I am so glad that you felt like I was able to help!!!
While I do most definitely remember emailing you - I don't remember what the details were!!
LOL! That's the funny thing about
me being a Mod and people "revealing" things to me - I don't even try to remember what the email was about
and if I'm asked a question about
something in it later, I have to track down that email!! LOL!
Well I'm probably not the best one here to be asking questions about
the abx and their doses - here goes! LOL!
According to Dr. Joseph Burrascano, in his paper "Advanced Topics in Lyme Disease":
on page 14 he states this:
"Erythromycins (and the advanced generation derivatives mentioned above)
have impressively low MBCs (I'm not sure exactly what this is) and they do concentrate in tissues and penetrate cells, so they theoretically should be ideal agents. So why is it that erythromycin ineffective, and why have initial clinical results with azithromycin (and to a lesser degree, clarithromycin) have been disappointing? It has been suggested that when Bb is within a cell, it is held within a vacuole and bathed in fluid of low pH, and this acidity may inactivate azithromycin and clarithromycin.
Therefore, they are administered concurrently with hydroxychloroquine or amantadine, which raise vacuolar pH, rendering these antibiotics more effective. It is not known whether this same technique will make erythromycin more effective antibiotic in LB. Another alternative is to administer azithromycin parenterally. Results are excellent, but expect to see abrupt Jarisch-Herxheimer reactions."
My understanding of what he is saying here is that Clarithromycin (claritromizine) has not been terribly effective for these infections due to the low acidity of the cell unless something like Plaquenil or Symmetrel is used which will raise the ph of the cell. But then again - I'm no doctor!!
As for the Rifampicin, Dr Kenneth Singleton says this in his book, "The Lyme Disease Solution":
" It is very effective against Bartonella/BLO. In particular, it is very useful for the neurological and psychiatric manifestations of Bartonella/BLO—severe anxiety and mood swings, panic, seizure-like episodes, memory loss, “spaciness,” confusion, disorientation episodes, and many other symptoms. Expect a herx-like reaction during the first week or so; then significant progress often occurs during the second or third week on rifampin.
It is best used in combination with certain other antibiotics. Frequently, those combinations include rifampin with doxycycline or rifampin with clarithromycin. The combination of rifampin with doxycycline is especially helpful when a patient with Bartonella/BLO is also infected with either Ehrlichia or Lyme.
The dosage of rifampin is 300 mg per day for the first week; increase to 600 mg once a day after the first week. It is advisable to use rifampin in the evening (not at bedtime) on an empty stomach, three hours or more after a meal. It may be used in the morning an hour before breakfast also.
Rifabutin is a medication in the same family as rifampin and is reportedly very effective against Bartonella also. Apparently, it can be combined effectively with azithromycin. I do not have enough experience with its use to recommend it at this time.
Precautions: Rifampin is usually very well tolerated. It will always turn a patient’s urine orange. It may cause headaches and sleepiness. Liver function and blood counts should be monitored at regular intervals while using rifampin. The greatest concern about
rifampin is the potential for interactions with other medications. Rifampin speeds the metabolism of certain medications, resulting in an increased breakdown of the other medications. Clinically, this drug-interaction issue often becomes a problem when certain pain medications are being used, and often a patient will require higher doses of pain medications while on rifampin."
**I made that passage bold so that it was easier to find. It does not appear that way in his book.
~Boy, this is going to be a long post!!
So before you set out to get tested for the co-infections, please remember that the testing for them is even worse for reliability than the Lyme disease tests are. It's actually much more reliable to go by your symptoms. Remember we do have symptom lists in the "New to Lyme?" thread. They are not comprehensive, but you will get the gist of what's what. Oh - there is a pretty comprehensive one here though:
www.lyme-symptoms.com/LymeCoinfectionChart.html Treatment protocols with abx, there aren't many that list dosages - other than Burrascano - although some do outline their strategy, like this one:
www.jemsekspecialty.com/lyme_detail.php?sid=12 I printed out Dr. Burrascano's paper (Advanced Topics in LD) and took it to my practitioner, even though she was completely Holistic in order for her to get a better understanding of what was going on. I also encouraged her to read as much as she could (we even discussed many things there) on Dr. James Scaller's site:
www.personalconsult.com/, as I believe he has a pretty good insight for those that are very ill with these infections.
Had I still been in treatment when I "discovered" Dr. Horowitz's opinions and suggestions though, I would have been heavily recommending those as well, as his thoughts line up the best with my understanding of not only what's going on inside of someone who has been ill for a long time with these things, but how to best rid the body of them. Here is a link to a search I did for Dr. Horowitz and it pulled up a lot of links that you can check out:
goo.gl/wsKsvo I do have a handful of contacts that I can share with you near where your family is!! So if you don't mind sending me another email, I'd be happy to share that info with you as well!!
To be honest about
having healed after all of these years - I've never known what "normal" felt like, but I feel soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much better - and I'll take that
any time!!! I'm not the only one in my family that is please and slightly amazed at how well I'm doing now!!
Thank you for your kind words!!!