How long until Lyme relapse happens? (Average time)

So the more I learn about Lyme and the more I think about it... I'm beginning to really truly believe that there really is no cure. Except for cured twice protocol which is probably the only way to cure Lyme disease that I've found so far.

So my question is, how long do I have before it relapses? Is it a year, two years, 3 years? Or could it even be longer?

I read Dr.B once said if it doesn't come back in 3 years it never will. Dr. R says like 70-80% of his patients that had it for a year or more will relapse. Some people say that they relapse in 2 months, some in 2 weeks!

Well, it is very soon that I will have it for a year! I am now close to 9 months of my infection date, and I have 3 more months to cure it before it officially becomes chronic Lyme disease. OMG time is ticking, and certainly not on my side. Chronic Lyme Disease is just 3 months away! So I only have 1 month to become symptom free.

Also what can I take for supplements to prevent relapse? I see this as I need to make long term changes. I'm thinking I need to take curcumin, Japanese knotweed, monolaurin, mushroom immune booster herbs, and transfer factors. I probably need to purchase a rife machine too. Also I will need a far infrared sauna... And I can never drink beer again sadly. It also sucks because now I can't get married either or have a family. I guess I will have to settle with medical marijuana for my retirement.

Jeez November 23rd, 2014... My 1 year date. And the day my Lyme officially becomes Chronic Lyme Disease. Holy crap I'm scared.

Thanks Delmar... I'm not researching or worrying constantly, just every second moment. I work a full time job, and I am also a full time Lymie on top of that. I spend 40-60 hours working and a good 40-60 hours lyming. The rest of my time I am sleeping.

I know this is the thing... The results are all around different! Some people cure it, some people don't. Some people cure it and then it relapses. I just don't know which category I fit in. I think if I can get it into remission... I could then start focusing on my life again.

Does anyone know how Dr.B cured his Lyme disease? Or did he ever cure it? I heard he let it come back 3 times and pulsed antibiotics hard each time it came back. And then it never came back again for him. Is this true?

Hi Sk8n... According to ILADs and my LLMD, there is a magic time when Lyme becomes chronic. It is of your infection has gone 1 year or more before beginning treatment. That is classified as chronic Lyme disease.

Actually I know what you are saying, what is the difference of + or - 1 day. And yes I agree it could be chronic Lyme after just 1 month of infection! Mine went chronic after just 3 days! I think the reality is nobody can really know for sure.

Still it is important to run questions through other people even if you have a pretty good idea of the truth.

Anyone else have any time frames of when Lyme turns chronic? How long do we treat for after symptoms resolve, and how long on average to a relapse?

Post Edited (LymePickle) : 8/19/2014 10:35:00 PM (GMT-6)

Uh oh symptoms of Lyme mix ups! But my brain fog seems to be lifted...

I know more people with lyme than I can count and all of them are fine. On top of that I've heard so many stories. Most everyone is totally fine but some took years to get their health back. There is no clock.

I know it's hard to calm down because you just don't feel yourself anymore but I think you need to take a step back and breathe. Dont panic or stress. You are well ahead of the game at 90 ish percent and you can work full time. That is so huge.

You will get there.

See that's what I'm saying. I got to 90% for the past like 4 months and there is no further progress really, and the disease relapses right when I take a small break in antibiotics. It doesn't seem like there is a cure really. I still get Lyme like symptoms even on antibiotics.

LymePickle - have you considered doing the full Cowden protocol? I don't know why i didnt just start with it to begin with. It looks like the best treatment out there and i dont know why everyone doesnt just do it.

I def believe it is about getting the bacterial load low enough that the immune system will then activate and do its job. Unfortunately, also about *keeping the lifestyle changes we've already made to a point with healthy diet, stress management, etc to keep it at bay if some bacteria is left hiding.

