Feedback on DrP in Wilton and pulsing

sierraDon said...
Hello, i was curious if anyone could provide feedback on Dr P in Wilton, CT.

I know he likes pulsing. But i was curious if he pulses for Bartonella too, Rifampin and Rifabutin. Also, Mepron. Or just Lyme. On his website he states that he doesn't pulse certain medications like Rifampin, Plaquenil, Bactrim, so was curious if that is true.

also, curious if he uses Cipro.

thanks in advance

I’ve been with him for two years. Although he has his core protocol - he really does tailor treatment to each individual patient. He generally pulses two weeks on, two weeks off. I’ve never taken any of the meds you mentioned so can’t speak to those but he does pulse for Bart although everything is open for discussion. What I really respect about him is that the patient has input into his/her treatment and he offers choices. I know he reserves abx like Cipro for cases that aren’t responding to other treatment as Floroquinolones are risky and he’s very cognizant of the risk/benefit issue. Hope this helps. Feel free to pm me with any other questions.

Girlie said...

Octobrsky13 said...

sierraDon said...
Hello, i was curious if anyone could provide feedback on Dr P in Wilton, CT.

I know he likes pulsing. But i was curious if he pulses for Bartonella too, Rifampin and Rifabutin. Also, Mepron. Or just Lyme. On his website he states that he doesn't pulse certain medications like Rifampin, Plaquenil, Bactrim, so was curious if that is true.

also, curious if he uses Cipro.

thanks in advance

I’ve been with him for two years. Although he has his core protocol - he really does tailor treatment to each individual patient. He generally pulses two weeks on, two weeks off. I’ve never taken any of the meds you mentioned so can’t speak to those but he does pulse for Bart although everything is open for discussion. What I really respect about him is that the patient has input into his/her treatment and he offers choices. I know he reserves abx like Cipro for cases that aren’t responding to other treatment as Floroquinolones are risky and he’s very cognizant of the risk/benefit issue. Hope this helps. Feel free to pm me with any other questions.

Do you know what he prescribes for bart? (it's usually rifampin/rifabutin or fluoroquinolones)
I'm curious.

I know he does offer rifampin for Bart but doesn’t feel it’s always necessary. He suspects that I have it but I’ve been improving on Tetra, Azith and liposomal OOO (and now some herbals). His patient, Dana Parish (the one he’s writing the book with) who does have Bart says that she got well without Rifampin (although he offered it to her) or Floroquinolones. He also offers Floroquinolones but again not for everyone. I know he took them himself for his own serious Bart infection. He also feels that liposomal Artimisinin and liposomal OOO helped his infection and Dana also took those. He discusses his approach to things in videos on the fb page he has with Dana if you’re interested.

tickbite666 said...
Octo,

That's similar to my Tetra, Alinia, Diflucan, Lipo OoO, Hout, JK plus with CC, and GSE protocol. Do you also pulse 2 ON and 2 OFF?

Yes, 2 on/2 off. I may try Diflucan soon. Has it helped you?

tickbite666 said...
Octo,

Yes, its been pretty good getting me from 85 to 95% healed. Stated this last May at 2 ON and 2 OFF. Last summer I worked up to 3 weeks OFF, then tried 4 weeks off too soon and back slid a bit during the 4th week. So I kept to 2 ON and 3 OFF thru winter and just completed a 4 week OFF cycle in pretty good shape.

This is the longest time I've stayed on pretty much the same protocol for almost a year. OoO was added just last Nov. At this point, after treating for 8 years, if it's working don't change it.

Wow - 8 years is a long time. Glad your current protocol is working for you. I agree that if it’s working don’t change. It can take a while. I also tried stopping abx for a couple of months when I was feeling about 85-90% better to transition to just herbals but it didn’t go well so I’m back on everything.

Octo,


I tried weaning down to only one abx in March 2015, at what I thought was about 85% healed. Then stopped to see if the herbals alone would get me the rest of the way. I relapsed in 3 months, and tried a few more herbals, but had to go back on full abx protocols. It took a good long time to get back to 85% again.

I think pulsing may be the answer. If not, it certainly is cheaper.

So maybe some of you can help answer my questions. I have an appointment with Dr. P's NP in late June, but I have some concerns over going to him.

1. In one of his videos on his facebook, he mentions that babesia is rarely chronic. This is particularly concerning to me, because I have been treating babesia aggressively for 5+ months and still have upper left squeezing chest pain (usually brought on by walking, but can be random.) and I have air hunger. I'm almost positive that the air hunger cannot be confused with bartonella, as sometimes babesia and bartonella symptoms overlap. I'm worried that if I go to him, he won't treat me for babesia and I will never recover or at least it will be extremely difficult.

2. I like the pulsing method, but with my concerns mentioned above I have started considering Dr J in DC. He treats all 3 B's and he treats babesia long term and he pulses. For those of you familiar with Dr J and Dr P how would you compare the two? What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Thank you!

