Hi Everyone, I've been on antibiotics since August 04 (33 months) without missing a single dose. For over 2 years I've been doing Dr. D's protocal of alternating Teracycline & Plaquenil+Biaxin every 6 months. It is working and I'm getting better.
This last month I've been feeling like it might be time to give my body a short break from the antibiotics. I am not yet 100% symptom free but my symptoms are mild and I am functional.
Dr. D. said today it would be OK to take a break and the best time would be now before switching to the next antibiotic. He said I would not have a severe backslide but if I felt worse to start the Plaquenil & Biaxin.
I'm now a few hours into my break. I didn't take tetracycline before dinner tonight. Tomorrow I have to be up really early to get to Dr. Js hearing and won't take tetra then either. I don't know what to expect.
I'm hoping to hear from others who have taken a break. How long was your break? What happened? Was the break a good thing? How was it when you strted abx again...?
Thanks, hats
Posted by 5dana8 (Member # 7935) on :
Hi hatsnscarfs
I was just thinging about you this week as I am trying to figure a way to wear a protective head gear from ticks (hats & scarves) for summer
If you are talking lyme a break it is not a bad thing~since it's slow replicating I guess it would bepend on your germ lod & how long a break you take.
If you are talking co-infections it they can come back much faster.
Be careful not to overdue & keep in close contact with your doc.
Never did me much harm in taking short breaks.I was puslsing my meds towards the end of treatment. Like 4 days on & 10 days off. It gave my body a chance to detox & also gave my GI system a much needed break.
Good luck & hopefully enjoy the break.
Blessings Dana
Posted by tickitout (Member # 6982) on :
Hi Hats..My only advice is to stay on treatment if you are still having symptoms. I know they replicate slowly however if you are still feeling symptoms that would tell me the infection is still active.
I did have bad experiecnces many times going off treatment to see how my body would react..oh it did and not in a good way. Many things came back full force and felt like I was back to square one.
So please think carefully about this move as I would hate to see you fall backwards.
Best of luck with whatever you choose to do.
Posted by sometimesdilly (Member # 9982) on :
hi hats-
i'm not where you are- in tx for a year, and no sustained progress of any kind, but yep, i am taking a long break. maybe a month now, and a few more weeks at least before i pick it up again. i may or may not have babs too, nothing else has been on the table.
overall, i am feeling no worse (yet) for being off the abx. i think i have traded in some symptoms for others- for example, more bladder and gyn symptoms, but a whole lot less pain, better cognitive function here and there, far worse short term memory. I'd call it a draw, except that i rally feel i am giving my gut a much needed break, and i needed to know for myself how much of teh bad i was feeling was due to side effects and how much the abx.
hope this helps in some way- good luck with whatever you choose for now...
dilly
Posted by hatsnscarfs (Member # 6562) on :
So far the first 24 hours have been great. Like dilly said, this is giving me a chance to see which symptoms were from the antibiotics.
I would not have dared take a break even a few months back but now it feels like the right thing to do. I'm keeping the Biaxin and Plaquenil in my bag though. If the ear & jaw pain come back, I'm right back on the abx.
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