Hi Facey-
I started IV ceftriaxone in Nov '14. Then added IV vancomycin in March '16.
I stopped the ceftriaxone in May of this year and stopped the vanco a week ago.
A few months before I started any treatment I worked to heal my GI as much as I could, made progress on yeast/fungal overgrowth and lowering viral loads. Then I started on herbal protocols for Lyme, bart and babs. And about
6 mos. later is when I started on IV abx after the Lyme herbs weren't improving sx and I started getting much worse pretty fast - almost to the point where i was losing the ability to walk.
It took me the first month on both IV abx in order to get to a tolerable point from the herxing, but I got there. Then slow improvement over time.
I just recently started herbs for Mycoplasma pneumonia, which I should have started with from the very beginning - I've had two serious flares that set me back this year.
Regarding IV duration:
I agree that most insurance companies will not approve long-term tx. I cannot explain why mine did, other than I was unbelievably fortunate not to have to fight them. But my premium has doubled every year since I started - now is $900 in January. Regardless, it's highly unusual. After all this time, the insurance company dropped my LLMD two weeks ago. So my treatment is done with them.
ETA: Another reason insurance approved extended IV tx was that I was very chronic and had gone 16+ years undiagnosed and untreated. So I was an unusual case.
But here's the good news:
There are oral abx and herbal products that also cross the blood-brain-barrier, which is what many presume the benefit of IV treatment to be. However, the real benefit of IV tx is the ability to (mostly) bypass severe GI problems that can interfere with proper absorption and exacerbate gut biome imbalances. So if you're on IV simply due to neuro diagnosis, you can transition to other protocols and expect similar results.
And regardless of any protocol, abx and antimicrobials can't fix Lyme, alone. You need the support of a healthy immune system and since 70% of our immune function is in our GI, you need a very healthy and productive GI. Diet and nutrition are a must.
Detoxing is also very critical for supporting successful treatment and helping our bodies process the herxing or sepsis-like responses to killing of a bunch of pathogens.
You might start investigating which oral abx or herbal or alternative protocol you might want to transition to once IV abx are done. Once you get past the primary herxing stage from starting one protocol, you can slowly start incorporating components of what you might transition to even before you're done - if your body can handle it.
Hope this is helpful - please let us know if you have any other questions about
IV tx. And ask your LLMD what the next steps are - this might help you make decisions about
next steps.
-p
Post Edited (Pirouette) : 11/18/2017 5:52:10 PM (GMT-7)