Treat Bartonella or Babesia first?

I don't know Dr. S's opinion, but I personally think that it's best to treat babesia first. I had started initially treating babesia and then had to stop. I made NO progress in the year that followed with Lyme or co-infection symptoms and I was on Rifampin and other meds (although not fluoroquinolones) for bart during that time.

Now I'm pulsing artemisinin. I don't think anything's improving quickly, but at least it isn't getting any worse. That's very significant for me. Off meds I was rapidly progressing (lost the feeling in my hands, extreme fatigue, dizziness, blurry vision, heart palps, severe weight loss) all in a matter of months so anything that slows it down is "working" in my opinion.

Anyone using cryptoleptisis in additional to other herbs for this one?

My doc started treating lyme (cdc pos) and mycoplasma pnu (positive current inf) first. Bart and babs were strongly suspected (not positive on blood test but those tests faultier than lyme). I think he wanted to chip at other stuff first so was on doxy/ceftin plus samento and supplements etc.

This all got me some relief (started late summer) with some incredibly functioning segments (occasionally several hrs in one day) mixed in with major herxing.

In January I began having daily Babesia symptoms--some that I had never experienced in my 14 years of undiagnosed Lyme but most familiar. Difference was the severity and was daily and my functioning way down.

I started mepron and after about a month the severity off the charts, esp. Headaches with icicles stabbing temples and behind eyes. Odd whole-body chills (at least those dont hurt:). I eased up on mepron amount and ceftin and stopped doxy and started azithromax. I am now doing a little better each day and have been on full mepron and more detox efforts.

When it was at worst those few weeks, I would start out ok in morning but usually around 10am, a fog started rolling in (my boyfriend could see it happen without me saying anything): the head pain slowly creeping, confusion, woozey sense of balance, scary memory issues, no sitting (had to lie down), total feeling in head and weakness/pain as if have bad case of flu. As head got worse I noticed both hands got the "glove" arthritisy pain/stiff/electrical feel and knees and other joints sometimes. Jaw also and throat glands sore. This awful episode usually lasted until late afternoon. I only take a pain pill as last resort and was taking 2-3 a day. This saved me when had to leave house if my daughters needed driven to girl scouts or piano etc. but any driving or having to go to a store was dreaded, plus the nerves and jumpiness and sensory overload.

I googled all of this and read a lot of anecdotal experiences like mine. Those who stuck with it were glad because after the hump, there was a big difference. A couple different lyme docs wrote how their female patients who have lyme plus 2-3 coinfections tend to eventually "tank" on doxy. Zith has been better and Doc was going to use with mepron anyway. We will reintroduce doxy in the fall.

I can see why some people (those like me who have major reactions to babesia treatment) decide to jump ship. My worst period was at a good time regarding my girls and no sports at the time. Now that's starting up. Omg. I sure hope I'm done with the worst. I try to do this one day at a time but it's tough.

Oh-so in my case, I'm glad the babesia wasnt treated right away but mostly because of the timing and wonder if it would have been even worse if had not first made some other progress. I would also keep in mind that there could be some unusually tough days (but hopefully experiences like mine are not the norm).

Ecotick-I don't think my llmd strongly suspected babesia for me at first, either. I had forgotten to mention some symptoms to him that were babesia-specific.

Plus-the usual lists of babs symptoms you often see don't cover everything (like the Lyme Disease bullseye rash I never got) so I didn't think I had it at first.

I will ask about adding the herbal for babesia but am afraid it might send me over the edge. My incredible fatigue has not been helped so maybe I am resistent. I have to take time release adderall (ritalyn) first thing every morning since summer when my lyme went into Jenga mode and world came tumbling down. I have tried not taking it but cannot move. Crushing fatigue and feeling like cant move are the babesia type. What suddenly kicked it into 10th gear after all those years, I dont know.

Some recommend treating Bart first because the meds for Babs can somehow render Bart treatments less effective, or something like that..

Don't think this applies though if one uses herbal protocols for Babs & Bart.