generally very sensitive to a lot of things (food, meds, alcohol), but no problems at all with antibiotics.

I think some of the backlash against antibiotics assume that the meds are being deployed inappropriately, which perhaps some are, but that's not a reason to shy away from antibiotics -- just a reason to use them carefully and effectively.  

I have known people to say things like, "The doctor told me to take the antibiotics for 3 weeks, but I didn't want to get dependent on them, so I stopped after a week when I was starting to feel better."  

NO!!!  That keeps the bacteria from being killed off, increasing the ability of the remaining weakened bacteria to reproduce and create potentially immune offspring.  

Then the pool of bacteria that previously were killed easily may not any longer be susceptible to antibiotics.  Result:  we are all in trouble, with no effective medication going forward.  Don't go there.

[RKF55]

Thank you for the encourgment and good wish's.

I am taking Burbur, Pinnella, Banderol and Samento twice a day. I also take Methylcobalamin B12, Lumbrokinase, a probiotic, CoQ10, and a glass of Green Vibrance super food once a day.

I am little leery of just taking herbals because I dont want to lose the progress I have made by leting the infection get  a foot hold again. However my LLMD has a lot of faith in these herbals so we will see.

[grdner]

That is great!

I had been keeping a log with symptoms rated 1-10 (from noticeable to debilitating) along with the daily checklists of medications/supplements I put together, but I haven't charted them yet.  I'm starting my 3rd month of antibiotic regimen, and my LLMD just changed the schedule a bit and added some biofilm busters.  

When I first met with him I had with me a list of daily symptoms and ratings which he thought was cool, so maybe it had a tiny bit of influence since this time he gave me a daily rating chart to track 5 symptom groups, and I think I will put that in chart form together with the medications/supplements (and I will add categories if I need to).  He uses herxing to gauge progress and also to eventually judge when treatment is no longer needed; I'm guessing most LLMDs do the same one way or another.

Chart form seems like it would be easy to see and also could be good motivation.  It's encouraging to me just to see my max numbers have decreased a lot over the last 2 months, but seeing a graph together with the timing of the meds would be quite informative.

I hope you continue to feel and chart good progress on the herbals.  Which ones are you using?

[mojogal]

Love hearing that you are feeling better. Great news. I was off abx and did herbals for 18 months. I felt better off of them and just recently went back on due to heart issues.  Hopefully remission is coming soon.

[JackieCalifornia]

Good for you!  ... for plowing ahead, even when things seem so eternally miserable, and for keeping focused on tracking your symptoms and meds to report back to the doc, as well as to keep perspective on how you are feeling and progressing.

I don't now remember how long I was on antibiotics, but it was quite a few months, partly because I had Lyme and a co-infection which needed different meds from Lyme.  In addition, Lyme has a rather slow reproductive cycle compared to many other bacterial infections, which also argues for a longer treatment time.  

I hope your doc is taking that into account in how long you are on treatment.  You might want to do a little reading on how long each of your ailments needs treatment (with separate meds), and carry that data back to your doc at your next appointment.  If your doc isn't a hardcore Lyme doc, then she may underestimate how long it takes for all the Lyme to be wiped out because of its slooowww reproductive cycle, and it is when dividing to make new baby Lyme bacteria that antibiotics can be most effective against Lyme.

Good for you for sticking with the plan and the data collection!  Most excellent.  :)   Keep us posted, okay?  Yippee!!!