Pulsing on & off?

I was supposed to be pulsing clarithro/flagyl/riamet.

My heart wigged out badly (again), and on my LLMDs instructions when he prescribed the pulsing, I stopped all meds.

He is away this week, but for when he comes back next week, am wondering, I have heard of people pulsing in the sense of 3 days on a med, then 3 days nothing, etc...

Does it work? As in, does it work enough against the Lyme, but also fend off horrible side effects?

Just thinking I might ask my LLMD about it, because if I can't take any meds, I can't get better of course...

Thanks!

I used to take clarithro all the time, no pulsing, with plaquenil. So unfortunately, the clarithro isn't new, and the pulsing clarithro/flagl/ riamet was a way to see if I could stand it.

I couldn't. I didn't get past the first part of the pulsing, which was the clarithro. The LLMD was clear that I should stop everything if my heart wigged. (he clearly suspected it might be too much when he prescribed the pulsing).

Tried the building slowly (more than once with difft meds) :( I keep bumping into heart-stuff that is too hard.

So that's why I am wondering if anyone takes abx for a few days and then literally nothing for a few, and how it works.

Yes, poor bodies...

Thanks Traveler, my LLMD does holistic as well. (I'm lucky, because I am already having to go to another country to find a doc who is an LLMD, it's really slim pickings around here, I'd have no hope at all of finding a holistic doc who would know the first thing about Lyme, I live in a country where it is not common, I was bitten on vacation in Sweden).

Thing is, I'm not sure when to give up on the abx, because clarithro is the only abx he has had me on (and other non-abx meds too), and I've only been seeing him since Oct 2011 (and was bitten Aug 2011), so I've not been doing this long.

I had heart issues on Fluconazole too, but that was skipping heartbeats, clarithro causes racing. I managed 6 weeks on the Fluco though.

I took clarithro mid Oct to end Dec, and gritted the heart stuff, like everyone suggests, till it led to screaming nightmares, hallucinations in my sleep... I mean, grit and grit, somewhere I need to be able to function and not sit in a business meeting with a pulse of 127 and having to excuse myself and go to the bathroom in the hopes of not passing out in public... I never feel better after any of these "herxes" either, I just feel sick for about a week, then back to where I started.

I'm also a bit concerned that just because the meds may be holistic, that they aren't necessarily always more gentle on the system? I correspond with one of his other patients, and she's on meso-silver and that sounds quite rough too. (not to mention hideously expensive, and not covered by health insurance at all...)

It just seems daunting, I just hear about taking meds at huge doses, making yourself herx as badly as you can. Somehow life has to be liveable in the meantime???

Is going super-hardcore really the only way? Whether it's abx or holistic? Even when I got to an LLMD only 10 weeks (as opposed to years) after the bite?

Don't mean to sound like I am whining or ungrateful. Advice welcome.

Thank you, I hope there's an approach that will work for me, because I feel so awfully discouraged right now.

Am glad to hear I am not the only who has to take a break from the abx. Everyone seems to brave it and push on through, and I just can't with the heart stuff.

Yes, detoxing, chlorocaps, drinking green water, drinking hot water with fresh ginger in it. LLMD told me not to do detox baths, because of the heart.

I tried them anyway, and found they did not make me feel any better. Not sure if it was the Epsom Salts or the Diflucan or the cold weather, but I got very itchy, all over.

I've remedied that by switching to showers and using simple cheap aqueous cream instead of soap.

I had an EKG, and my house doc listens to my heart whenever I go to her for the simple, paid-for-by-insurance, regular bloodtests to check liver & iron and stuff. (LLMD is very far away, house doc is fortunately being cooperative). I asked LLMD about a full heart-check-up and he doesn't think I need one.

I've considered going to a cardiologist for anyway, but I am so sick of doctors, having been to neurologists, gastro-enterologists, infectious disease doctor, gynocologist, etc... I don't know if I can face yet another doc, and yet another odd reaction when I a) tell them about Lyme b) getting "the lecture" when I have to reveal that I am going to an LLMD in another country...

I've been noodling on it (so sick of noodling, just wish I could take my pills and get better), and I can link the clarithro to the racing heart, that is better since I stopped taking it, but I still have some skipping, which I am suspecting more & more has to do with low ferritin levels.

Waiting for the LLMD to come back from his vacation. I know, what's a week here and there in the greater scheme of things, but for me it feels like another week lost of my life.

I'm getting rib vibrations again and more sessions of skipping heart, esp at night. I generally feel worse now than I did when I started treatment in October.

Ugh.

thanks for trying to help :) (wistful smile)