Lyme, possibly Babesia or Bart question..

Tested Igenex positive for Lyme in Dec 2016, many bands, have been on Cowden and Abx since then and doing much better.

My main symptom has always been burning pains on my back and chest, which started Summer of 2016, along with feeling cold and having a low body temp nearly all the time. As low as 94.4 one morning, never been above 98. Also migrating muscle and joint pain, fatigue, brain fog, the regulars..

I am better but not totally, so looking into co-infections and thinking Lyme persisters.

More blood is currently at Igenex for co-infections testing.

My question is I have some Babesia symptoms such as frequent palpitations, feeling cold always, only feeling warm in a bath, these painful burning pains, lots of mental dullness. However, I have never had fevers, air hunger, sweats(day or night), headaches, many of the usual babesia symptoms.

Someone suggested Bartonella which would explain the burning sensations.

I started CSA and EGCG and it definitely causes the burning and coldness to get far worse. ie Herxing.

Tests not back, wondering what people think. Do I have Baesia or Bart on top of the Lyme?

Thanks

Post Edited (pismo10) : 6/6/2017 12:33:47 PM (GMT-6)

I wouldn't jump right to the conclusion that you may have Lyme persisters. I think you need to treat lyme and its co-infections a lot longer before laying the blame at the feet of that.

Dr. J says that Biofilms and not treating Babesia long enough (cause it blocks effectiveness of treating other pathogens) are the main reasons chronic folks can't get better.

Oh and Dr. J says pretty much everyone has all 3 B's so treat for it.

Adding CSA and EGCG sems to be effective, per herx..

Standard for babesia is zith and mepron. I am reluctant to take mepron at $2000 a month without a clearer dx. Any other abx that is acceptable. I hear Bactrim may help.

Thanks

Hi pismo10 -

I'm sorry you're struggling with the herxing - not fun.

I agree that you very likely have coinfections - and the testing for them is every bit as unreliable as for Lyme so don't base too many decisions on the testing unless they are clearly positive and then you can treat fairly confidently. It's better to piece information together symptoms and responses to treatment to guide your treatment decisions.

That said, it is very difficult to parse through all the symptoms and responses and figure out which is attributed to which infection. There are a couple good symptom questionnaires that can be helpful for that - I would do this or Burranscano has a good one - and bring it with you to see your LLMD and discuss.

Jernigan's symptom list:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3673749&g=3673789#m3673789

There are quite a few people here using just herbal protocols to treat babesia and bartonella, so the mepron isn't required. I can't get a positive test result and my insurance won't cover babesia meds so I'm using herbal protocols at this time. Generally, if your response is to "herx" (and not all responses are herxing, although I think yours are) then it's hitting the infection and you are treating for it.

Also, if the flares are unmanageable, you can reduce your doses. You want to push treatment past "comfort" a little bit so that you can make progress but you don't want to overwhelm or burden your body to the point that you are interfering with beneficial immune functions or support for and from other body systems. This is a fine line you'll have to figure out on your own over time - everyone is unique. But reducing doses does help reduce the noise a bit and then you can work back up to optimal doses ASAP.

Increasing dotoxing is also important - there is a lot of good info online about all the ways we can support our body's detoxing process.

-p

So my Igenex co-infections panel is back and I am positive for Bart. Babesia and Erlich were negative.
So continuing on my Mino/Rifampin/Cowden protocol which cover Lyme and Bart. Always lots of thoughts...