I'm in week six of the fullscale Lyme attack -- mino/zith/tinidiazole. It was HARD WORK to get up to the doses I am taking and it took me a couple months to get here. Because I was trying to cover all the bases in the beginning I was doing Buhner, most specifically for babesia. I had no idea if I had it but I'm a malarial girl - sweats along with these sort of trembling fits, blurry vision, head and neck vibrations, etc. So I figured I did.
Well because of the tinidazole I decided to give up tinctures because I didn't want the alcohol. The tini was making me feel awful enough -- if there was a chance the alcohol was going to make me feel worse I did not want to take it.
So keep in mind while I'm ramping up and on some kind of abx EVERY 12 hours...suddenly once I stopped Sida and Cryptolepis all that awful stuff came back. Drenching sweats starting at the top of my head, periodic trembling ( not Lyme trembling), blurry vision.
I was so desperate I nuked the CSA I had for 20 seconds to get the alcohol out, which I didn't think even worked.
One day later, sweats diminish.
I have got to handle babesia somehow even though I'm treating Lyme right now. It's dangerous and debilitating and it's responsible for a lot of my symptoms I think.
Does anyone know the safest, least toxic way to add on to the protocol above to swat it down? I was thinking about adding Bactrim and Art but I have no idea if I'd make it through that plus the other abx without ending up in an ambulance.
Posted by willbeatthis (Member # 31111) on :
Hi Jordana- I'm sorry your struggling so. When I was in a very bad place with babs I was put on mepron and then went down to malerone. My doctor prescribed what I needed based on symptoms. I can tell you I feel like cryptoplus has helped me of late- but your symptoms seem really pronounced. Can you call your doctor to see what they say. That is what I would recommend. Take care and hope you'll be feeling better soon!
Posted by Jordana (Member # 45305) on :
Thanks WBAT.
Yep, my symptoms are definitely pronounced. I still have them but CSA makes it so much better - that is one herbal that really helps.
I was getting really bummed about my slow progress here until I realized there was no way it could be Lyme at all.
Posted by ohioperson22 (Member # 47837) on :
Well, you're already on zithromax, so maybe you could see if LLMD is comfortable adding atovaquone for a week and see if you feel better. (atovaquone plus zithromax is a preferred babesia treatment all by itself).
EDIT: Also get full cardiac clearance for atovaquone, because it theoretically could interfere with cellular respiration in cardiomyocytes leading to heart failure. For this reason, some lymies with heart issues can't/don't/won't take atovaquone.
Another thing you could ask your LLMD about is looking into adding plaquenil (which boosts efficacy of intracellular antibioics for intracellular lyme), but also has some anti-protozoal activity. (per Dr. H).
Stacking bactrim on top of your other antibiotics wouldn't be good.
If any of the above are added, you should probably have an EKG done at your doctor's office per-therapy, and a few days later, as some of those drugs affect cardiac ion currents.
If your IGeneX babesia FISH was negative, maybe you could have your LLMD order a B microti antibody test, as well as B duncani (also known as WA-1) antibody test, along with a giemsa stain, with multi-vial babesia PCRs.
If all those are negative, it would call into question whether you actually have babesia. It is my understanding the FISH test from IGeneX picks up all babesia subspecies.
Posted by Jordana (Member # 45305) on :
Thanks OP.
Microti antibodies were negative three times but not through Igenex. That FISH really should have been positive though, since I was off ALL abx and herbs and symptomatic. Not a single strand of babesia rna was found in the same sample that gave me a positive Lyme IGG.
I'm so malarial I even ordered a malaria test from australia a while back.A "Bablo?"
Mepron worries me since I do have slight heart issues. All the quinine derivatives worry me a little for other reasons too.
Posted by WPinVA (Member # 33581) on :
It sounds like you were doing better on the tinctures than off, so perhaps go forward.
Another idea is art. That's the first anti-babesia med my LLMD put me on. It knocks it down, but it's not enough to get rid of it entirely. In other words, a good place to start.
In fact, I have started taking it again. I think I have a little babs left because night sweats had started to creep back in. They go away when I'm on a low dose of art. So I guess this is my maintenance.
Posted by MannaMe (Member # 33330) on :
My hubby felt better when he started rifing for babesia. He started rifing while waiting for his follow-up appointment after the Lyme testing.
He also used A-Bab from Byron White.
Posted by Jordana (Member # 45305) on :
I honestly felt I couldn't do without them even though I was really trying not to mix an azole with alcohol.
I think art is probably the safest next step.
I can't get to A-Bab or I might try it. Though I don't think any herbal is strong enough to really eradicate it.