I mentioned this to my doctor this past Thursday, and he prescribed Tindamax instead. It absorbs slower, so it has fewer negative side effects. The jury is still out on its effectiveness. If I don't feel better, I'm going to request Flagyl again. At least that felt like it was doing something, even though it made me feel horrible as if all of my symptoms were magnified. I suspect prolonged use would help.

My husband is on Vantin (2xday) and Flagyl (3xday). We have the same LLMD as you do. (actually it's not Flagyl but Metronidazole which is the generic)

He is doing great on this combo and has been completely symptom-free for 3 months. He is going to go off all meds at the next visit. (cross fingers!)

He began taking this combo 5 months ago when he had felt about 90% better. The first month he had some herxing during the end of the first week and also at about the 1 month mark. Nothing horrible, but pretty tired during those times. I believe he herxed the next month once for 3 or 4 days and hasn't noticed anything since. He works 60+ week and runs 6 minute miles each day. He used to be asleep on the couch by 7 each night and had some neuro symptoms when he was diagnosed 1 year ago. Obviously, he didn't have a tremendous amount of spirochetes in cyct form when he began daily flagyl. I think this drug would be more difficult to take if you were currently pretty sick and had lots in cyct form. How would you know how much is in cyct form? Who knows... But for my hubby it was extremely tolerable.

I am on the same combo. But I was switched from the Vantin to the Biaxin XL 2 months ago because I had been on the Vantin for 5 months before adding Flagyl, and he wanted to try something else to do the "killing". (Vantin was an excellent drug for me, too. Much much improvement on it.)

I too have been feeling 100% for more than 3 months and am ready to try to go off all abx. I've been a little reluctant to yet because my symptoms were so severe, unlike my husband's whose were mild by comparison.

Anyhow, we both did great on Flagyl which was added in near the end of our treatments. All of our bloodwork has been completely normal each time (liver included).

You could ask if you could try it for a week and see what happens and then take a break if it's rough, if LLMD agrees. Then go back on after company goes. This is just a suggestion; check with the good doc first. But I make this suggestion knowing that many LLMDs will "pulse" Flagyl anyhow. Also, another suggestion: maybe get doc's permission to try it at half dose for the first month (ramp up). That's what we both did.

Sorry for long-winded response. Good luck

I take Flagyl with the rest of my orals for 1 week out of the month.

Thank God!!! I keep telling myself, it's just one week!!

Flagyl for me is pretty tough to take. I get diarrhea and some tendon problems. Also my neuro problems seem to worsen along with anger escalation.

I took it for C-Diff. It did stop the diarrhea. So, in that sense it was good.

I know that some swear by it and it is often used as the "clean-up" abx to get what's left after a long, successful run with other abx.

All I can say is try it and see how you feel. I would recommend starting on 1/4 of the dose and work up to the full dose over a few days. But, ofcourse, discuss this with your MD.

It gave me stomach problems at first, though annoying, it was tolerable.

I herxed pretty steadily at first. In fact had my longest herxes on this combo. Plan to stay on these meds for 6 months.

Everyone is different, always listen to your body. I think herxing is beneficial as long as it's not "too much". Only you can be the judge. Also, pay attention to side effects, allergies, interactions with other drugs or just general intolerance to meds before continuing and read, read, read. Keeping a journal helps a lot too.

I did 17 months of other abx combos before doing the flagyl/zithromax. My guess is that it would've been very difficult to impossible to do this combo with a high spirochete load.

I'm thrilled with my progress. This combo is clearing up a lot of symptoms for me.

Best wishes.

The ones that bothered me the most were levaquin popped three tendons,

doxy yuk need plenty of water with that one stomach ewww,

biaxin ringing ears,

ceftin yeast in mouth use lots of acidophilis with that one no no no sgar at all,

The rest and theres alot didnt really bother me.

But, the Flagyl - for me - was to intolerable that I just could not continue with it. I did about 5 days then stopped as it was so bad. Then after a 3 day break, I restarted, but second time was just as bad. I tried to be brave, but it was too much.

It could have been because I had not been on any abx previously to lower Lyme germ-load. So, it's possible that if I take it down the line, I would not have the same horrible herx.