I would very much appreciate hearing from others about this, including:

(1) What strength, dosing and schedule are you using?

(2) What other meds and supplements are you taking with it, how much, and how often?

(3) How long have you been doing this?

(4) How long have you been sick, and what are your primary symptoms?

(5) How well is the protocol working for you?

(6) What advice would you give to someone about to begin using this med?

I did 2.4 units in 1.2 doses once a week for 9 months. I am now doing 2.4 units every other week - pulsing.

I also took Artemisinin, and continue to. I think the Art is very helpful and can tell when I am off of it for the one week periodic break that the manufacturer recommends.

Bicillin is a relatively low-dose, slow release med. So, the herxes are not the crushing type and the progress is initially slow.

You can expect to feel the first injections about 28 hours after. My reaction is a migraine type headach, followed by a fluish feeling for a couple of days. Then, I have a few good days. At first, I didn't have so many good days. But, on Bicillin, I have always been functional at some level.

Yoy need to be a bit patient with this med. And, you need to plan to be "laid up" for a day or two after your first few injections. At first I literally spent a couple of days on the couch 28 hours after each set of injections. So, I planned the shots around my work schedule. Basically, my weekends were crummy so I could function during the week.

Hope this helps.

I'm pretty sure I'll start IM Bicillin 6/20/05 at next LLMD visit, I'm glad to hear the herx is not crushing-I'm not good at herxing

Bicillin LA works great.
It helped me a great deal. The trick with Bicillin is to stick to it for a long time, many months to see real solid improvement. You may feel better sooner than that, but in the long term it really does a good job, especially when you combine it with other antibiotics like zithromax, biaxin, or ketek plus flagyl. I did many combinations of treatment while on Bicillin and had excellent results. I also learned how to do the shots myself at home. Once you have a nurse show you how to do injections, you can get the hang of it, and do the shots when you want to, or right before bed.

make sure when you pick up your Bicillin LA at the pharmacy that is has been kept cold, in the fridge, that is very important. Before you load the Bicillin syringe into the blue tubex injector, make sur eyou warm it up a bit in your hand for a few minutes, then inject slowly, over 30 seconds time.
It may be a little sore, and take a wee bit of getting used to, but it works excellent, and I think its 1000 times better than swallowing stomach ripping pills.

I was sick for 10 years before treatment, and Bicillin made me herx pretty hars, brain fog and increase in all symptoms, but after it cleared i was alot better. My doses ranged from one shot of 1.2 MU Bicillin LA 3 times a week, to 2.4 MU Bicillin LA (one shot in each hip) 2 times a week, to 1.2 MU Bicillin LA every other day.

If you have any questions, you may email me at [email protected]

------------------
Lyme Disease Help
http://www.wildcondor.com

To those who have offered to communicate privately, I will write to you as soon as I can.

Thank to all of you for responding, and I look forward to hearing from others as well.

Is the artimisinin(sp?) with the bicillin for babesia or another reason to take it together? I'm hoping to start bicillin in the near future also.

Don't know if the Pharmacist got my RX wrong? Or, if my doctor ordered the CR version.

Artemisinin is known to be useful for Babesia and Malaria... But just very recently it was noticed that it and a (almost any) penicillin type drug seem to work very well together against Lyme.

We are using them at a higher dose now to try and target deeper infection, but even low doses during the preceding month got us feeling good enough to go hiking in the Grand Canyon. We were using amoxicillin, but the serum levels were probably not that far from what the Bicillin gives as penicillin G.

WHat is it used for? I have a new LLMD -- thought I would be bringing this with me (previous dr. was waiting for my intestinal problems to clear a bit b4 starting the shots 1x/ week) Felt good that we got it through insurance -- now changing it out 6 weeks later will probably be a problem)

I only got 10 doses in the RX. Has anyone ever had this mixed up before?

You definitely want the L-A, as far as I know. When my LLNP recommended L-A, she made sure to tell me that I needed the L-A, not the CR.

It is very difficult to find, so the CR may have been substituted in error.