the biaxin/amoxy protocol is good as it will adress the lyme spirochete in two forms, intracellular and extracellular. its all dependent on dosing.

discuss the use of the drug "plaquenil" (hydro-chloroquine) with your ortho.

it has immunomodulating properties and is often used as an anti-inflammatory in autoimmune patients, specifically rheumatoid arthritis.

given the dangerous effects of cox-2 inhibitors these days this may be a good alternative for you.

plaquenil works synergistically with biaxin to attack the lyme in its intracelluar form (see paper below). but it is a very potent drug, so work up slowly to 400mg per day.

Med Sci Monit. 2003 Nov;9(11):PI136-42.
Related Articles, Links

�
"Macrolide therapy of chronic Lyme Disease"

Donta ST.

Boston University Medical Center, 650 Albany Street-8th Floor, Boston, MA 02118, U.S.A. [email protected]

BACKGROUND: Macrolide antibiotics are highly active in vitro against B.burgdorferi, but have limited efficacy in the treatment of patients with Lyme Disease. As macrolides are less active at a low pH, their poor clinical activity might be due to localization of borrelia to an acidic endosome, and their activity improved by alkalinization of that compartment with hydroxychloroquine.

MATERIAL/METHODS: 235 patients with a multi-symptom complex typical of chronic Lyme disease, ie fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, and neurocognitive dysfunction and with serologic reactivity against B.burgdorferi were treated with a macrolide antibiotic (eg clarithromycin) and hydroxychloroquine.

RESULTS: Eighty % of patients had self-reported improvement of 50% or more at the end of 3 months. After 2 months of treatment, 20% of patients felt markedly improved (75-100% of normal); after 3 months of treatment, 45% were markedly improved. Improvement frequently did not begin until after several weeks of therapy. There were no differences among the three macrolide antibiotics used. Patients who had been on hydroxychloroquine or macrolide antibiotic alone had experienced little or no improvement. Compared to patients ill for less than 3 years, the onset of improvement was slower, and the failure rate higher in patients who were ill for longer time periods.