posted
Hi all, I am going through treatment for LD, Babesia and Bartonella.
Doc has me on Zithromax, Questrain (Cholestyramine Powder), a number of vitamins/supplements.
Recently had to stop Plaquenil because my left side of my body went completely numb and started tingling. I couldn't get out of bed.
Now doc has me on new med called OMNICEF. I have been taking it for going on 8 days now. Two days ago I woke up @ 7:00AM and took my Questrain powder...went back to sleep and woke up 45 minutes later...I couldn't move my neck.
My neck had spasmed in a line on the left side from the base of my skull down to my shoulder and into the top part of my left shoulder blade.
My dad had to put a neck brace on me and I needed help to even eat ( I couldn't lift my arm)...I couldn't chew anything except oatmeal due to the severe pain.
I thought maybe I slept on my neck weird but it is two days later and the spasm has gone all the way down into my entire back.
I am having severe spasm/muscle pain (comes in waves of severe pain) all over in different parts of my body.
Just wondering if anyone had any input on this problem...should I call my doc? Or is this a herx reaction? Anyone ever been on this stuff before? I don't even know if the Omnicef is what has caused this, but I am definitley feeling a whole lot worse.
Thanks, ~LF
-------------------- "...Celebrate the bitter, the tart, the sweet of the here and now, all before it succumbs to the pull of what was and vanishes into a fog of what might have been." ~Susan R. Norton Posts: 21 | From Northern California | Registered: Jun 2006
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riversinger
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 4851
posted
With something this extreme, you should always call your doctor. Even if it is a herx, they need to know, but it could be something else happening.
That said, Omnicef was my favorite antibiotic, with the fewest herxes, and the easiest improvements. It stopped working after quite a long time, but I enjoyed it while I was on it. However, everyone is different.
Jill E.
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9121
posted
Definitely call your doctor. Whenever there's anything unusual, it's important to try to figure out herx or allergic reaction or what.
I'm sure you also tend to the package insert or look at the Physician's Desk Reference or call the pharmacist just to find out adverse reactions, but if not, that's what I do.
I'm just going off Omnicef after months on it. Two months into it, I developed myoclonic jerks, a tremor, weird muscle spasms that I still have.
The neurologist who I saw (who knows nothing about Lyme and isn't even open to it) blamed it on the Omnicef but only when he found one reference in the Physicians Desk Reference to muscle jerks in some post-marketing research on the drug.
But my LLMD and I believe it actually got trigged by some weird energy medicine work I did because of the timing of all of this.
But now that you are mentioning your symptoms, it makes me think.
But I have known several Lyme patients who have been on Omnicef and all but one said it was the best-tolerated antibiotic they've ever been on.
I'm super-sensitive to meds, so that's why my LLMD and I chose it.
Please post and let us know what your LLMD says.
Good luck! Jill
-------------------- If laughter is the best medicine, why hasn't stand-up comedy cured me? Posts: 1773 | From San Diego | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
Don't know if you are taking magnesium or not. All sorts of muscle spasms, twitches, tremors, myoclonus are common with Lyme.
If you are deficient in magnesium and almost all long-term Lyme patients are (the b.b. robs this mineral for itself) you will have many more muscle issues.
Depending on the severity of the magnesium deficiency may need IV Magnesium at least weekly or frequent shots. The easiest way to test and see if magnesium will help is to take a bath in epsom salts (magnesium sulphate). This will relax mild muscle cramps and help with twitches and very fine tremors. The body will only absorb as much magnesium as it needs.
Best to start with small amounts to make sure it doesn't cause an increased herx reaction -- the sulphur is used in one of the detox pathways. Start with 1/2 cup of epsom salts and work up to 3 cups or more per bath. Stay in the water 10 minutes to start and work up to 20-30 minutes.
Can just soak your feet in a bucket of water if you prefer instead of taking a bath. Use the same amount of epsom salts either way.
May also need to get massages -- weekly massages may help. Or if the problem is severe chiropractic adjustments may be required.
Hope you get to feeling better soon.
Bea Seibert
Posts: 7306 | From Martinsville,VA,USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
I am on Omnicef and I have found it to be the best tolerated abx I have tried. I have terrible reflux and GB issues and they have been much less with Omnicef than Biaxin or Ketek.
In fact, sometimes I wonder if I am even herxing. I got a horrible stiff neck with Biaxin but not with Omnicef.
Posts: 331 | From virginia | Registered: Nov 2005
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liz28
Unregistered
posted
Omnicef is my maintenance Lyme drug, along with ketek. But it took a month to kick in, and did not cause the symptoms you described.
Plaquenil has been linked to a lot of different side effects, and is not the most effective babesia drug by a longshot. It's always been prescribed along with zithromax as a companion drug, but according to Dr. B's 2005 guidelines (which you can take or leave, obviously), this antibiotic combination has been rendered obsolete by ketek/telithromycin.
I've taken both, and ketek really does blow zithromax out of the water. But you have to take it with lots of liver support or it can do a number on you.
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