Can anyone tell me what antibiotics have been successful for their children with symptoms of insomnia and anxiety? My son was put on Omnicef, Azithromycin and Septra which we pulsed MWF. They seemed to really help and his sleep issues went away. He was on that course for about 3 months. However about a month and a half after his doctor switched his antibiotics to Omnicef, Azithromycin and Mepron his symptoms came back in early August. He is still struggling with falling asleep and mild anxiety. I have noticed his hands are always sweaty which makes me think he is probably feeling more anxious than he lets on. He is now on Omnicef, Septra and Minocyn but I haven't noticed his main symptoms of insomnia/anxiety improving. His doctor believes he is herxing and that the first series of antibiotics he was on from March until June suppressed the Lyme which is why he improved and felt better (with the exception of fatigue) for the first four months. I didn't realize that herxing could go on for 3 months.
Has anyone experienced this before? I am tempted to ask to go back on the first series of antibiotics he was on which helped his insomnia and anxiety but I don't want to suppress it if that is what happened.
Posted by TF (Member # 14183) on :
Breaking up this post so everyone can read it:
Can anyone tell me what antibiotics have been successful for their children with symptoms of insomnia and anxiety?
My son was put on Omnicef, Azithromycin and Septra which we pulsed MWF. They seemed to really help and his sleep issues went away. He was on that course for about 3 months.
However about a month and a half after his doctor switched his antibiotics to Omnicef, Azithromycin and Mepron his symptoms came back in early August. He is still struggling with falling asleep and mild anxiety.
I have noticed his hands are always sweaty which makes me think he is probably feeling more anxious than he lets on. He is now on Omnicef, Septra and Minocyn but I haven't noticed his main symptoms of insomnia/anxiety improving.
His doctor believes he is herxing and that the first series of antibiotics he was on from March until June suppressed the Lyme which is why he improved and felt better (with the exception of fatigue) for the first four months. I didn't realize that herxing could go on for 3 months.
Has anyone experienced this before? I am tempted to ask to go back on the first series of antibiotics he was on which helped his insomnia and anxiety but I don't want to suppress it if that is what happened.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
"His doctor believes he is herxing and that the first series of antibiotics he was on from March until June suppressed the Lyme which is why he improved and felt better (with the exception of fatigue) for the first four months. I didn't realize that herxing could go on for 3 months."
That's probably it. You can herx a LONG LONG time (for months). Sorry to say. Just keep going and do what you can to help him detox.
To me, when the doctor said the first meds supressed the lyme, it means that they treated the lyme and that is why your son was feeling better.
Then, it seems the doc switched to treating babesiosis. That is what mepron/zith is for. People can feel terrible during their entire babesiosis treatment. Sweats are a babs symptom, by the way.
You generally have to treat babs longer than 3 months and lyme longer than 3-4 months also.
Why not ask the doctor what his plans are next? Ask what disease he thinks is the main culprit in your son's illness and if it is lyme, when does he plan on targeting it again.
It generally helps if the doctor can tell you his plan. Get him to tell you all the dieases your son has and the order in which he plans to treat them. Will he treat one at a time, 2 at a time, etc.
Hopefully, getting this info will put your mind at ease somewhat. It's not easy to watch a person going through lyme treatment.
Maybe he decided to knock down the lyme a little at first in the hopes of giving your son some relief--which it sounds like it did. Then he started treating babs. He will likely go back to treating the lyme later, perhaps at the end.
Posted by MomInAshburn (Member # 30914) on :
Thanks TF and Lymetutu. He was put on Doxy for a month back in March by his pediatrician when he tested positive for Lyme. In April I went to our LLMD and that is when he began the omnicef, azithromycin and septra which seemed to clear up his insomnia/anxiety.
We switched to the Mepron protocal (Mepron, Azithromycin and Omnicef) to tackle the possibility of babs over the summer months and a month and half into that series the insomnia came back. He took that series for 3 months.
With this latest protocal we were trying to tackle the possibility of Bart due to his insomnia/anxiety. He started on Omnicef, Septra and Rifabutin but we had to stop the Rifabutin two weeks into it due to low white blood cells. So now he is on Minocin instead of Rifabutin. I was hoping the insomnia/anxiety would begin to go away but so far it hasn't. I guess I need to give it more time. I will confirm with the doctor what the current plan is.
He has had other herx reactions over the last several months with joint/muscle pain, headaches, stomach aches, fatigue and buzzing/red ears but they only last a day or two. The insomnia/anxiety which was really his main symptom when he was first diagnosed seems to be ongoing again since August. Thanks for the links on Herx reactions. It helped me understand this a little better!
Posted by manybites (Member # 33750) on :
After my relapse I herxed in artemisin , malarone, and biaxin for 1 1/2 year and slowly increasing the dosage .I take them MWF and have a break in between . My son 11 took Mepron 1 1/2 year that happened 2 years ago and his bart came up high after the treatment of babs.So be prepared.I would include something for bart -blo as A-BART and or hh capsules in between.Start very very low dosage just to keep it low b/c exsplodes and it causes sweat as well but they are diferent from babs sweat that are sticky.
If I knew better I would have treated bart and or BLO first that is the way of treatment now.This two reduced the immune system to allow babs to exslode and lyme in the first place.
Posted by MomInAshburn (Member # 30914) on :
Thanks manybites. My son was taking Artemisin with the Mepron this summer. Could you tell me what BLO, and hh are? My son's hands and feet are sweaty and yesterday he said his upper legs were sweaty where his thighs were touching together.
During the summer it was his head that got hot and sweaty at night when he was sleeping or when he had been playing outside. Does that sound consistent with Bart or babs? I'm a little confused as to which one may be causing the sweating. He never had a fever although his head was warm/hot to the touch.
My son has been pulsing his antibiotics MWF as well with every third week completely off. He has also been taking Flagyl 2 days during the end of his second week on the antibiotics.
Is your son still in treatment?
Posted by glm1111 (Member # 16556) on :
Look into treating parasites which can be considered a co-infection of Lyme. it is often overlooked even by LLMDs.
Google parasite symptoms and check out the list at Humaworm. Also do a search on here under parasites.
Gael
Posted by MrsScampi (Member # 11702) on :
glm1111 I see you post very often about parasites,do you believe that we all have them, if so, what is the best treatment? and the fastest one, Can rifing for parasites fix the problem, I am just wondering, because no matter what I cannot get my 21 year old daughter better, IV, orals, IVIG, etc, etc no better!!!
Posted by glm1111 (Member # 16556) on :
Mrs Scampi,
I think parasites can be a bigger problem in Lyme disease than originally thought. I had no idea it was a problem until I started taking antiparasitic herbs and salt/c.
I was shocked at what came pouring out of me. This was after 4 yrs of abx, incl yrs of IVIG did not get me well.
I would definitely consider antiparasitic tx with herbs, and salt/c. Google parasite symptoms and see if they fit your daughter.
Visit lymestrategies for more info on the salt/c protocol. Some people are doing antiparasitic pharma drugs. I would read up on parasites and pursue this angle for your daughter.
Gael
Posted by t9im (Member # 25489) on :
Hi Mominashburn:
Our daughers LLMD told me one time it is a minimun of 8 months to treat the babesia.
It was over 2 months b/4 we started to see any improvement, over a a year (probably 14 months)b/4 the babs symptoms were completely gone. This is subjective as some of the lyme symptoms may have been lyme or vice versa.