I'm pretty new to this. I got bit a couple of weeks ago. Caught it early. The doc put me on 3 weeks of Doxy (2 100mg a day). I'm now into the 2nd week. Question: At the end of the 3rd week, how would I know if I knocked it out? Any signs to look for? Should I rest assured that since I caught it early it's done?
2nd question: Is it OK to exercise during this stage? (running/tennis)
Thanks in advance. Just trying to get my bearings a little bit.
Cheers, Mark
Posts: 7 | From New York City | Registered: Jul 2008
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sixgoofykids
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 11141
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You are on too low a dose of doxy. Please see the Dr. B treatment guidelines on www.ilads.org. For a new bite he says 400 mg doxy for six weeks (or four weeks past the last symptom).
If you feel good, exercise. If your stamina is low, let your body use the energy for healing.
You are on the dose that the IDSA has in their flawed guidelines. They were just under investigation for anti-trust violations and have to rewrite those guidelines.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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Wow geez thanks! Yikes. Do you think any damage done? What a maze right?
Posts: 7 | From New York City | Registered: Jul 2008
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sixgoofykids
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
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You caught it early, that is what is important. I'd get on that higher dose of doxy asap.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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Michelle M
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7200
posted
You should be seeing an LLMD who will check with a GOOD lab for coinfections, which you are as likely as not to have picked up along with your bite.
Doxy will not touch them.
Your regular doc will not think of them.
These include (but are not limited to) babesia and bartonella. Doxy will take care of erlichia.
I would post under "Seeking a Doctor" were I you!
Good luck!!
Michelle
Posts: 3193 | From Northern California | Registered: Apr 2005
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Thanks!! I'm in New York City. Not too much deer there but I caught it at my house in upstate New York...Columbia County - tick central. Man oh man what a life, huh?
Posts: 7 | From New York City | Registered: Jul 2008
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You caught it early which is great - you stand a very good chance of getting rid of the lyme asap. A higher dose for longer would be good. But your regular doctor will likely give you a hard time about that, but you should try. Ask for 300 or 400 mg/day of Doxy for like 6 weeks.
Coinfections is always a possibility but you really can't test for stuff while on antibiotics. So that's an issue you should discuss with your doctor.
Did you ever have symptoms or are you just treating becuase of a tick bite?
In the future, if you get a tick bite, save the tick and have it tested by IGeneX - they're very accurate in finding lyme in ticks; saves you a lot of worry.
My LLMD first tests through regular labs like Quest for all the co-infections since testing with IGeneX / Fry is expensive. If anything shows up with Quest OR the patient is not improving on abx, etc, then he starts testing with the better labs. So if you have decent insurance, get tested for co-infections at a covered lab first, then see what happens. My two pennies from someone who is fighting lyme but trying not to go broke doing it.
I have a good LLMD in Bridgeport, CT if you're interested. Not that far from NYC by train. PM me if you need the name. He's very reasonably priced.
~webmeg
Posts: 257 | From Connecticut | Registered: Oct 2007
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Oh, and exercise is great!!! Lyme doesn't like it when you do aerobic activities like tennis and more bacteria die off. So exercise as much as you can!!!
Posts: 257 | From Connecticut | Registered: Oct 2007
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posted
Many people will get better under your circumstances with 3 weeks of doxy/200mg per day. There are many, however, where that treatment protocol will NOT be sufficient. You can either try to be aggressive now and treat with higher doses/longer period OR wait and see what your body does.
If you decide to 'wait and see' just be aware that it can come back years later and with very odd symptoms. Just never assume that you've sufficiently treated the lyme.
The statistics are in your favor that you will not have any future issues with this disease...
Kristin
Posts: 561 | From mass | Registered: Jul 2007
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Thanks!!!! Yeah it was weird. I started to have the symptoms a few days after being in tick central station upstate - a really high fever, chills, large lymph glands, stiff neck and shoulders...then the rash started a few days later a few inches away from the huge lymph. I told the doc what I thought it was and he said "yup, I think you're right" The Doxy made things feel better literally overnight. Scary stuff, right? Yeah I didn't really see the tick. He came, had lunch and left. I would have saved him and got him (or her) tested.
Thanks for all your responses!
Mark
Posts: 7 | From New York City | Registered: Jul 2008
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
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Co-infections (other tick-borne infections or TBD - tick-borne disease) are not discussed here do to space limits. Still, any LLMD you would see would know how to assess/treat if others are present.
CONTROVERSY CONTINUES TO FUEL THE "LYME WAR" By Virginia Savely, RN, FNP-C
*****
As two medical societies battle over its diagnosis and treatment, Lyme disease remains a frequently missed illness. Here is how to spot and treat it.
Excerpts:
" . . .To treat Lyme disease for a comparable number of life cycles, treatment would need to last 30 weeks. . . ."
`` . . .Patients with Lyme disease almost always have negative results on standard blood screening tests and have no remarkable findings on physical exam, so they are frequently referred to mental-health professionals for evaluation.
"...If all cases were detected and treated in the early stages of Lyme disease, the debate over the diagnosis and treatment of late-stage disease would not be an issue, and devastating rheumatologic, neurologic, and cardiac complications could be avoided..."
. . . * Clinicians do not realize that the CDC has gone on record as saying the commercial Lyme tests are designed for epidemiologic rather than diagnostic purposes, and a diagnosis should be based on clinical presentation rather than serologic results.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal today announced that his antitrust investigation has uncovered serious flaws in the Infectious Diseases Society of America's (IDSA) process for writing its 2006 Lyme disease guidelines and the IDSA has agreed to reassess them with the assistance of an outside arbiter.
The International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) provides a forum for health science professionals to share their wealth of knowledge . . . .
=======================================
You should also be evaluated for coinfections. Not all tests are great in that regard, either, but a good LLMD can evaluate you and then guide you in testing. One of the top labs is:
Confronting Lyme Disease: What Patient Stories Teach Us (IPPY Award Winner - Health/Medicine/Nutrition) (Paperback) by Karen P. Yerges (Author), Rita L. Stanley (Author)
-----------------------
TREATMENT ORIENTED BOOKS:
This book, by an ILADS member LLMD, might hold many answers and suggestions for you:
This excellent article explains a lot about what chronic neuroborreliosis (lyme that has infected the brain) can do and that why it's best to avoid inadequate treatment.
May 2008 Volume 39 Number 5 LABMEDICINE www.labmedicine.com - American Society for Clinical Pathology
CHRONIC BACTERIAL AND VIRAL INFECTIONS IN NEURODEGENERATIVE AND NEUROBEHAVIORAL DISEASES
- by Garth Nicolson, Ph.D.
===================== =====================
Apologies for bombarding you with so much stuff. However, your doctor should have given you more information at your first appointment.
You are very lucky to have addressed this early and some do go on to be just fine. Many others, however, had had different experiences and all of here, I'm sure, do not want you to worry but also don't want you back here in a year or two wondering "what if . . . ."
My biggest concern is that I did not see that you took anything to address the cyst form of lyme. Mono treatment went out ages ago.
Still, if you do (as we hope) sail right on through this, you might want to bookmark some of the links in case a friend or family member every needs this (but we hope not).
All you see here is not to frighten or bog you down but, rather, to help prevent lyme progression. Knowledge is necessary for that.
And, after all this, you might also want to look at a thread about a treatment in Germany that in non-pharmaceutical. I go a bit nuts trying to include everything one might want to consider. But I'm out of steam.
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The
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