It worries me though, as with myself, one of my first symptoms was sinus issues like crazy. I hear the biofilms like to set up shop there in the sinus cavities. On one of my first visits to the hospital in the beginning they did a ct scan of my sinus because I kept complaining of a 'fullness' and seemed like something was up there. It came back I had very small cyst in my left maxillary sinus. I still wonder about this....is it like a big cyst of spirochetes!?!! or something! :-/

I saw an ENT specialist at that time after the hospital visit who said my nose was slightly crooked (weird never noticed my whole life!) but he did not see any blockage...but it sure felt like it. I dont know if the cyst ever dissolved or not but they hospital said it would only give me probs if it got large enough.

Recently I spoke to a old, past member on here and she told me she had to have surgery for her deviated septum during her lyme treatment and that contributed to her re-gaining her health. She has been healthy for past few years!

Ultimately, we need to look at our bodies as a whole is what Im trying to do more than ever.

xx's-Courtney

Stacestar... I'm going to have to read that book cure unknown. Any idea what kind of antibiotic Dr. B used?

Also I think I remember reading somewhere that Dr.Klinghardt also had Lyme at one point in time. I wonder what he did?

Thanks for the good luck! But I don't mean to sound pessimistic but I don't believe I will ever get to 100%, I just don't believe it's possible. Even if I eradicate every last Lyme germ there is still going to be permanent damage done by the infections to my body. As well as damage from the abx, and possibly the candida. It's like if you get a deep cut, you get a scar. My LLMD said yes Lyme does have the potential to cause long lasting damage. So in some ways that PTLDS (post treatment Lyme disease syndrome) does have some truth to it, but I don't think it should be confused with lingering infection.

I think if you treat it right it does get rid of it. Obviously if it goes untreated for a long period of time it becomes more difficult to treat completely. But who knows, maybe if it ends up building biofilm colonies deep in tissues... Well how could we possibly eradicate those? We can't really. And biofilms in the brain? Lumbrokinase and serrapetase won't get there.

Orchid... Thanks for your point. I should get my sinuses checked out as well. I don't think I have an issue with them though. Well at least I hope not. Sinuses are like hollow areas of the body with fluid or no fluid? I can see how Lyme would like a place like that.

Louise... So you know more people with Lyme than you can count, but how many of them got better? Or how many claim they got better? And I mean like how many got to 100% wellness and are completely off antibiotics? Guess how many people I know! Lol, none! I'm the only one all alone. The person I got this from vanished from my life.

Traveller...I think the sooner treatment is started though the better your chances. I think we could agree on that? I know I think the "1
Year to chronic Lyme" is just speculation. My LLMD said himself if you start treatment 1 month to 1 year... He said some of those people we might cure, some might relapse. Oh and another thing, I hear with children, the cure rate is pretty close to 100% even if they don't get treatment until later. Adults have their bodies worn down with age and have detox issues, and heavy metals, more toxins etc. Children are new people and their bodies are even still growing.

Also the time frame isn't completely accurate. Adults are a mixed bag and I hear of stories of some adults getting rid of a few year infection... Others don't... So who knows...

Truth is we don't know. And truth is some people
Have been "cured", some people can't get there. We don't know where we fall in for sure.

Well thats good to hear your LLND comments regarding the bart eradication then. That one worries the crap outta me honestly. I just hope I can make it that long with the abx and the whole candida thing and other abx concerns. Its all a balancing act it seems (with the gut, immune system, meds, emotional stability, etc. etc.)....i-yiee-yiee...

.............positive thoughts, positive thoughts! ;-)

We have to dig so deep and find strength we never knew we had to prevail with this battle.

...."We cant lead a positive life with a negative mind".

Try not to focus on the time it will take to heal. Take one day at a time.

Please know and be prepared that....
*Unfortunately it will be slow recovery. Expecting to get rid of these infections quickly or recover quickly is totally unrealistic* ....a very wise one once advised..

xx's-Courtney

I just came back and saw your other post LymePickle.....and I agree, not trying to be a negative Nelly or pessimistic either but what you said about completely eradicating made me remember something my llmd said.....he said something to the effect like that abx cant kill 'every' germ, if they did...we would be dead because we need some of the bacteria in our gut to survive to have some immune system going.

