LymeNet Flash: Question on Doxy dosage

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Posted by suz9601 (Member # 6968) on :

Just dx'ed. Doc started me on 200mg doxy a day. I have read that we must have much more than this for it to work. Is this true, am I wasting my time on 200mg a day? Or will it kill lyme? Thanks

Posted by rph1161 (Member # 7040) on :

Hi

I am in the same boat... it appears that I have been living with Lyme for 5 years, and finally just got D'xd a month ago. I was prescribed doxi 200mg/day - then I found this website, and began to freak out.

I just had a follow up meeting with my Doc on Wednesday, and I voiced the same concerns.

"Is this treatment aggressive enough?"

"Well, how do you feel?"

"I feel like I get out of bed in the morning and I'm walking through knee-high sludge"

He upped my dosage to 300mg/day, and told me to give it a month and see how my symptoms are. He also suggested alot of herbs, supplements and enzymes. I also have weekly acupuncture sessions.

I am choosing to trust him for now. Luckily, my symptoms really aren't as bad as alot of folks, and it seems that is what really counts... your symptoms. Otherwise you don't know what the little buggers are doing in your body.

Anyway, everyone responds differently. I would suggest that you take the first course of Ax and see how you feel?

Personally, when I found this website, I spent a week reading post after post, and I started to obsess about Lyme disease, and then I associated every little ache, pain, or forgotten item at the grocery store to LYME DISEASE.

Just about talked myself into a terminal illness.

I found that this (Lyme Disease) is a great tool for living in the present, living and accepting what IS, doing the best you can do every day for your health, and not getting carried away with what COULD be. I don't mean any disrespect to those that are really suffering from this. I'm just saying that I had to put it all into perspective for my self.

Good luck in your journey with this.

Peace,

Rick

Posted by liz28 on :

A quick caveat to the above post--don't accept what "is for today" until you've tried all your options. Maybe what "is" could be a whole lot different.

Since I just started treating the co-infections, I'm not sure whether my previous experiences with doxy were a matter of dosage. But I'm on 400mg/day right now, while also taking levaquin for bartonella, and will switch as soon as possible to stronger abx. I always found doxy to be great at holding the Lyme in check, but not for clobbering it.

But others may have had different experiences!

Posted by fredoroberts (Member # 5856) on :

My first treatment, three months after the tick bite was 400 mg of doxy per day which I upped to 600 mg per day after a week. Four weeks later I had my first appt with an infectious disease doc. He switched me to ceftin, 2 x 1000 mg twice a day. The high dose of doxy made my skin very photo sensitive, and I ended up with a third degree sunburn on my hands, just like that!

Two weeks after the appt with the infectious disease doc, I saw an LLMD. He added zithromax, 500 mg once a day.

Now 20 months later, I would have to say that for me, even 4 weeks of a high doxy dose did not do it for me. The 20 months of zithromax, ceftin, and others mixed in (Augmentin, plaquenil, minocycline, and flagyl) have slowly worn down the Bb.

Five months ago I retested for Babesia microti and WA-1 because, while I was making progress, it was slow. I came up positive for Babs m. so now I am treating that with mepron and artimisin.

Make sure you get tested for co-infections! They seem to interfere with the battle with Bb.

Gear up for a long haul, read up on all this stuff. Pretty soon you will know so much more, and be better able to be involved in your own treatment.

Take care

Posted by patdetweiler (Member # 7030) on :

My local duck put me on 200mg doxy but didn't tell me how tough it can be on the GI tract. So to you just starting doxy folks-#1 take with a full glass of liquid(I didn't and the heartburn like pain was bad for a week til it healed)-#2 do not lie down for 30 minutes after you take doxy #3Take with a fair amount of food #4 watch out for sun. Having said that -my LLMD told me 400-600mg doxy/day as my GI tract would tolerate-I did 600 for a month and my gut hurt all the time-And I really didn't improve much on it. Then I was treated for Babesia co-infection with Zithromax and Mepron for 6 weeks and now I am in my 4th week of 400mg/day of Ketek.I am less tired and stronger the last 2 weeks, I think the Ketek is helping. Pat in PA

Posted by groovy2 (Member # 6304) on :

200mg Doxi a day is what docs call the standard
dose-I did that for 6 months -I did get a little better for a short time - then relapsed- then on my own I upped to 600mg a day- and have slowly gotten better. I talked my great Doctor
into letting me stay at that dose.I wish I could have started at 600mg a day. Most
docs are scared to give this much to there paitence. My body has been able to handle it OK
except for sun burn. Have your doc read the
ILADS info -its 30 pages long -so print it out-I dont have it here with me right now
but the docs name starts with a B---
I just met a woman who is micro bioligest-
who is reading the papers for me-she is
going to fill me in on the stuff I dont understand--Email me in a couple of days and I will have more info and the correct web
address---Jay--