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How do you know when to stop abx?

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Posted 3/24/2015 4:13 PM (GMT 0)
Background on me - I have been on Doxy/Bactrim for 7 months and have had 3 rounds of Tindamax since October. I also have a PICC line and get rocephine 2g daily going on 7 months.

For the past few months I have been feeling great. I started a round of Tindamax in February and some weird stuff started happening. I never felt awful, energy was always good, but I started to get the tingly sensation. I have more energy then ever and have been feeling great. However, I have started to get a tingly (ants crawling) sensation on the base of my left side of neck and my left ear has a tingling sensation. My symptoms are usually on the left side.

Here is my dilemma: A piece of me just wants to be done with this already - I feel like my gut is going to be so damaged from all the abx i take - I just want to continue with my acupuncture and maybe go the holistic route now. I know abx have helped me so much. But I still have those strange sensations. Is it active lyme, herx or what? Are those sensations going to be with me forever? I can live with them, but I don't want to stop treatment if I do have lyme and Co. still active and strong? I have an appointment with my LLMD next week so I will give him an update all on this, but just wanted to get opinions from the group.
Posted 3/24/2015 5:00 PM (GMT 0)
Many, many people on abx "finish up" on a holistic treatment for a few months and do really good. If you believe you are ready for it, it would be much better than just stopping the abx.

Do you have a protocol picked out yet? Do you think your LLMD will be open to it?
Posted 3/24/2015 5:16 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for the info, Traveler. I do not have a protocol picked out. I need to do some research.

Any suggestions? which protocol did you follow?

Not sure if my LLMD would be open to it. He is an ABX guy, but he never discourages me from the teas I drink from my acupuncturist. He is honest and just says he really doesn't know enough about alternative medicine.

what I am thinking of doing is slowly going off the ABX and adding in a protocol. I have Buehners book, but there seems to be a lot of tinctures and stuff. Is there one that is pretty straightforward and simple?
Posted 3/24/2015 5:21 PM (GMT 0)
Actually, depending on what infections you are looking at treating, Buhner's is likely the most straight forward one. If you look at his website (buhnerhealinglyme.com/), it only take 3 herbs to treat Lyme: Japanese knotweed root, Cat's claw, and Eleuthero.

The other tinctures are for treating the "complications" like clogged lymph nodes or whatever - and other infections.

What infections would you want to target?

And so that you know, I didn't use Buhner's, I used something different.
Posted 3/24/2015 5:32 PM (GMT 0)
I bought Buhner's bartonella book...and got a little overwhelmed reading it....and reading the long lists of tinctures... but he actually wrote that it is not necessary to take all of them.

Like Traveler said, go to his website - he has the 'main' herbs to treat the infections listed and start there.

For tinctures - you can purchase them online at Woodland Essence, or Sage Woman Herbs.
For capsules - you can purchase online at Green Dragon Botanicals.

Or, you can do Traveler's Chronic Tonic - which healed her.
Posted 3/24/2015 5:41 PM (GMT 0)
I was diagnosed with Lyme, Bart and Babesia.

These are some lingering symptoms: tingling on cheek, crawling feeling back of neck, floaters, crawling feeling outside of left ear (none of these are constant, just kind of come and go). I do get aches rarely now, but I noticed two things can cause them, Gluten or Stress/Anger.

I also noticed some dark circles under my eyes, not too bad, but I never had those before. That could because I am underweight. I weigh 102 pounds, at my worst I was 99... I did gain 3 pounds though - YAY!

Don't know what exactly is left causing the rest of this stuff???
Posted 3/24/2015 5:46 PM (GMT 0)
I would start with Buhner's Lyme herbs first, if I were in your position. Add them in one at a time, and very slowly to avoid herxing - just in case!! I've yet to hear someone say they wish they had ramped up their doses faster - it's almost always, " I wish I had understood better to take it slow!" - so be careful and start off slowly.

And good for you for gaining some weight back!!! turn Happy dance time!!! yeah

We seriously need a "weight exchange" here on this site - I would be more than happy to leave a few pounds that Lyme has given to me for someone that needs them. smilewinkgrin
Posted 3/24/2015 5:47 PM (GMT 0)
What do you mean by strange sensation? Could it just be nerve damage?
Posted 3/24/2015 5:57 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks Traveler!

yes! would love a weight exchange program, I would love to take about 20 pounds from someone. I am tall and look scary skinny. Not a good look. I have also aged like 10 years in my face!!! Oh well, can't dwell on that, but it does suck!

Sarah, not sure? it just happens through out the day. The one on my cheek started when I was very sick with lyme and it was constant. Now its just on occasions I feel the tingling (I call it the sparkles) feeling. The one on the base of my neck and ear are new for me. They just started about a week ago.

How do you know the difference between nerve damage and herding or plain old lyme symptoms?
Posted 3/24/2015 6:03 PM (GMT 0)
LOL! I'd happily donate 20 lbs myself!!! wink When my thyroid went down I gained 40 lbs in 3 months!! smhair and all the doctors kept telling me that it wasn't possible since I didn't have thyroid issues. Ha. If only they had look past the blood tests!! Now that I"m on the right dose of thyroid meds, it's coming off - ever so slowly - but it's coming off.

Nerves can take up to 7 years to completely regrow, so it can take years for some damage to heal. In my opinion it's very difficult to tell the difference between neuro symptoms and neuro damage without waiting it out. With neuro herxing, you should have some control over the severity with the amount of detoxing you do.
Posted 3/24/2015 6:08 PM (GMT 0)
Yes, time to up the detox! I have been pretty good with that, but when i started to feel better, I decreased the detox baths and only wear my foot patches 1x a week. Time to re-introduce hardcore detoxing.

Traveler, thanks again! you are so helpful :)
Posted 3/24/2015 6:14 PM (GMT 0)
Glad I could be of help!! Please do let us know what you choose to do and how things go!
Posted 3/24/2015 6:14 PM (GMT 0)
One more thing, do the Floaters ever go away? what can you do for them?
Posted 3/24/2015 6:16 PM (GMT 0)
Well, mine are mostly gone. I don't know if it's been decided exactly what causes floaters. Last I really remember was they were caused by bacterial debris, which means that once you have finished with all of your treatments and your body has had time to detox well enough, the floaters will go away.
Posted 3/24/2015 6:18 PM (GMT 0)
Hi cccmama,

I stopped taking Tindamax about 12 weeks ago. I started getting the sparkly feeling while I was on it and it still happens now and then -- mostly when I am fighting off a bug or when I get overtired.

It was also complicated by my have the shingles. So I don't know what exactly is causing the sparkly tingles.

Well, I have no answers, this is just to let you know you aren't the only one who is going through this!
Posted 3/24/2015 6:25 PM (GMT 0)
Good to know! I do think Tindamax was the catalyst for the sparkles/tingling.

I am going to up the detoxing and see if that makes a difference. I will keep you all posted!
Posted 3/24/2015 8:37 PM (GMT 0)
I asked because I remember Chapelle posted that once she was healed, our LLMD (we have the same one) told her that her tingling sensations (or something similar) was just lingering nerve damage and not Lyme symptoms anymore, so I was curious.
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