posted
Well folks -Just diagnosed w/babesia. I kinda new I'd be positive. No wonder my spleen is swollen! I'm about to take my 1st dose of ( generic) LARIUM mefloquine in combo W/ #ARTEMISININ & other parasite killing herbs.
I've been told treatment produces intense herx - as the bug is being killed- vomiting, ringing in the ears, crazy mood swings, dizziness and psychedelic hallucinations! (the psychedelic part might not be so bad, Lol;)
Who knows maybe I'll sail right thru, but if this is what it takes to get me well, I'm down! I'm prepping my body and brain w/ lots of prayer, meditation, detox baths & juice fast after I take the 1st dose. I'LL BE HAPPY TO HAVE THIS NASTY KILLED, BUT I HEAR THE PROCESS IS GRUELING LYMIES TELL ME YOUR EXPERIENCE W/ BABS, THE DRUGS AND THE HERX ?? PLEASE PRAY FOR ME TODAY & SEND ME HEALING ENERGY AND PEACEFUL VIBES !!!
-------------------- Hoping for Hope Lyme, Cfids, Hormone imbalance, hypo-thyroid, immune deficiency Posts: 44 | From North Hollywood | Registered: Jan 2014
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Sammi
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 110
posted
Hi Naomi. How is your Larium prescribed? When I took it, my doctor did not prescribe the loading dose. From what I understand, it is the loading dose that usually causes psych side effects.
I had no problems when I took it. I hope it helps you. Good luck!
Posts: 4681 | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
Naomi - Sorry to hear you have babesia - I've been treating it for 6 months now.... and the pain is still the same - Doc may put me on PICC Line..
I've taken coartem, malarone - quitting these and going to start mepron and valtrex, omnicef - stopped that, nystatin, minocycline, there might be others I can't remember.... ha ha.. and a lot of supplements !!!
I take burbur for herxing and it helps.
There is a lot of information on this website - everybody is very very informed and helpful.
Posts: 21 | From Maryland | Registered: Mar 2014
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posted
I have been putting off taking Larium for babesiosis for a couple of years, after I had a severe allergic reaction to mepron after 10 days of no problems. I do not have any of the classic babesia symptoms, but keep testing positive, and my LLMD has helped me get the lyme under control (still test positive for lyme as well) and says until I take care of the babesia, I won't get rid of the lyme.
It is the loading dose which most concerns me. I know if we thought too much about all the possible side effects of most of the abx, we'd hesitate to take anything. However the Larium has such sometimes permanent negative results reported, it has been really hard to commit.
Sammi, did Larium get rid of babesia for you? Most of the sometimes terrible abx I have been on over the years have made progress without causing permanent damage, so am not wary of all abx. Just kind of worried a bit more about what I have read about Larium.
As most, I went six yeras witout a diagnosis (even with bulls-eye-rash) and more years trying to get adequate treatment, so had a lot of the evil bugs to get rid of. As I am relatively OK much of the time, my biggest concern is making life worse with Larium.
Good luck Naomi Anna!
Posts: 287 | From Northern California, USA | Registered: Oct 2000
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GretaM
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 40917
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Naomi Anna-thanks for the chuckle re the psychadelic hallucinations.
Posts: 4358 | From British Columbia, Canada | Registered: Jun 2013
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Sorry you got the rash from the mepron. The same thing happened to hubby years ago after 10 days and he was only taking the med every other day.
Anyway, the next med he tried for babs was lariam. At that time he was with the Dr B. He did not do a loading dose as far as I remember, but this was early in his treatment about 3 years after he became ill.
He took 2 or 3 doses of the lariam, but stopped. He could not tolerate the psych side effects at that time. He also had elevated pancreatic enzymes which were probably caused by the die off while on that med.
He had a previous history of 3 psych admits before he had had any tickborne treatment or diagnosis, so he was still not in real good shape emotionally even though he had done 2 months of IV rocephin. The bart had only been treated with 3 months of levaquin which it took us years to find out was not nearly sufficient for that infection.