I don't know about Dr. P. but yes, you're right Dr. J. puts a huge focus on babesia.

The NP had me on Mepron after my first visit...and I'm now continuing it after my second appointment.
(Even though the NP today says she thinks my symptoms are mostly bart related)

Their pulsing patterns are very different though.

Dr. J does M/W/F for most of his protocols...except there is a protocol with a Babs week and it's M-F dosing.

So my first protocol was 2 weeks on, 1 week off (M/W/F plus Flagyl on Th/F)
then 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off.

Girlie said...
I don't know about Dr. P. but yes, you're right Dr. J. puts a huge focus on babesia.

The NP had me on Mepron after my first visit...and I'm now continuing it after my second appointment.
(Even though the NP today says she thinks my symptoms are mostly bart related)

Their pulsing patterns are very different though.

Dr. J does M/W/F for most of his protocols...except there is a protocol with a Babs week and it's M-F dosing.

So my first protocol was 2 weeks on, 1 week off (M/W/F plus Flagyl on Th/F)
then 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off.

It's probably too early to ask if you are improving with Dr J's treatments right? Were you impressed with the first visit?

Sheeks175 said...

Octobrsky13 said...

Sheeks175 said...
So maybe some of you can help answer my questions. I have an appointment with Dr. P's NP in late June, but I have some concerns over going to him.

1. In one of his videos on his facebook, he mentions that babesia is rarely chronic. This is particularly concerning to me, because I have been treating babesia aggressively for 5+ months and still have upper left squeezing chest pain (usually brought on by walking, but can be random.) and I have air hunger. I'm almost positive that the air hunger cannot be confused with bartonella, as sometimes babesia and bartonella symptoms overlap. I'm worried that if I go to him, he won't treat me for babesia and I will never recover or at least it will be extremely difficult.

2. I like the pulsing method, but with my concerns mentioned above I have started considering Dr J in DC. He treats all 3 B's and he treats babesia long term and he pulses. For those of you familiar with Dr J and Dr P how would you compare the two? What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Thank you!

It’s so hard to answer these things. I don’t know Dr. J so someone else can answer that. Dr. P does break ranks with some of the other high profile LLMD’s in certain things. I’ve had air hunger and intense chest pressure - it was pretty severe in the beginning and I’m certainly not near remission but I’m so much better on a relatively conservative protocol. Not because it’s what he chose for me but because I’m super sensitive to meds so have to be careful and have to go slow and stick to the meds I can tolerate. The Biomagnetic Pair practitioner that I see tells me I have Babesia (and Bart) but I have no idea since I’ve never tested positive for it and I have doubts about muscle testing accuracy but who knows. I just know I’m not on a typical specific Babesia protocol and yet I’m so much better.

I don’t know his other prescribing staff but I do know that Dr. P is flexible and is committed to getting patients well and he has gotten a lot of very sick patients well. I saw the video you mentioned and he says that shortness of breath/air hunger can also be Bart. I’ve never heard that but I just know what my own experience has been with him. I can’t imagine that his other staff wouldn’t be as flexible as he is. If you aren’t improving with what is prescribed you would be in the driver’s seat as far as requesting a change.

Also, he did offer Mepron/Zith to me but I never took the combo so I don’t think you would need to worry that you won’t be treated with a Babesia protocol.

I hope this helps.

Thanks October. How is your chest pressure and air hunger now? Is it much better? Also, could you give me a link to the video you are talking about? I re-watched the one that I mentioned and he doesn't say anything about air hunger being bart. Thanks!

Sheeks, my air hunger and chest pressure are markedly better. There were times I felt like I could barely breathe and now I only get it occasionally and not nearly as intense as it was. Chest pressure also doesn’t happen every day and not as intense. These were two of my worst symptoms.

Dr. P doesn’t mention air hunger specifically in the video where he discusses symptom overlap (sorry I wasn’t clear about that) but I had a conversation with him about my symptoms and he said it “could” be Bart but he did offer Mepron/Zith to me. I did take Zith with Tetra and that combo seemed to work (with liposomal OOO) so I never pursued Mepron. I do know that I always have the option, though, if I should need it. That’s really the point I wanted to stress - he isn’t a “my way or the highway” type. You would always have input and the final decision is always yours and you wouldn’t be at risk of being dropped. I’m, of course, talking about Dr. P himself but I would assume his other staff would follow suit.

I don’t want to try to influence yours or anyone’s decision regarding doctor choice because it is such a personal decision. I just want to be clear about what my experience has been so that others can use that information as a guide. Anyone can always email me at any time if I can be of help.

Sheeks175 said...
So does he pulse the mepron and zith? Thanks for the details. The more info the better for me to make a decision.

I’ve pulsed Zith - 2 weeks on/2 weeks off. Not sure about Mepron - we never got that far.