I have taken a 48 hr break from a 90 day stint of Flagyl 1.5-2g/doxy 4-600g combo. Feel a bit better but had been losing balance and strength.
Toxin had built up due to poor circulation and cold weather did me in. One salt bath set all the toxin in motion and I h-e-r-x-e-d. 2 days of cleanout and I feel ready to go again.
Switching to fasigyn this time.
Has taking a break worked for you?
quai
-------------------- "In spite of the ever increasing cost of living, it remains quite popular" S. Shackel Posts: 87 | From walla walla wa | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I herxed so bad from flagly in the first week (of cours i jumped right into 750 mgs), I thought I was going to crawl out of my skin
I could not even stand the feeling of my clothes on me or the rub beneath my feet or my cotton sheets....
I called the Doctor he said stop of a week see hoe you feel...i wanted to push through it but i stopped...I felt great within a day better then in so long....so i knew I had to go back on it...
second time around about 1 month now, no major herxes and my neuro symptoms seem to finally after 12 months of different treatments seem to be slowly making there way out..
I think its good to give the body a break somtimes...every couple of weeks a skip a night of rocephin also just to take a break...Jill
Posts: 83 | From Northern Illinois | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Here is a copy of a post from another topic today-sorry so long but good...
Here is excellent info about taking breaks and the slow Bb replication taken from the Jamsek Clinic website..they treat hundreds of lymies.
"Our treatment approach is designed for a Bb organism that is recognized as polymorphic and microaerophilic. Other important features of Bb biological traits are the capacity to exist in either an intracellular or extracellular state.
Finally, Bb has a tendency for latency and for slow replication a fact that has profound implications of the length of antibiotic therapy required for eradication.
The replication rate for Bb has been reported to be between 7 to 33 hours, depending on the environment used for culture and so forth. In contrast, Group A Streptococcus, for example, replicates every 20 to 30 minutes.
Current standards of treatment for streptococcal infections is 10 days, or around 500 reproductive cycles. Given these reproductive dynamics, and realizing this is indeed a crude but interesting analogy, treatment of Bb for 500 cycles could entail more than two years of therapy.
In summarizing all of these considerations, we have concluded that a treatment protocol employing long-term cyclic, pulse therapy with drugs effective against all forms of the organism might be effective, particularly if given in sequence with agents active against the cyst active form administered late in the cycle.
When oral therapy is employed, the idea of a ``drug holiday'' after pulsing seems attractive for several reasons.
First, it gives the patient some relief from daily antimicrobial therapy. Second, even though a typical holiday is scheduled for four weeks, most patients will relapse, or experience the recurrence of symptoms, within one or two weeks of therapeutic interruption.
This is particularly true in the early months of therapy, i.e. after only a couple of cycles. This pattern of relapsing provides useful clinical information for future treatment (see below).
Third, in theory, our treatment and the subsequent Bb ``die-off'', and then relapse off therapy is an approach that might stimulate immune recognition and activation, thereby improving immune surveillance/eradication of Bb.
This idea bears similarities to the auto-immunization theory that has received attention in HIV therapeutic strategies. That is, if one suppresses HIV with drug treatment, the CD8 cytotoxic/suppressor cell level wanes (these are lymphocytes responsible for activity against cellular pathogens, including HIV).
As treatment is withdrawn, the reappearance of the virus causes an augmented or boosted CD8 response that, if repeated cyclically, might build the response to the point that the pathogen could be controlled or eliminated by the immune system.
Our hope is that Bb specific immunity is retained in our patients regardless of severity or chronicity of the infection, and that interrupted therapy will be of some benefit.
Realistically though, this is a grossly oversimplified theory and a considerable amount of scientific work will be required to answer these questions. Regrettably, given the current medical and political circumstances for LD, meaningful clinical, epidemiological, and immunologic research are but a faint hope.
In the figurative sense, if there were a race to cure HIV and Bb (no judgmental view intended here), the HIV researchers would have a 20-year and a several billion-dollar head start, with the Bb folks falling further and further behind each year for the foreseeable future.
Perhaps the silver lining in all this is that all of the wonderful scientific information that has come from the HIV pandemic will benefit our understanding of many other diseases, including neuroborreliosis.
Obviously, our ultimate goal is Bb eradication, if possible, or at least a state of competent immune surveillance resulting in lasting relief from disease. As treatment progresses, return of symptoms off therapy becomes more delayed and symptoms tend to be milder.
On the occurrence of relapse in our cycle, the patient is given the option of resuming therapy at the first sign of relapse or they may simply wait until the four-week period is over.
Interestingly, during that first week or two on holiday, our patients invariably remark that they feel the best they have since becoming ill. Obviously, when a patient ceases to relapse on holiday, it is taken as a positive indication.
It is even more encouraging at that point if the patient fails to exhibit any sign of Herxheimer's reaction (see below) during the ensuing treatment cycle, suggesting that Bb die-off is clinically non-detectable.
In general, we have informed patients that therapy may extend for two or three years before they may reach an asymptomatic state."
>>>I think it makes sense that the immune system needs to take the reigns once and a while so that when the time comes it will be able to take over...
=====Not to mention cleanup of toxic debris that accumulates in higher bacteria loads and subsequent die off....
have a great day!!!!
quai
-------------------- "In spite of the ever increasing cost of living, it remains quite popular" S. Shackel Posts: 87 | From walla walla wa | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
My husband has developed a chronic nasal drip - back of his throat that is really annoying for him. His doctor is taking him off ceftin/flagyl for a week to see if it clears before starting him back with a med change to doxy.
Day 1 - he feels less "sore" than when on abxs
-------------------- When I feel blue . . . . . . its time to take another breath Posts: 296 | From East Coast | Registered: Aug 2005
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5dana8
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7935
posted
Hey Quaicheng
Taken me three years or so but I now do 4 days on and 11 off.
On my week off I really appreciate the break from herxing. I take extra detox measures,pound down more pro-biotics & garlic,crank up my supps and in general try to get more phyically active.
And my GI tract sure needs a break.
Because when I herx,I am down one with my bed and sofa.
It also helps to clear out my brain and when I do shake off the herx, I can gaudge my progress.
Take care
-------------------- 5dana8 Posts: 4432 | From some where over the rainbow | Registered: Sep 2005
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