plus you are only using a beta lactam drug, only extracelluar killing properties.

I haven't worsened, mind you. Just have leveled off, I believe, on what the Bicillin is going to do for me.

Zipzip: Please explain the thinking behind the extracellular thing. I would like to know what I'm talking about when I bring it up to my doc.

Any documentation would be great also, when you have the chance.

in contrast the macrolides (zithro, biaxin, ketek) work intracelluarly and on a different part of the cell.

this is important because the lyme spirochete can live both extracelluarly and intracelluarly.

it can also live in a cell wall deficeint or L-form. minocycline, tetracycline, etc is often used for this form.

lastly is the relatively newly discovered cyst form which can be "opened" up with azole abx (like metronidazole/flagyl or tinidazole), but not necessarily kill them. you still need the other abx to do the dirty work.

the last part is more hypothesis than 100% proven, whether cyst forms are killed by the flagyl type of abx or just expose them to the other abx.

Maddog & others, I was on the various oral abx for about a year and half. Then my body just wouldn't keep them down anymore. So we switched to the Bicillin inj. I've been about ten months on the inj. now.

Maddog, Is it possible to take enough garlic without, well, smelling like garlic?

I called my doc's office to make an appt. to discuss the options but they are closed until next week. But I do plan on going thru Dr. B's guidelines again so that my brain isn't running on empty when I see my doc.

So, you think I should continue with abx without a break? I feel like most of my symptoms now are from the abx. And I would think that stuff like the ear ringing, headaches, etc. are pretty permanent after effects of having Lyme so long. There is such as thing as too much abx. But it is so hard to know when to draw the line.