ABX causing liver symptoms

See what the labs show -

My LLMD says Babesia can cause a swollen liver.

My point being Babesia may be the source of your liver issues.

When I see my LLMD - he palpates the liver to check for swelling .

Biaxin (clarithromycin) seemed to mess with my electrolytes a bit. I don't know exactly what it's doing. Lab tests were normal, but I seemed to pee more and felt some adrenal stress. I discontinued it because bartonella was resistant to it and got worse.

Rifampin raises CYP3A4, and while this doesn't usually cause liver injury it destroys cortisol and causes adrenal stress. I stopped this also because bartonella was resistant to it.

Bactrim (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole) messed with my kidney function and resulted in high blood creatinine.

Clindamycin wrecked my stomach and caused reflux.

Malarone (atovaquone/proguanil) majorly lowered my folate despite taking supplements. Other than that I seemed to tolerate it ok, but my insurance refused to pay for it.

Depakote (valproate) surprisingly did not cause me any liver problems, and seemed to work against borrelia and possibly babesia. It didn't kill bartonella and just made it flare up. My main issue with it was how extremely tired it made me, and the prolonged herx due to long half-life.

Minocycline I never had any issues with, and it worked against bartonella.

Amoxicillin I also had no side effect from, but it's only minimally effective against borrelia and doesn't seem to do anything to bartonella.

Omnicef (cefdinir) I had no problems with and it seems to be effective against borrelia. Didn't do much to bart though.

Hi,

Thank you for the concern! 😊 For Quin, yes, I think what you're describing happened to me with the Biaxin. I got hypoglycemic, on top of heart arrhythmias.

Thanks for sharing all the side effects you experienced on all your meds! How are you doing now?

For Girlie, thank you for your support! The labs were totally normal...thank goodness! I see cardio tomorrow and my Lyme doc has me starting Bicillin injections now. Biweekly...she says that it "will take care of all side effects I've been dealing with." We'll see!

Cheers!

Yay!

Normal labs are always a relief!!

Good luck at the cardio appt tomorrow!

I'm seriously considering disulfiram. I'm concerned about it because people have reported bad reactions with green tea, soy sauce, cinnamon, and other foods. I'll have to be very careful what I eat.

Depakote, like disulfiram, forms a complex where two molecules can trap a copper ion. Lab tests showed low copper and zinc after I took it. There's also a theoretical risk that it depletes carnitine and possibly vitamin E. My liver enzymes were normal. I had soy sauce and green tea while taking it and did not notice any adverse effects. It didn't cause any serious problems, I just don't like how it makes me feel. It made me feel very tired and kinda spaced out.

I'll have to see if I can tolerate disulfiram, otherwise it's back to taking depakote.

One of the times I went to the ER before finding out I had lyme and cos I had extremely high liver enzyme levels, like crazy high. At the time they called it antibiotic causes hepatitis. After finding out I had lyme and bartonella, I assumes it WAS antibiotic caused hepatitis but because of the lyme/bartonella. Strangely, I didn't have any liver pain. Lots of other symptoms but not that. The abx that caused my levels to raise was amoxicillin. I was off abx for about 6 weeks until I found out I had lyme and was put on doxy and cefdinir. My dr had my drinking lemon water, using castor oil on my liver, alka seltzer gold was also suggested but I could never find it in stores. Anyway, despite the initial high levels, after a break from abx, I never had additional problems.