Long term antibiotics side effects

I would like to compare with any others who took long term multiple antibiotics for lyme, as I did 6 years ago, in order to see if the long term effects I have not been able to source may have been the result of permanent nerve damage form the antibiotics.
I took 9 months of minocycline, rifampin , and plaquenil and malarone.
Totally regret it,.
It did not help and only harmed.
I have since then gotten rid of lyme and co infections through an herbal doctor.
But ever since I took those antibiotics I have had some very bad symptoms. For years I thought those symptoms were lyme and co infections ( babesia and or bartonella).,Only with working with my current doctor, do I see that they are not. When I started with my current Dr 4 months ago he said the lyme and co's were present but he was able to clear them pretty quickly.
But that, he said, was not the cause of my main symptoms. He thought my main symptoms were caused by ( weirdly) and inhaled chemical poison, and we have been working for the last 4 months on clearing that out of my body ( with minerals vitamins type of protocol plus body work). Last visit he said the chemical was cleared, but my symptoms are very much present still. I will describe them in a second. He said sometimes the chemicals can cause permanent nerve damage which can be causing the symptoms and not fixable/. I am not sure if I actually inhaled a chemical or if it wa sin fact the antibiotics.
the issue I am having started right when I was taking the long term antibiotics and I did not have it prior.
So the issue is: I cant breathe, and it comes form the diaphragm- and the belly totally bloated but not regular bloat- like an extreme distention all the time which then ties into the diaphragm and chest and belly feeling like it is squeezing tight all the time, suffocating me and causing me not to be able to breathe.
Does anyone else who took long term antibiotics have either this type of symptom, or anything else that may be nerve related injury?
I recently read that overuse of abx can cause permanent nerve damage. I wish I never took them it did not help and the lyme was not as big an issue for me as this main thing I still have.
I got some improvement in this working with my current doctor but it weirdly increased again this past week.
It is a desperate and depressing situation and so I am just trying to see what kind of after effects others have had who took the same types and same duration of antibiotics that I did. When I originally mentioned it to my current doctor ( who is good and very intuitive and helps many), he said the antibiotics usually cause digestive issues more than anything else. But I didnt press it as he had said it was an inhaled chemical. Next time I will clarify about which ones I took - but either way he said if it is damaged nerves he cant repair them.

The breathing/chest issues sound like Babesia.
Maybe the malarone flared your Babesia symptoms.

How did the Dr determine you had chemical poisoning??

flowergarden said...
for years I thought it was babesia and went everywhere to try to fix it; the current dr uses kind of like kineseology to determine but he is veyr good the best i have found in the 6 years.
the breathing issues started when I was on the abx.
It is not babesia- the curretn dr I trust him. I really htought babesia for yrs but it is not that.
It is more like an inflammation squeezing so odd. I think it is nerve damage I just dont know if it is really a werid chemical I came accross (if so I have no idea what or where or when) or form the abx but I guess it doesnt matter if it is nerve damage.
Just trying to see if others who took long term abx had any kind of similar reaction.

The current Dr determined it's not babesia via kinesiology?
Malarone is a babesia treatment...which makes sense that your babesia symptoms would flare.
Just my opinion.
Have you considered taking a few Buhner herbs (or another protocol) for the infections....since you don't want to do antibiotics? Even at low dose...you may get some indications...on what infections you have. Could the herbs be taken alongside what your current Dr. is doing?

Even if you do have nerve damage....remember that nerves can and do heal. (not all the time though)

orbitingaround said...
There is a symptom called the "MS hug," which is a stupid name. I have it, despite only having Lyme and Bartonella (I was misdiagnosed with MS), and probably Babesia. All MS patients describe it the same way: like a corset or a band of pressure squeezing/wrapped around the rib cage. I only have it on the left side of my ribs, it wraps from front to back. Sometimes it feels like I'm stuck in a vice. It can definitely affect my breathing and my ability to get a deep breath, although it doesn't make me panic. It is a completely different feeling from Costochondritis too.
I think it might be from Bartonella affecting the nerves, because it's on my left side and all my Bart symptoms are left sided. It is not permanent for me, it comes and goes, but at times it has definitely stuck around for months in varying intensities. Could that be it? How bad were your other Bart symptoms? I never took antibiotics, so it's not from that.

Yes - your post reminded me. I had the MS 'hug' as well. It is horrible. I had forgotten about that.
I also agree about it being Bartonella affecting the nerves. My dominant infection is Bart. And, bart treatment fixed it.
Most of my issues are on my left side, too! Especially my upper body.
And my nerves are really affected. Along with the nerve pain (upper left side body), I also have internal shivering periodically during the day....and my right leg 'buzzes'....etc etc.
My symptoms are very "nervy"

I know you said you trust this doctor.. personally I find it hard to trust doctors who act with such certainty around these issues. He could be right/he could be wrong, but how can he be so certain??

Edited to add: It also seems suspicious that he is claiming success in clearing you of a "poison" etc yet you have no reduction in your symptoms.. and he can't help you any further

Post Edited (potsnpans) : 1/6/2020 7:48:47 AM (GMT-7)

I think that most of the "damage" done by antibiotics is just that they kill off all the good bacteria in your microbiome.

I think not being able to breathe right could be from babesia, or it could just be because of the bloating in your stomach. I've gotten bloating so bad that my stomach starts pushing on my lungs and I can't breathe right—but it goes away when the bloating goes down.

Remember also, antibiotics like most drugs are toxic to some degree. If we already have some neural inflammation, like most of us do, they can exacerbate it. Dr M even told me something like that once, that just being on abx can keep people sicker. It will clear, we just have to rebuild our bodies and reduce the nerve inflammation

Chapelle said...
true. I had to stop takiing doxycycline (i went up to 400mg per day), and it was causing peripheral neuropathy. My Dr was amazing in that she pinpointed the neuropathy as a side effect rather than a lyme symptom or a herx. She said that was the key to healing - to be able to label things as such. Stopped the doxy, and about 6 weeks later, the neuropathy was gone. I was getting tremors from diflucan also. Stopped that, and the tremors went away. New symptoms with lyme are not always symptoms.......

What a tricky disease and treatment. I remember having a $400 phone appointment with my llmd the Spring of 2018. I was on 7 different meds and having a super difficult time with it. I had to stop taking tindamax because I was feeling depressed and psychotic. I expressed this to my doctor. He urged me to push through and that he would give the same advice to one of his family members. After I got off the phone with him, I paid my balance, stopped taking all my abx and never went back. I understand he was truly trying to help me but I knew in my heart all those meds were killing me.

Mark “Not looking to get into the details of ACC but the approach is if you have any real discomfort by detoxing by too high of dose , you back off dose. ”

Same applies to abx with lyme and co’s.
I just skipped two doses of my abx - because I was feeling a herx building. (It’s a pattern that has developed on the bart protocol and now continues on the maintenance protocol.)

I now have 3 weeks to recover, build up my body before starting again.

Mark F said...
How do you know its a herx?

Of course I don’t have anything scientific to back this up but the symptoms are fever, and a ramping up of my current symptoms.
After awhile off the abx it slowly resolves.

Plus overtime - my symptoms are lessening in severity or have completely gone.