I have been taking tetracycline for 27 days now. 3 pills twice a day.
I The pills are 250mg. I feel better, but no herx.
My possible lyme has always been in question. I found a LLMD doctor who said it was possible but not sure.
He left it up to me as to wether I wanted to take these or not.
I never had a positive blood test.
I have had many doctors tell me I was crazy to think I had Lyme.
Not sure what to do. Very confused. I don't want to keep taking these if I do not have lyme even though they have helped me to feel better.
Posted by DesperationIn (Member # 13121) on :
I'd keep taking the antibiotic and in the mean time get a Western Blot and other lyme tests at Igenex. Then you will have a clearer picture. I regret stopping the antibiotic for a month and waiting for test results, which showed lyme. -Depin
Posted by cjnelson (Member # 12928) on :
If it is making you feel better it is MORE possible that it is LYME, from my understanding. If you respond to ABX and
are symptomatic....you know the old saying...if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck!
Totally agree with the WB. I would do that no matter what if you havent already. If you ahve, it wouldnt hurt to rerun.
My ELISA was negative but my WB was positive!
Posted by charlie (Member # 25) on :
....You don't necessarily have to herx for meds to be working. Mostly I just started feeling better too.
Tetracycline is pretty mild stuff compared to the possible mix of steroids, anti inflammatories, and anti-depressants the other ducks would likely give you. And it's cheap.
I'd go with what works.
Charlie
Posted by flyers999 (Member # 1397) on :
I would keep taking it as long as it's helping. Don't be afraid of the drug, docs routinely prescribe tetracycline to acne patients for months at a time. That is a low dosage, the prescribed level is 500mg tid. Taking too low a dosage could mean that the symptoms gradually drift back. If it is indeed helping you, you might want to experiment with stopping the drug for a few days. The normal reaction would be that you'd feel better for 3 or 4 days, then the symptoms would gradually come back. Of course, you should check with your doc before you try anything.
Posted by KS (Member # 12549) on :
Hi Jamie,
Are you feeling back to normal? Either way, I'd continue for at least the 3 months he prescribed to you. The remote chance of your having ill-effects from a few months of tetra. do not compare to where Lyme disease can go.
Some of my doctors as well think I'm nuts for continuing to treat Lyme. I continue to be open to exploring other options that those doctors suggest. Funny, nobody ever finds anything else wrong with me:) I figure instead of doing one or the other (searching for 'what is really wrong with me' vs. treating for Lyme) I continue down both paths.
I was ELISA negative and IgM positive on my Western Blot. According to ID doctors and the CDC, this is NOT considered to be a positive case of Lyme (had I been IgG positive, that would have made a difference). That being said, I can appreciate your doubts because I get them from time to time as well. I figure the only way to know is to give the treatment time...hey, what else are we to do? Needless to say, I'm seeing improvement.
Not everybody herxes so that means nothing. I spoke to 2 people with Chronic Lyme who were on treatment for 1 year and another for 18 months and they never herxed but said their recovery process was slow. They both have been perfectly well for 13 and 10 years now.