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Originally posted by lynliz:
Hi Liz,I find you're real helpful! I need your advice: I've been on biaxin and flagyl 1000mg & 500mg daily for 9 months. Now 500mg flagy and 800mg ketek for a month. Wanted to start treating myself for bart. Heard rifampin is good: wanted to combine it with ketek: 600mg rifampin and 800mg ketek. My doc here prescribed it. is it too strong? Can I take flagyl and rif or should i take levaquin instead and at what dose? Liz could you email me either : [email protected]
or [email protected]
thanx soo uch
Lynn Liz

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Glad to be a guinea pig for the cause. But no one on Lymenet is in a position to tell you to self-medicate. All we can say is what seemed to work for us.

I have heard others had good results from biaxin, but it never did anything for me. A Lymenet person recently posted that when he mixed biaxin and artemisinin, he saw improvement, but you may want to read about his experiences first, until more people have experimented with this combination.

I find that there are two antibiotics I can't tolerate, not because they aren't helpful, but because... well, that's the way the ball bounces, is probably the best explanation. These two are minocycline and levaquin.

Levaquin did an excellent job, though, of reducing bart symptoms. Unfortunately, it was so strong that I could not take it along with any Lyme abx except doxy, which is too weak for my version of Lyme. It's definitely worth a try. But it's not one to self-medicate with, it requires a decent doctor.

I found rifampin to be an excellent bart drug, but have never taken it in the combinations that other people on the board have worked with. I have to finish the babesia protocol before going after the bart full force.

Since I'm not a doctor, all I can tell you is what I've heard real doctors are doing, and at least three East Coast LLMDs said they use zithromax and rifampin together. Although they never mentioned it, they probably threw doxy in there as well.

Ketek hasn't been around very long, so there's not much information about it. But you can try calling these doctors and asking what they think.

The standard rifampin dose is 600mg per day. What I have heard is that it is strong at that dose. I don't remember where you live or what your financial situation is, but if you can make it to NJ, you might want to check in with a Dr. E. I've never visited him, but hear he is a bartonella specialist.