Levofloxacin 250 mg for Bartonella

I'm surprised your LLMD doesn't know about Rifampin to treat Bartonella.

The Bart guru, Dr. M. prescribes Rifampin with biaxin.
Dr. J. (a well known LLMD) also prescribes Rifampin for Bart.
It is what many LLMD's prescribe to treat Rifampin.

I'm sorry you're faced with this. I am currently trying to get a prescription for malarone to treat Babesia...but having difficulty.
It just adds more stress to our already extremely stressful situation.

You could show him Dr. Burrascano's Treatment Guidelines...
he does list levofloxacin as a treatment, but also lists Rifampin as an option. (and mentions risk of tendon rupture with Levo)

Dr MR (LLMD) lists combining Bactrim with biaxin as an option to treat bartonella.

But, as far as pharmaceuticals go, I think that rifampin (combined with a macrolide or tetracycline) is the one protocol I see/hear about the most.

Then there are herbals - Buhners or Cowden are a couple you could look into.

Robby - it's difficult to know...as there is a lot of symptom overlap.

calf pain could be lyme or bart.

Burning in your body - could be either.

Do you have foot pain or rib pain? Any other nervous system symptoms? Buzzing, tremors, vibrations, twitches?

I think response to lyme treatment can be telling. If you treat...and the symptom persists...even after a good amount of time...then it's a good idea to consider a co-infection.
Sometimes a trial of antibiotics targeted at a certain infection will tell you if you get a response - either herxing..or you feel some symptom improvement...then you have that infection.

Also, if your symptoms are predominantly nerve symptoms...that could point to bart.

That was the case with me. My original symptom - was symptoms of a pinched nerve - left shoulder blade, arm, hand. I also developed vibrations in my body (nerve), I had anxiety, muscle twitches, tremors - those are all nervous system related...I have burning nerve pain, as well.
They were my worst symptoms. I also had rib pain, and foot pain.

I did get joint and muscle pain...but no swelling of the joints - I think those were my lyme symptoms.

That's just a few of my symptoms...but I think you get the picture.

It's not always easy to see what is what. I'm still trying to figure out if I have Babesia...and have decided to treat it...as I did lyme antibiotics for 9 1/2 months, and bart antibiotics for about 7 1/2 months....
and I'm not symptom free...

Levofloxacin isn't "necessary" to kill Bartonella. The other combos will do the trick. It just takes longer. Dr. M and some other big name LLMDs have 30 years at it and don't feel the benefits of Levofloxacin outweigh the 10% of population who get nerve damage from it. I can't even say "nerve damage" without cringing. I sat down and thought about this hard when I was told by an LLMD ( incorrectly ) that I had drug resist bartonella and I would consider fluoroquinolones but only after everything else hasn't worked with abx and herbs. Actually once I was blood positive for bartonella I am seeing really well that rifampin and biaxin will kill off bart. Their are a lot of good combos....

Levaquin hit my Achilles tendon after about 2 weeks and I stopped after 19 days. If you notice any tendon stiffness stop immediately. Oddly, a year later I took Cipro for about 6 months with no issues.

Pirouette said...
Laker7491 -

Did you notice the detailed responses to your question about Levofloxacin in the previous thread you created?

www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3641893

-p

I'm sorry, I didn't get any notifications so I thought I did something wrong and it didn't post. I'm fairly new to using this type of forum and my lyme brain is really bad.

Thank you for pointing it out to me. All the posts have been very helpful.

Pirouette, I just looked thru the other post you mentioned and found where I did reply to something so I knew at one point that I posted it and it worked. It's either my lyme brain or a night when I took ambien. Kinda of scary.

I hear ifbuou have enough magnesium one should be ok...i have torn achilles and cannot risk it ..it is a form of chemo...they warn against floride but it is effective for some ...i had bad reaction to sulfa..the floxed people are as bad as lyme and to have both eek...
girlie i just srarted alinia have you looked into that for babs?..also i just got some simple vet stain and my friend has 1000x so i could see blood born parasite my self ..just ideas...

Mustard Seed said...
Have been on Levaquin for 3 months with zero side effects.

Just saw this thread now...wow 3 months every day and no sides?? that's probably a record??

did it help or cure you of bart?

floridadude23 said...

Mustard Seed said...
Have been on Levaquin for 3 months with zero side effects.

Just saw this thread now...wow 3 months every day and no sides?? that's probably a record??

did it help or cure you of bart?

Even though the risks are very serious ones (peripheral neuropathy that can be permanent, and tendon rupture) - many people do take it without that happening. It's still NOT common for those issues to happen.

I'm not taking it...and don't plan on it.