Update: Stopping antibiotics temporarily but starting treatment for Babesia

Hello all!

I have only been on here sporadically recently, I know. In Jan/Feb I had some good progress, but towards mid-march I plateued a bit. My ND would have switched by antibiotics at the end of March, but I had huge stomach problems so we waited a month. Unfortunately, while my stomach has improved some, I have been fighting with relatively frequent flares and HORRIBLE fatigue the last month.

My ND thinks that now would be a good time to switch antibiotics, but she is still worried about my stomach. Ideally, she would get me on IV or IM antibiotics, but Canadian NDs can't do that yet, and I have no doctors willing to do so. So she wants me to stop all antibiotics to let my stomach recover. She will re-start me on different ones as soon as I feel like I start declining (she's not going to let me go down to rock-bottom like Dr B sometimes suggested because I can hardly keep my job as is).

She also thinks I have babesia. Actually, she has wondered about it off and on the past 5 years, but I've never had quite enough/definitive symptoms. But this fatigue is pretty classic babesia, and she thinks some recent changes in medication (an attempt on an anti-depressant that backfired) might have stirred it up.

So I am going to take wormwood to treat babesia, even though I am stopping all antibiotics.

I am definitely nervous, but I have been feeling so horrible and making NO progress that I am willing to try anything.

Unfortunately, my regular MD (who I payed to join a private clinic to see because he/the clinic claimed he treated Lyme disease) has been getting more and more hesitant and unhelpful. At the last appointment, he said that since I didn't seem to be getting worse, he didn't see why I should change anything. It has become obvious that he is no longer interested in trying to get me better, or even addressing my symptoms (his response to my fatigue was to shrug his shoulders and say "you have Lyme").

It is very frustrating to know that there is a treatment out there that my ND believes would be very effective for me and would avoid some of the bad side effects of oral medications, but I am unable to get it- even though it isn't even an experimental drug! But hopefully this new plan will help me start making progress again.

I hope you all are still pushing on as well!

I just saw dr Richard Horowitz from Hyde park on YouTube
Talking about aspects I never heard before on
Babesia.
If you google him on you tube and watch all his videos.
One he was talking about his research in Bejing
With babesia treatments and I think different types
Babesia.

Also, if anyone who reads this had babesia diagnosed a ways into their treatment, do you want to share your stories? When I was first diagnosed, my ND thought I might have babesia, but the LLMD I saw in the US didn't, and I wasn't treated for it. I didn't have (and still don't have) crazy night sweats. However, when I went off antibiotics early and got worse, and then started treatment again, I found my fatigue was much worse in relation to my other symptoms than it had been previously. Right now I do B12 shots, take supplements that help in ATP production and adrenal support and STILL end up spending my evenings and weekends in bed. I am kind of freaked out by how tired I am, but at the same time, I don't see why babesia would not come out and really affect me until 4.5 years in...

have you had a stool test?

so wormwood for babesia ? is that what artemesia is?

I thought I heard Horowitz saying on his you tube interview that
he was sroking wiht people in Bejing and that they have experience with
babesia in China.

I remember years abo taking wormwood and feeling so much better. this was befor I even knew lyme was causing all my problems.
Mayb that is why later on I tested neg for babesia at Ignex.

And also back then antidepressants always did make things worse.


Interesting.

The fatigue just takes you out of life. Can't make a plan. Never able to keep up with everyone else. And it alters your mood. Nothing is funny anymore.

Zeusy are you tired and taking abx ?
Or are you tired like from pain
Or have u been treated and never got
better.

Is it flu like tired or that encephalitis kind of tired

I'm too tired now from pain meds. But without them
I couldn't put my feet on floor or walk. Without
Looking twisted and hanging on to walls.

I take 1/2 mg of buprenorphine every. 24 hours
And it stores up in liver or kidneys.


It has this antidepressant effect too but makes me
Sleepy n tired.

I take choline coctail by twin labs. Check it out.
You will know instantly after drinking.

I'm typing on my iPhone with no glasses on so I hope u can
read this.
Also have you done heavy metal detox?
Or checked for this'll blood. It can be hard for
Heart to pump around.

Post Edited (bucci) : 5/2/2012 3:11:33 AM (GMT-6)

Hi bucci. Yes, I am on antibiotics. Antibiotics and a MILLION supplements that help with fatigue and I am still tired. My pain is significantly better than it was at Christmas, so the fatigue is not from pain. I was treated for 2 years, stopped before i was 100%, backslid for 6 months and now am back on antibiotics.

I don't know the difference between those two types of tired...It is a combination of just exhaustion 24/7 where I feel chronically sleep deprived and lacking energy, and a sudden huge increase in fatigue where I very suddenly get so tired I pretty much can't function at all.

I haven't done a heavy metal detox. I have no fillings, have lived in a North American country with uncontaminated water and food my whole life though.

Carrie- at times I have had acid reflux, but that is typically something that happens when I switch antibiotics (and can be really bad) but resolves. The tummy issues are big and confusing and inconsistent, but in general:
1) Very bad bloating, that is NOT from yeast (or at least mostly not from yeast)
2) A lot of feeling very sick and gross after I eat, often after a small meal and for a long time
3) On the other hand, sometimes the hunger signals are just totally gone, and I don't feel full either
4) Generalized aching and discomfirt and burning, especially in lower stomach
5) Abnormal stools (in every way imaginable. Very inconsistent)
6) I have looked at least 6 months pregnant for almost a year now.

My doctor thinks that IV would save me HUGELY on tummy troubles because the pills wouldn't have to go through my mouth and straight into my stomach. unfortunately, I can't get IV in Canada.