Can antibiotics work?

Hello,

I am new to the lyme world. I have an LLMD appointment on Thursday. I am/should be early on in detection. Tick was found and taken off me July 4th. I had a rash form around the bite though not in a bulls eye fashion. Almost 3 weeks in, the rash is not completely gone though it is much smaller than it was. Was put on 3 weeks of doxy (100mg 2x a day)from primary care physician.

I have had major anxiety about lyme disease or co-infections since the bite. While i have not had fatigue or fever or flu like symptoms that i have noticed, I have had mild headaches, neck aches, feeling cold and like my chest is vibrating and most recently my knees and ankle joints have been cracking a lot (though i wouldn't call it painful). I recognize that some of these symptoms could be more due to anxiety than anything related to lyme. (though i should note i am not a normally anxious person).

My question is - are there people on here who have seen improvement or cure with just antibiotics early on? Most of my fear comes from all of the things I read on the internet which make me feel like chronic illness is almost a guarantee.

I would love to hear from people who when diagnosed responded well to antibiotic treatment.

As I mentioned, I see an LLMD on Thursday. The only one I could find in my state and I am already nervous about the visit as she works out of her home. Something about not being in a proper doctor's office unnerves me though she is part of ILDAS and seems to have a very good educational background. I am sure she will recommend further antibiotic treatment as well as supplements as in addition to being an MD, LLMD and ND, she also practices functional and holistic/natural treatments.

I agree. I am a Physician Assistant with 36 years experience and went to the last ILADS conference.

I recommend treatment for 6 weeks which I think is the new standard. You are really lucky you caught it this early . I didn't and I am suffering from Encephalopathy and was just diagnosed with Toxic mold exposure. I just went on Short Term Disability and I am praying I get Long term because its going to take a long time for me to get better. You could add LBcore Herbs to your Abx for a couple of months too.they work.

Actually early treatment has very favorable outcomes for most. Only about 15-20% are thought (conventionally) to go on to develop "PLDS". In most studies I've read on it those people are usually the ones who are treated late. The mechanism seems pretty clear. Early in illness spirochetes are metabolically active because they have to multiply and "swim" to their target locations. This mirrors the log phase of growth and they are highly susceptible to drugs which inhibit biosynthesis of proteins, cell wall components, DNA etc. Later in illness they are thought to just kind of "hunker down". In other words, they've reached the joints, heart, nerves etc. There is no need to keep swimming and feeding and so they go "dormant" only occasionally resuming activity. Basically waiting for the next tick bite. So drugs that require active biosynthesis no longer work well because these pathways are shut down.

So don't freak out. Almost every disease known to man is easier to cure when caught early. Of course, you do want to be thorough. Make sure you are absolutely symptom free before discontinuing treatment. Treatment failures can occur at your stage, it's just not as likely as many of us who were not diagnosed with infectious diseases for months or years

BuckeyeSDH said...
Thanks Psilociraptor. That makes me feel better. My main concern is not being treated for co-infections until it is to late since my primary care doctor would only prescribe 3 weeks of doxy. I am glad I found this site and took the advice to see a LLMD who was luckily able to get me in pretty early when she found i recently had been bitten and was early on in rash and other symptoms.

thanks so much!

Hi - Welcome!

200 mg twice daily is the dose llmd’s usually (and should) prescribe .

It’s good you’re going to see a LLMD

Re: coinfections - when the infection is treated early generally it’s not as complicated - and treating with doxy is often all that is needed.
A LLMD will evaluate and add what he thinks is needed.

You are a wise person. I'll be surprised if this goes any further. Seeing an llmd at this stage is extremely smart. It will be well worth the price as to nip this in the butt before it becomes chronic. Good job.

Thanks all! It is a super weird feeling hoping to get put on more antibiotics since I don't love some of the side effects of taking them. But that is what I hope the LLMD I see tomorrow will do. 3 weeks of antibiotics and I am feeling better in a lot of ways but I still worry about some of the one off symptoms that hit me every once in a while. If a few more weeks of antibiotics will do the trick, I am willing to try.

My question is - should i get my blood tested for co-infections while on antibiotics? I am not sure if the co infections are a test for antibodies or an actual strain of the infection?

I have also been trying to watch my health while on the antibiotics. I have cut out alcohol and have been cutting out gluten and processed sugar where I can. I have also been walking about 30 minutes a day to make sure I get some exercise in.

My biggest fear is that I will go off antibiotics thinking I am fine, just to have symptoms come back full force in a few months/years making any disease even harder to treat!

Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement, advice and words of wisdom.

I saw major improvements while I was on abx for a month and a half. However, my gut couldn't take it and I also started having major candida issues, which is when I switched to herbs only. I continued to see excellent improvement with the herbs.

Candida is yeast, mine was crazy after abx. Hard to get rid of.

I'm assuming you will be on the Plaquenil only for a short time?

If it turns into a lengthy treatment, then you should have your eyes checked with an eye Doc.
Plaquenil comes with risks to damaging the optic nerve. Getting a baseline test done is recommended.


30 days straight of Artemisinin isn't recommended. I would suggest you do a pulsed approach.
The small intestine can develop an enzyme that kills that artemisinin...over time.
The amount of time varies between LLMD's.
My LLMD has patients taking it M/W/F or Monday thru Friday.

Another LLMD I know says 4 days on and 10 days off .

I've also seen 7 days in a row with a month or two off.

Re: rashes. I've read that Bartonella can cause many different rashes.

BuckeyeSDH said...
Girlie - I believe the plaquenil should only be 30-40 days. I will definitely make an eye appointment with my doctor for a baseline.

Good to know about the Artemesinin. My LLMD did not discuss this with me so I will ask her about frequency. In your experience, how long would someone be on this to treat babs?

A few months - I think 4-5 months is recommended minimally - due to babesia (supposedly) residing in the red blood cells and that's the life cycle of the red blood cell.