So next he moved on to low dose quinine and clindamycin. For him that was a miracle combo at the time, but it did not last. Hubby did the low dose protocol for 4 months for 3 years in a row and it was less effective each time.
We floundered for many years with not knowing which infections needed treatment. Tried alinia and Bactrim and daraprim and coartem along with many herbs for babs over the years, but with little success.
Eventually about 10 years into his illness someone finally tested for babesia duncani (WA-1). The titer was 1:2056 so we got really aggressive with babs treatment at that time.
By then we had gotten rid of the bart with aggressive treatment for 1 1/2 years and another 6 months of IV rocephin concurrent with 4 months of IV Zithromax for the lyme.
So for the next 14 months hubby treated babs. He started with IV clindamycin and quinine at IDSA doses, but combined that with malarone at high doses plus either doxy or mino. He did a total of 6 rounds - 4 for 10 days and 2 for 21 days with 10 day breaks from the quinine in between each round. This took about 4 months and at that point his titer was down to 1:512.
Then he switched to lariam with the malarone and doxy or mino.
This time he tolerated the lariam just fine. Actually took the loading dose and instead of taking the med weekly continued on what would be considered a loading dose every 5 days. We may have started with every 7 days, but he found he needed to take it every 5 days to keep symptoms under control.
For whatever reason, other than the first time on mepron and the first time on lariam hubby never really herxed on any babs treatment - just felt better.
During the 14 months of intensive babs treatment we switched docs 3 different times for various reasons. He tried pulsing the malarone 3 different times, but each time he would have increased nausea and vomiting, increased dizziness, and his Parkinsonian tremors started coming back
- the drastic worsening of symptoms happened within 2 or 3 days off malarone. So he took the malarone daily for 14 months. He could tell a difference between 4 pills daily versus 6 pills daily so for most of the time was at the higher dose.
After 10 months he still had a positive blood smear for babs so we added in more meds.
He switched tindamax to flagyl for 4 months and added ivermectin for the last 2 months to the lariam, malarone and either mino or doxy. We also did a month or two of the herb cryptolepis and also the other Buhner combo and also added in ECGC (green tea extract) and artemisinin as well.
After 14 months Steve felt the best he had in the 12 years since he first got sick.
But then he got 2 new tickbites.
My point is that there is no way to predict how you will react to the lariam or any other med. Just be aware of the potential side effects and don't ignore any severe herx reactions, especially any sudden increases in air hunger - especially if that is a new symptom for you.
Good luck Naomi-Anna. Sending positive thoughts your way.
Bea Seibert
Posts: 7306 | From Martinsville,VA,USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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Sammi
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 110
posted
quote:It is the loading dose which most concerns me. I know if we thought too much about all the possible side effects of most of the abx, we'd hesitate to take anything. However the Larium has such sometimes permanent negative results reported, it has been really hard to commit.
Sammi, did Larium get rid of babesia for you? [/QB]
Ann in CA, did your doctor say he/she will prescribe the loading dose? I suggest talking with your doctor about this.
I did not take the loading dose, and I had no side effects whatsoever. I was also very nervous about about taking it, but my doctor assured me that since he does not prescribe the loading dose none of his patients ever had problems. I have a stubborn case of Babs. I don't think Larium helped me much, but everyone is different.
Posts: 4681 | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
Thanks Bea, I have read some of your previous posts. You are a weath of treatment information! Your husband was fortunate to have had you as an advocate. So sorry he had to go through all that. There is just so much to keep track of!
Sammi, my LLMD wants me to do the loading dose, although he would probably go along with a lower dose, but says it is not as effective. He treats lots of people, but since my tick was one of the low 2% infected in our area, I figure I could be one of the "low" percent affected by that loading dose. I have waited so long my larium has just expired, so time to fish or cut bait I guess! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Posts: 287 | From Northern California, USA | Registered: Oct 2000
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