We went to our new PCP today and he asked what I wanted him to do for my husband. I said try antibiotics. He put him on Levaquin for 6 weeks. Will this help?
Also, Dr. Z from Chicago called and he said to find out if Medicaid would cover any visits to him since he is not a specialist and not our PCP. Can anyone tell me how I can find this out? We are unable to pay for visits as we are both not working, have 3 kids and still waiting (Dec will be 3 years) on SS Disability
Posted by webmeg (Member # 13647) on :
Not sure what your husband is being treated for (Lyme or a co-infection??). My understanding from this forum is that Levaquin does not treat Lyme.
Doxycycline or Amoxycilin are your best bet. They're cheap, too.
Posted by ldfighter (Member # 9405) on :
Levaquin is used to treat bartonella, but not Lyme. The antibiotics webmeg mentioned are very good, also some LLMDs use tetracycline which is probably the cheapest. There's a study here you could show your PCP: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?CIDv25pS52PDF
Don't know about Medicaid, maybe someone in General would know the answer.
Posted by lymeladyinNY (Member # 10235) on :
Hi Mixed - about the levaquin. I used it all last summer to defeat bartonella, but only on half dose. I took 250 mg 4 days a week, 3 weeks a month.
I don't believe levaquin is used for Lyme itself.
Levaquin is a hard drug to be on. It can cause tendonitis and even ruptured tendons. It also can cause panic, anxiety, and nightmares.
I recently took 5 days of Levaquin at 500 mg for phlebitis and it was too much for me. I had a severe emotional reaction to the point of screaming with anxiety and fear.
I'm actually having a bad reaction to ALL antibiotics right now so I'm off them. I will say that the low-dose levaquin knocked bartonella on its rear-end for me.
I had severe all-body muscle spasms and they are now almost completely gone. I'm grateful to levaquin for that, but not grateful for what happened with the phlebitis treatment!