Anybody here that's had a successful treatment using IDSA's guidelines?

No offense taken here.  I too kept an open mind and doubted much of the initial information I found online.  Much to my shagrin, and to my harsh detriment, I suffered the harsh reality of being denied proper treatment because of the IDSA guidelines and thus am living the chronic lyme life. 

I saw a very nice ID dr. and had faith in him to a certain point.  He is well known in his field and came highly recommended.  However, after hitting a brick wall in treatment and his continued insistence that I be tested for syphllis, I finally came to the conclusion that he quite frankly, knew diddlysquat about lyme. 

I'm not sure you will find anyone with late lyme who is successfully treated by IDSA's protocols because I don't think they go hand in hand.  I do however feel it is possible to get well with late stage lyme, just not with minimal short term treatment.  Because of the IDSA's shabby protocol, many insurance companies do not approve IV even for late stage lyme with neurological symptoms which is supposedly IDSA protocol. 

Being a late stage lyme patient and the spouse of a late stage lyme patient, I no longer have confidence in medical research or protocol as we have repeatedly been shunned by the medical community despite symptoms and positive testing.  SO the 2010 "decision" is just more bureaucratic bs to me. 

Always good to research & ask questions. I did a lot of research before I agreed to go on long-term antibiotics. It can seem like a bizarre world and not one that most if not all of us on this forum wanted to be a part of. The Lyme gives you no choice. I found that the ILAIDS guidelines are based on quite a lot of research. I would check out the monkey trials for example. Also Healing Lyme by Stephen Harrod Buhner gave the best, thorough scientific description of Borrelia Burgdorferi which helped me to understand what a formidable foe it really is when it gets a foothold in the body. Remember everyone's experience is different. It depends on the strength of the host's immune system (you) and the strain of Bb you contract and whether you have any coinfections as well.

Also remember that this is a one step at a time thing. If you go on antibiotics - notice how they work for you. If you choose to do shorter-term, notice what happens then. ILAIDS would recommend having 6 weeks symptom free before discontinuing to prevent relapse. There is also the CD57 test that you can do that will give you a sense of where your immune system is relative to Lyme.

My personal caution is that I got the IDSA treatment. Got the classic ER rash & a short course of antibiotics about 3 weeks after initial bite. That Tx failed. They don't tell you that it is possible to fail. I then got progressively ill over several months and have now been doing Tx since January with an unknown prognosis at this time (my goal is to kick this thing but having to do a lot to try and strengthen my immune system). I sure would have preferred more rigorous Tx right out of the gate with a likely cure to what I have been through the past 7 months.

Best of luck with your research & decision. I hope you have a quick and full recovery.

If you're up to it - use google scholar or something and look through the science. I've personally never seen anything that would "prove" that a short course of antibiotics is enough, which is what ILADS promotes. To me it raises a red flag when a doctor says definitively "there is no such thing as..." when obviously, no one can know those things for certain. My biggest problem with IDSA (besides the fact that they're the reason I've been denied treatment) is that they act as if they KNOW there's no chronic lyme, and then they go and tell patients who assume their doctors must always be right these "facts" that are actually still completely undetermined.

It used to be that you just go to the doctor, do what they say, and hope to feel better, but that's no longer the case. Now, just like the medical community, we have to get active ourselves and do our research and decide what we think is true.

I've bounced back and forth over the years with what I believe - currently my personal opinion (based on what happens when I discontinue anti-infective treatment) is that there is an ongoing infection, but there is also this post-lyme condition AS WELL - just like any long-term condition, there will be residual effects, and with antibotic treatment, those aren't addressed. So it's a two-part disease, and it's difficult to tell when someone still has an active infection or not. There are different tests now though besides the western blot which may indicate active infection, though I haven't had them done.