..Just like hand sanitizer only kills 99.9% right....theres always that .01 unfortunately!

I remember reading the worst biofilms are actually dental. Regarding our sinus's LymePickle, Idk if there is an actual way to test for lyme spirochetes/or biofilms but say you get a ct scan like I did and they say you coincidentally have a cyst in there....that will freak me out and def suggest that the cyst may be lyme induced!

Regarding the "Chronic" lyme thing...I think it could be a year, 6 months, 1 month....any time depending on the person and their body chemistry, lifestyle choices, other illness or viruses they may already have...and of course how many co-infections come along with the lyme is the big one! It could dissiminate quickly considering the factors.

So whatever the time frame may be, say you got bit and started having neurological symptoms around 4 months later....that would be the 3rd/last stage and to me would be in the "Chronic" stage...regardless of the the actual time frame but just what symptoms are presenting and how fast they are presenting.

If I had to put a time frame on myself for the 3rd stage, I would say it took about a year and a half to 2 years. However I did get a little treatment in the beginning so I think that bought me some more time I suppose.

Lyme does NOT go by the books thats for sure :-/

Ya it explains it. In Lyme we probably can't get every last germ.

In the case of most infections, like for example many kinds of bacterial pneumonia, we take an antibiotic and that knocks out 95% of the infection, then our immune system cleans up the last few germs, but it can usually do this with ease. But in the case of pneumonia, the germ is localized to the lungs, so the immune system can easily move around in tissue like that. In the case of Lyme they drill really deep into tissues.

Lyme just gets too deep into tissues. Also there is another theory why not all germs die. All bacteria populations have a survival mechanism where a small percentage of them go metabolically inactive. The antibiotics only kills them when they go active again. So they kind of turn off. These germs are the persistors. Someone cured their Lyme by phlsing minocycline and tinidazole every second day which allowed the bugs to return to metabolic activity. When the ones that turned off thought it was safe to turn back on they got killed. Finally some of the last last last few germs, they learn that it is safer to not reproduce so they just don't replicate.

Lymepickle, I'm sorry. I understand and feel the same. My son is so sick and now he just demanded to take on a full honors load for 10th grade while glaring at me at the dr's office saying you don't have lyme. I am the one researching every waking minute for 4 months, trying to help him and worried sick I will lose him... and God willing he gets well, it will come back and ruin his life and I might not be there to care for him.

We are a family of 6 and it's just him and I going through this h--- together as everyone else is sick of it and "does not know what to do" - his dad yelling send him back to the psych ward.

I'm SO AFRAID

But.... there is this book and movie "The Secret" I watched it years ago and carry a gratitude stone in my pocket, and use it all day, every day... watch or read and you will understand. I also read the Science Behind the Secret and realized it was not all fluff... it's real... all about law of attraction, quantum physics, metaphysics, etc. That book I had to read each page like 15 times - very hard. BUT, it works.... I believe that with all my heart.

The psychic said my son will never be the same.... I pray not bitter and angry but willing to help others recover and pull through. I'd love his eagle project to be awareness for lyme. He won't join this site... still killing zombies...

By the way I was raised strict Catholic... so all this "out there stuff" my mom would kill me. But life beats me up over and over and over... my illness and surgery list is so long as well as job loss, house disaster, 6 nightmare pregnancies (lost 2 babies), .. and I dreamed of the Waltons - wow, should have stuck to single and working.

I don't know if it ever comes back, I pray there is a protocol or in 10-20 a pill like for mersa, cause I know, after this year... NO ONE will care for him. Lyme rage, insanity, destruction of everything in a wake.... it's caused us all to be on our last shredded nerve.

I'm praying for all of you too - life is just too hard... eileen