After spending a substantial amount of time on lymenet and also rereading Dr. B's guidelines and just reading Everything You Need to Know About Lyme Disease and Other Tick-Borne Disorders by Vanderhoof-Forschner I'm concerned that I'm not effectively dealing with my Bartonella. I'm currently on Mepron, Zithromax, and Bactrim DS, with the addition of artemisinin. From what I've read these are all Babesia treatments. Are they also effectively hitting my Bartonella? My doc told me that Bactrim DS is for the Bartonella, but many feel that Bactrim hits Babesia more than Bartonella. What do you think?
Posted by canefan17 (Member # 22149) on :
That's a babs/bart protocol.
More babs than bart in there.... but some LLMD's feel that if you knock babs down the rest becomes easier.
I guess same goes for Lyme (the gatekeeper)
Posted by BoxerMom (Member # 25251) on :
I agree with Canefan. You're on a Babs/Bart protocol.
Most LL docs feel you need to treat the most prominent infection the hardest. That will be the one for which you have the most symptoms. Once that one is knocked back, you'll treat for the next one that comes forward.
I treated for Lyme/Bart/Babs for one year, always most heavily for the Babs. Once that population came down, my Bartonella just bloomed. Literally overnight. I had symptoms I'd never had before - all typical of Bartonella. Now I'm working on that one.
During this time, I've always been on abx for Lyme as well.
My doc says the order it goes away in is Babs, Lyme, Bart. I found that hard to believe, as I've been infected for 20 years. I've got to be full of Lyme cysts! But that's what she said.
I think your program looks good. Keep a journal of your herx symptoms. Then you'll know what infection is going down, and which is coming forward.
BoxerMom
Posted by Ian (Member # 24637) on :
Ok, good. It makes sense to hit the most prominent infection hardest. My symptoms match Babesia the most closely, and my test for Babesia antibodies was also the most positive. Hopefully I can take care of the Babesia and that will make the Bartonella that much easier. Thanks guys.