Our 7 year old son seems to have chronic Lyme. I have taken him to see many doctors after the second episode of his knee swelling (different knees 6 months apart). The last episode occurred late June. The IDS put him on 6 weeks of AMOX and did more blood work which showed high ASO titer. She sent us to Pediatric Cardiologist (heart is fine!). The IDS wants to put him on 12 months of Penicillin. I'm wondering if Penicillin for 1 year will kill the Lyme bacteria? Or is there a better antibiotic? Your knowledge is greatly appreciated!
Posted by janet thomas (Member # 7122) on :
Wow, I can't believe there's an ID doctor willing to treat that long!!
I don't know the answer. I took amoxy for a while, but needed combos to get better in order to kill all the forms and work on coinfections. Give it a try, if it's doesn't seem to be working, then find an LLMD.
Posted by lymednva (Member # 9098) on :
I know who that doc is, and the only problem is that he doesn't do anything about co-infections. I have a friend who was even on long-term IV from him.
He only treats positive ELISA plus positive western blot, no Igenex.
Posted by 'Kete-tracker (Member # 17189) on :
If you mean "regular" pennicillun, as in oral Penicillin Vk... I'm surprised, as that would require 4 doses a day... for a whole year. Tough to accomplish with a 7-yr-old. (Oral pennicillun has a relatively short blood serum "1/2-life".)
I'm wondering if he meant amoxicillun, or intra-muscular (IM) Bicillun shots? The latter would mean about 2 shots a week. Not sure if That would be acceptable/ workable either for such a young patient. A good question for Dr. J in CT!
Posted by Geneal (Member # 10375) on :
Both my children initially took zithromax.
Then one had an allergic reaction after about one year.