As far as your neuro symptoms you related ---
Flagyl does cross the blood brain barrier. It definitely affects the Central Nervous System & it only busts the cystic form of Lyme; doesn't kill the Lyme though.

It's just a thought, but it may actually be doing some good------I don't know.

Flagyl also kills off some types of fungus.
And of course, it is very hard on the liver. I don't know if that could also be contributing to your stomach problems, too.

Zithromax (a macrolide) only weakly crosses the blood brain barrier.

I've been lucky with Zithro & no diarrhea. But, Flagyl is extremely hard for me to take.

I hope your doctor treats you at least with a trial of 3-weeks of Mepron/Zith even if you get a negative test result. Many docs will treat Babesia without a positive test.

Babesia can be silent. About the 5th day of treatment you might have severe die-off. My crash was about 2 hours with shortness of breath, tremor, aching legs & just crashed on the bed.

Because you're from Texas I read all your posts.

My son attends UT & has started seeing your Dr./NP also. They didn't accept the positive Bowen Test so he's got to be tested with Western Blot.

I hope they give him 2 weeks of ABX prior to testing to elicit a positive test. That's the only way I got a positive western blot. So far, they said his immune markers were too good to treat him.

That was more than a little disconcerting, but we'll see. He returns next Friday.

It's true, nothing happens until you get that Western Blot done.

My LLMD is in Houston & he's not taking new patients.

Let me know if I can help. I hope others will visit this post soon.

Good luck at school.
Take Care,
Jan

Edited to correct facts given.

[This message has been edited by RECIPEGIRL (edited 15 August 2004).]

[This message has been edited by RECIPEGIRL (edited 15 August 2004).]

[This message has been edited by RECIPEGIRL (edited 17 August 2004).]

My LLMD, Dr. C of MO, has his patients stop all abx when herxing gets very hard. It's better to kill the bacteria without killing the patient. So, he recommends that you stop the Flagyl for a day or two and then start back and then things are always better.

I made the mistake and did not go off Flagyl and in doing so, I had to go off a complete month before restarting it. I lost a whole month, whereas, if I had gone off it for just a few days, I would've been much better off.

Here's a link that will give you a good idea of what you are dealing with.

http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/013109.html

Here's a sample of this post and link:

http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/013546.html

My LLMD doesn't believe from his experience
with 14 years of treating LD patients that
anyone should NOT do long-suffering with herxes and allows you to go off abx for the short
term, ie. one dose or one full day, to
control the Herxes.

He has found through his experiences that
his patients do and get much better without
such long herxes.

And, he states that severe long herxes actually has a backward effect on treating LD.

My LLMD in MO believes in taking a short break when you are herxing worse than you should be.

His explaination of this is when you body is
hurting so bad, it is fighting the herx and not the disease.

He states, and I quote from handout, "Experience has taught me to tell patients to go off antibiotics if there is any question about whether or not a Herx is occurring."

I hope that this helps you. Flagyl is one of the drugs that people really will have heavy herxes while on the drug.

Rosemary