posted
I am six weeks on mepron and have seen major changes -- mostly the profound malaise and fatigue are gone, thinking is clearer, shaking chills gone except for the morning. Really dramatic improvements.
But I have noticed many say they relapse on Babs. So what happens?
It's hard to separate out some of the babs symptoms from the lyme.
-------------------- Jeff Posts: 533 | From CA | Registered: Mar 2006
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liz28
Unregistered
posted
This question seems to come up every day now on Lymenet, so you may be in luck--we may be entering a phase where everyone focuses their full attention on this problem, leading to fast results.
Unfortunately, it looks like there are many different species of babesia out there. Some of them closely resemble malaria, while others seem to be far tougher and hardier.
There does seem to be a symbiotic protective relationship between Lyme and babesia, which is a malaria characteristic. There are also some people whose babesia seems to have a dormant form, just like malaria does. If this theory has any truth to it, then the dormant form would protect the babesia from antibiotics. Dormant malaria can reactivate months or years after medical treatment is completed, starting the whole problem over again.
All our babesia drugs are really malaria drugs. Many of the drugs recommended as babesia "cures" are really preventatives, which people in tropical areas take to avoid contracting malaria, not to get rid of it. A lot of babesia drugs are also taken in different combinations than one would find within the malaria community.
Right now, we are all still learning the names of these drugs, never mind figuring out what they actually do.
Malaria has several tricks to build drug resistance, and many longterm babesia sufferers show signs of having a drug resistant disease.
Also, there's many babesia treatments whose history leads back into foggy obscurity, so it's difficult to figure out just where their reputation for being a cure actually came from.
It may be that relapsers are missing a key to their recovery, like a drug combination. Maybe we all develop resistance more quickly than we know, so that mepron loses its ability to cure us before we even know we are at risk.
It's also possible that either the best drugs don't exist yet, or we don't have enough experts on malaria available to us in this country to guide us. Until the arrival of Bill Gates, Bono and their ilk, nobody cared about malaria, that tacky Third World disease. Now that medical community is finally getting money for research, which would lead to the development of more targeted medicine.
Mepron users always take a macrolide to slow downt the development of resistance, and liver support to counteract this drug's harsh effects. Many also take an herbal supplement called artemisinin.
A relapse is a return of symptoms, usually even worse than before, when a person stops taking a drug. There are so many mepron users who experience this, it has become clear to everyone that we are missing something here. But we don't know yet what it is.
I'm feeling very much better on my current protocol, but I never tested positive for babesia microti, and was never tested for WA-1. This drug combination is your basic, no-frills treatment for relapsing malaria, and hopefully will get me off mepron after two years of constant relapse.
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Beverly
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 1271
posted
Hi Jeff,
I agree with you, I think it can be very difficult to figure out what symptom is from what disease.
The only way I could figure anything out was going through it. The symptoms that cleared up for me while on treatment for Babesia I attributed to Babesia.
Symptoms that got better for me were fatigue, clearer thinking, I feel more organized in my head( if that makes any sense), heat intolerance, (really didn't know I had this until it started to go away), anxiety, food issues,chills, fevers, my headaches have also gotten better and my chronic stiff neck is gone.
Hope this helps some.
Didn't see Liz's post there, but wanted to add that I can tell when babsia symptoms return. When I go off my meds, usually the anxeity is the first one.
I am also very glad you are seeing improvement, hang in there. Posts: 6638 | From Michigan | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
HI! I relapsed after 2/3 weeks of being off the Mepron/Zithro/Artemisin combo (which I had been on for months!) The symptoms came back stronger than they ever had before. My iron/ferritin levels were off and I was very anemic. My spleen became a little inflammed. I had severe chills after dinner time, constant low grade fevers, night sweats, sever fatigue and horrible air hunger. These symptoms were quite obvious. Once I got back on the drug combo things started to get a little better.
I am still struggling with the disease. My recent Igenex and even Quest tests show positive for it. I am on a stronger dose of Mepron but am worried that the Mepron is not doing the trick to erradicate the parasite!
Posts: 238 | From Bethlehem, PA | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
do any of you herx first before you feel better with babesia? and if you do how long did you herx? thanks radha
Posts: 392 | From New York | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
Well that's a scary answer, Liz, even though I appreciate the complexity involved and clearly how little we know ...
I'm taking biaxin ceftin and mepron. Man the mepron is harsh on GI. I've stopped for two days and have fwer GI problems. But today I had an anxiety attack and maybe its related.
I'm gonna see LLMD tomorrow. I wonder what she will say.
And no, I did not herx on mepron -- since babs is not a spirochete, there would be no toxic die off thus no herx. Unless there is truly a morethansymbiotic relationship between lyme and babs. My doc said often after a long period of abx treatment the babs comes out and shows its ugly head. That happeneed to me. I didn't have many of the babs symptoms until 8 months into abx tx.
-------------------- Jeff Posts: 533 | From CA | Registered: Mar 2006
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Dave6002
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9064
posted
quote: My doc said often after a long period of abx treatment the babs comes out and shows its ugly head. That happeneed to me. I didn't have many of the babs symptoms until 8 months into abx tx.
Seems this is a role.
My explanation for this is:
Bbs repress Babs.
Once Bbs have been weakened by abx, Babs will expand.
Posts: 1078 | From Fairland | Registered: Apr 2006
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janet thomas
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7122
posted
for me it meant the return of a special type of a babs headache
-------------------- I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice but only my personal experience and opinion. Posts: 2001 | From NJ | Registered: Mar 2005
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trails
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 1620
posted
What would ya'll say to someone who had NO babs symptoms until they started treating for it via Mepron/zith. Now whenever I take mepron/zith I get terrible babs symptoms:
low grade fevers chills sweating (but not at night particularly) dizziness, vertigo hot feeling face and cold cold hands confusion/ cotton in my head
I only get these occassionally when NOT on babs treatment. And I NEVER had them prior to beginning mepron/zith for my first time last year.
I thought that since these symptoms appeared during my babs treatment, that means I still have the infection, but you guys are talking about feeling BETTER after not much time on treatment.
posted
Liz, What is your current protocol for relapsing Babs?
I have been on Malarone for almost a year, but whenever I try to go off it, my symptoms return(though unlike others) only mildly. I never had strong symptoms, but did test positive for Babs.
When I relapse,I tend towards unsteadiness and feeling warm and then colder when I wake up in the middle of the night. I also notice some bruising.
I've been trying the intensive 3 days on, 1 month off Artemesinin, but have found that recently I've had to add a daily dose of Art to keep symptoms at bay.So, I guess the Malarone maybe losing it's effectiveness.
I recently had a massage and I think it stirred up the toxins and I had a low grade headache for days.
Posts: 175 | From ma. | Registered: Aug 2005
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