posted
Was wondering what peoples thoughts were about IV anti-biotics? If it was available for someone with Lyme is it a better treatment?
Lesley
Posts: 120 | From NB Canada | Registered: Jan 2006
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CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 7136
posted
IV antibiotics are indicated for tertiary Lyme disease that is not repsonsive to orals or IM or for severe neurological Lyme.
IV has risks, the main one being death from an infected line!!!
IV can heal what nothiing else can heal!!! I was on orals for one year without any real response. I just kept getting worse and worse and wrose!!! But then I was put on IV Rocpehin and ta da, I got worse and worse and WORSE! For 6 months! And had my doctor given up, or me, I believe I would have been dead today, but we kept on and in month 7 I became responsive and got better and better and better!!!
Just last weekend I got to have IV save me again but not for anything LYme-related- but Rocephin was like seeing an old friend. It really was.
IV has INCREDIBLE penetration because it is coming from the bloodstream. If it is a central line is had even BETTER penetration. My doctor told me to turn the wtaer faucet on light and run my hand under it- and said, "That is your veins." and then said to turn it on full blast and, "That is your heart." It will pump the antibiotics through your body for you with IV.
IV actually saved my life a few times. Not just Lyme. While traveling in India with chornic Lyme I had severe gastroenteritis and they put me on IV flagyl & IV cipro and I was Lyme symptom-free at that time for the first time. My remaining flare/awareness was 100% gone. So for me, IV works for Lyme great even when not intended to!!!
But people do die.
To me, my life so horrible, my quality of life was nil. So the risk of death was entirely worth it. Would I chose to go on IV now for Lyme>? Heck no!
Not unless I was at deaths door again!!!
I would go IM first- and you CAN get IM Rocephin! It does exist!!! But IM Bicillin does too.
But orals are the best first try, then IM... and then only if the person is REALLY REALLY ill, IV.
Not everyone is. Really really ill... Some are just miserably ill!! Either way= no fun! My judgment on that locally when I meet new Lymies is if they can walk normally- generally if people need a cane and are swaying, I think, "Gee, Rocephin might be a good idea!"
Take care, Best wishes, Sarah
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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